Finish Organization Profile on Military

This assignment is designed to track your progress in developing your Baldrige Organizational Assessment.

Phase 2 addresses the seven categories;

Category 1

– Leadership

Category 2

– Strategy

Category 3

– Customer

Category 4

– Measurements, Analysis, and Knowledge Management

Category 5

– Workforce

Category 6

– Operations

Category 7

– Results

Additionally, it includes the your recommendations related to the assessment.

This assignment includes the Title Page, Organizational Profile (completed), Seven Categories (completed), Recommendation (completed), Self-Analysis Worksheet, Consent Form, and References.

Attachments

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-1

2019–2020 Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework
Criteria Commentary

This commentary provides brief summaries of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence categories and items. It also
includes examples and guidance to supplement the notes that follow each Criteria item in the Baldrige Excellence
Framework booklet. For additional free content, and to purchase the booklet, see www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications.

Organizational Profile
Your Organizational Profile provides a framework for understanding your organization. It also helps you guide and
prioritize the information you present in response to the Criteria items in categories 1–7.

The Organizational Profile gives you critical insight into the key internal and external factors that shape your operating
environment. These factors, such as your organization’s vision, culture and values, mission, core competencies,
competitive environment, and strategic challenges and advantages, impact the way your organization is run and the
decisions you make. As such, the Organizational Profile helps you better understand the context in which you operate;
the key requirements for current and future business success; and the needs, opportunities, and constraints placed on
your management systems.

P.1 Organizational Description

Purpose
This item addresses the key characteristics and relationships that shape your organizational environment. The aim is to
set the context for your organization.

Commentary
Understand your organization. The use of such terms as vision, values, culture, mission, and core competencies varies
depending on the organization, and you may not use one or more of these terms. Nevertheless, you should have a clear
understanding of the essence of your organization, why it exists, and where your senior leaders want to take it in the
future. This clarity enables you to make and implement strategic decisions affecting your organization’s future.

Understand your core competencies. A clear identification and thorough understanding of your organization’s core
competencies are central to success now and in the future and to competitive performance. Executing your core
competencies well is frequently a marketplace differentiator. Keeping your core competencies current with your strategic
directions can provide a strategic advantage, and protecting intellectual property contained in your core competencies
can support your organization’s future success.

Understand your regulatory environment. The regulatory environment in which you operate places requirements on
your organization and affects how you run it. Understanding this environment is key to making effective operational and
strategic decisions. Furthermore, it allows you to identify whether you are merely complying with the minimum
requirements of applicable laws, regulations, and standards of practice or exceeding them, a hallmark of leading
organizations and a potential source of competitive advantage.

Identify governance roles and relationships. Role-model organizations—whether they are publicly or privately held, or
are government or nonprofit organizations—have well-defined governance systems with clear reporting relationships. It
is important to clearly identify which functions are performed by your senior leaders and, as applicable, by your
governance board and parent organization. Board independence and accountability are frequently key considerations in
the governance structure.

Understand your customers’ requirements. The requirements of your customer groups and market segments might
include on-time delivery; low defect levels; safety; security, including cybersecurity; ongoing price reductions; the
leveraging of technology; rapid response; after-sales service; and multilingual services. The requirements of your
stakeholder groups might include socially responsible behavior and community service. For some nonprofit (including
government) organizations, these requirements might also include administrative cost reductions, at-home services, and
rapid response to emergencies.

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-2

Understand the role of suppliers. In most organizations, suppliers play critical roles in processes that are important to
running the business and to maintaining or achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Supply-network
requirements might include on-time or just-in-time delivery, flexibility, variable staffing, research and design capability,
process and product innovation, and customized manufacturing or services.

Understand your ecosystem. With the increase in multidisciplinary products and services, as well as globalization, many
organizations rely ever more heavily on a business ecosystem—a network of suppliers, partners, collaborators, and even
customers and competitors, with these roles shifting as necessary. Taking advantage of these ecosystems may result in
new business models, new customers, new talent pools, and much greater efficiency in meeting customer expectations. In
some cases, the organization’s growth may depend on the collective growth of the ecosystem and its ability to prepare for
the future. And as competition comes from organizations in different industries, organizations may be able to stand out
from their competitors through new and novel offerings, possibly through the ecosystem.

P.2 Organizational Situation

Purpose
This item asks about the competitive environment in which your organization operates, including your key strategic
challenges and advantages. It also asks how you approach performance improvement and learning. The aim is to help
you understand your key organizational challenges and your system for establishing and preserving your competitive
advantage.

