Incentive for excellence (Can we duplicate this in Montana?)

Organization helps Colorado companies meet standards for good business performance

With the spotlight on corporate ethics these days, Colorado Performance Excellence, a new statewide nonprofit group, wants to help Colorado companies develop standards of quality and promote business excellence.

By Julie Dunn, Special To The Rocky Mountain News

CPEx, as the group is known, applies the principles and practices embodied in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, which are the basis for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The award is given annually by the president of the United States to organizations judged to be outstanding in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management and organizational performance results.

"Using the Baldrige criteria benefits both businesses and the community," said Nancy Page Cooper, vice president and founding member of CPEx. "There have been studies that show that companies that use the Baldrige principles have received anywhere from a 3 to 4 percent return for their money. For the bottom line, it makes good business sense. It helps organizations better run and better manage themselves."

Developed in 1987, the award is named for the then-secretary of commerce, who died in a rodeo accident. Considered one of the nation’s top business honors, the award is given in several categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education and health care.

"We use the criteria in doing self-assessments, and it’s been obvious to me that it improves any organization’s performance," said Tom Petillo, president of energy delivery for Xcel Energy in Denver, who has been using the Baldrige criteria since its inception. "It gets results."

About 30 Colorado companies are affiliated with CPEx. The 2-year-old organization’s three major sponsors are Operations Management International Inc., Xcel Energy and the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care.

"We’re a donation-funded organization focusing on best business practices and ethical business practices, which we think are really important right now," said Tom Mauro, executive director of CPEx.

The group has raised about $38,000 in donations.

"But we have an awful lot of in-kind contributions made by really dedicated people," Mauro said.

Greenwood Village-based OMI, which operates wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities, was Colorado’s first Baldrige Award recipient in 2000.

"We do it because it helps improve our business but also in terms of business ethics, it really makes a difference," said Don Evans, president of OMI. "We thought it was the best criteria to organize a growing company around. You have to take a leap of faith to make the initial investment, but it’s an investment in people, and it will work."

Since OMI began following the Baldrige criteria in 1990, the company has grown from 150 people to 1,500, and sales have increased from $10 million to $170 million in 2001.

"You need to organize your company in a way that provides excellent service and be able to document that excellence," Evans said of the Baldrige application process. "It’s very intense, it’s a lot of work, but the feedback reports are outstanding."

CPEx will introduce the criteria and award application process at its first major event, the Colorado Performance Excellence Executive Education Forum, Oct. 10 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center.

"The forum should be highly interactive, a lot of senior level folks sharing their knowledge," Cooper said. "We’re finally ready to say, ‘We’re here, and this is what we stand for.’ "

Hoping to make the forum an annual event, CPEx will hand out three awards to Colorado businesses that have followed the criteria and demonstrated business excellence: the Foothills Award, the Timberline Award and the Peak Performance Award.

Organizations similar to CPEx exist in 45 other states.

"If you’re starting out, you can really use this as a building block to improve," Cooper said. "When you apply for an award, you will receive $20,000 to $30,000 worth of consulting for free. That’s a huge value. They will tell you what you’re doing well, what you’re not doing well and how to improve."

Starting in late October, CPEx also will sponsor hands-on awareness workshops across the state to familiarize businesses and organizations with the CPEx criteria and awards process.

"Our purpose is to recognize companies and organizations that demonstrate good business practices and to help those that are not performing at the level that they could," Mauro said.

"When you believe in something very strongly, it’s fun to plant a seed and watch it grow, which is what we’ve been doing," Cooper said. "CPEx is good for businesses and organizations, and it’s good for the state of Colorado."

For more information on CPEx, visit http://www.coloradoexcellence.org.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_1428009,00.html