Commentary
Know your competitors. Understanding who your competitors are, how many you have, and their key characteristics is
essential for determining your competitive advantage in your industry and marketplace. Leading organizations have an
in-depth understanding of their current competitive environment, including key changes taking place.

Sources of comparative and competitive data might include industry publications, benchmarking activities, annual
reports for publicly traded companies and public organizations, conferences, local networks, and industry associations.

Strategic challenges and advantages. Operating in today’s highly competitive marketplace means facing strategic
challenges that can affect your ability to sustain performance and maintain your competitive position. Understanding
your strategic advantages is as important as understanding your strategic challenges. They are the sources of competitive
advantage to capitalize on and grow while you continue to address key challenges. Strategic challenges and advantages
might relate to technology, products, finances, operations, organizational structure and culture, your parent
organization’s capabilities, customers and markets, brand recognition and reputation, your industry, globalization, your
value network, and people.

Know your strategic challenges. These challenges might include the following:

• Your operational costs (e.g., materials, labor, or geographic location)
• Expanding or decreasing markets
• Mergers or acquisitions by your organization and your competitors
• Economic conditions, including fluctuating demand and local and global economic downturns
• The cyclical nature of your industry
• The introduction of new or substitute products
• Rapid technological changes
• Data and information security, including cybersecurity
• New competitors entering the market
• The availability of skilled labor
• The retirement of an aging workforce

Know your strategic advantages. These advantages might include the following:

• Industry innovation leadership
• Customer service recognition
• Brand recognition
• Agility
• Supply-network integration
• Price leadership

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-3

• Reputation for quality and reliability
• Environmental (“green”) stewardship
• Social responsibility and community involvement
• Geographic proximity
• Accessibility
• Warranty and product options

For some nonprofit (including government) organizations, differentiators might also include relative influence with
decision makers, ratio of administrative costs to programmatic contributions, reputation for program or service delivery,
and wait times for service.

Prepare for disruptive technologies. A particularly significant challenge is being prepared for a disruptive technology
that threatens your competitive position or your marketplace. Recently, such technologies have included smart phones
challenging traditional forms of communication, computing, and commerce of all types; online stores challenging brick-
and-mortar establishments; email, messaging, and social media challenging all other means of communication; and app-
based ride services challenging traditional transportation services. Today, organizations need to be scanning the
environment inside and outside their immediate industry to detect such challenges at the earliest possible point in time.

Four emerging technologies that continue to drive change in many industries are mobile solutions, cognitive computing
(or artificial intelligence), cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. Organizations need to be aware of the potential
for these technologies to create challenges and opportunities in their own marketplace.

Leadership (Category 1)
This category asks how senior leaders’ personal actions and your governance system guide and sustain your
organization.

1.1 Senior Leadership

Purpose
This item asks about the key aspects of your senior leaders’ responsibilities, with the aim of creating an organization that
is successful now and in the future.

Commentary
The role of senior leaders. Senior leaders play a central role in setting values and directions, creating and reinforcing an
organizational culture, communicating, creating and balancing value for all stakeholders, and creating an organizational
focus on action, including transformational change in the organization’s structure and culture, when needed. Success
requires a strong orientation to the future; an understanding that risk is a part of planning and conducting operations; a
commitment to improvement, innovation, and intelligent risk taking; and a focus on organizational sustainability.
Increasingly, this requires creating an environment for empowerment, agility, change, and learning.

Role‐model senior leaders. In highly respected organizations, senior leaders are committed to establishing a culture of
customer engagement, developing the organization’s future leaders, and recognizing and rewarding contributions by
workforce members. They personally engage with key customers. Senior leaders enhance their personal leadership skills.
They participate in organizational learning, the development of future leaders, succession planning, and recognition
opportunities and events that celebrate the workforce. Development of future leaders might include personal mentoring,
coaching, or participation in leadership development courses. Role-model leaders recognize the need for
transformational change when warranted and then lead the effort through to full fruition. They demonstrate authenticity,
admit to missteps, and demonstrate accountability for the organization’s actions.

Legal and ethical behavior. In modeling ethical behavior, leaders must often balance the demand for delivery of short-
term results with setting the tone for an ethical climate and a policy of integrity first.

Creating an environment for innovation. Leading for innovation starts by setting a clear direction. Leaders need to
communicate about the problems or opportunities the organization is trying to address, and then create a supportive
environment and clear process that will encourage and approve intelligent risk taking.

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-4

1.2 Governance and Societal Contributions

Purpose
This item asks about key aspects of your governance system, including the improvement of leaders and the leadership
system. It also asks how the organization ensures that everyone in the organization behaves legally and ethically, how it
fulfills its societal contributions, and how it supports its key communities.

Commentary
Organizational governance. This item addresses the need for a responsible, informed, transparent, and accountable
governance or advisory body that can protect the interests of key stakeholders (including stockholders) in publicly
traded, private, and nonprofit organizations. This body should have independence in review and audit functions, as well
as a function that monitors organizational and CEOs’ or chief administrators’ performance.

Legal compliance, ethics, and risks. An integral part of performance management and improvement is proactively
addressing (1) the need for ethical behavior, (2) all legal and regulatory requirements, and (3) risk factors. Ensuring high
performance in these areas requires establishing appropriate measures or indicators that senior leaders track. You should
be sensitive to issues of public concern, whether or not these issues are currently embodied in laws and regulations. Role-
model organizations look for opportunities to excel in areas of legal and ethical behavior. Role-model organizations also
recognize the need to accept risk, identify appropriate levels of risk for the organization, and make and communicate
policy decisions on risk.

Public concerns. Public concerns that charitable and government organizations should anticipate might include the cost
of programs and operations, timely and equitable access to their offerings, and perceptions about their stewardship of
resources.

Conservation of natural resources. Conservation might be achieved through the use of “green” technologies, reduction
of your carbon footprint, replacement of hazardous chemicals with water-based chemicals, energy conservation, use of
cleaner energy sources, or recycling of by-products or wastes.

Societal contributions. As the concept of corporate social responsibility has become accepted, high-performing
organizations see contributing to society as more than something they must do. Going above and beyond their
responsibilities in contributing to society can be a driver of customer and workforce engagement and a market
differentiator. Societal contributions imply going beyond a compliance orientation. Opportunities to contribute to the
well-being of environmental, social, and economic systems and opportunities to support key communities are available
to organizations of all sizes. The level and breadth of these contributions will depend on the size of your organization and
your ability to contribute. Increasingly, decisions to engage with an organization include consideration of its societal
contributions.

Community support. Examples of organizational community involvement include

• partnering with schools and school boards to improve education;
• partnering with health care providers to improve health in the local community by providing education and

volunteer services to address public health issues; and
• partnering to influence trade, business, and professional associations to engage in beneficial, cooperative

activities, such as voluntary standards activities or sharing best practices to improve overall U.S. global
competitiveness and ethical and societal well-being.

Some nonprofits may contribute to society and support their key communities totally through their mission-related
activities. In such cases, community support includes any “extra efforts,” such as partnering with other nonprofit
organizations or businesses to improve the overall performance and stewardship of public and charitable resources.

Strategy (Category 2)
This category asks how you develop strategic objectives and action plans, implement them, change them if circumstances
require, and measure progress.

The category stresses that your organization’s long-term organizational success and competitive environment are key
strategic issues that need to be integral parts of your overall planning. Making decisions about your organization’s core

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-5

competencies and work systems is an integral part of ensuring your organization’s success now and in the future, and
these decisions are therefore key strategic decisions.

While many organizations are increasingly adept at strategic planning, executing plans is still a significant challenge. This
is especially true given market demands to be agile and be prepared for unexpected change, such as volatile economic
conditions or disruptive technologies that can upset an otherwise fast-paced but more predictable marketplace. This
category highlights the need to focus not only on developing your plans, but also on your capability to execute them.

The Baldrige framework emphasizes three key aspects of organizational excellence that are important to strategic
planning:

• Customer‐focused excellence is a strategic view of excellence. The focus is on the drivers of customer
engagement, new markets, and market share—key factors in competitiveness, profitability, and long-term
organizational success.

• Operational performance improvement and innovation contribute to short- and longer-term productivity
growth and cost/price competitiveness. Building operational capability—including speed, responsiveness, and
flexibility—is an investment in strengthening your organizational fitness.

• Organizational learning and learning by workforce members are necessary strategic considerations in today’s
fast-paced environment. The Criteria emphasize that improvement and learning need to be embedded in work
processes. The special role of strategic planning is to align work systems and learning initiatives with your
organization’s strategic directions, thereby ensuring that improvement and learning prepare you for and
reinforce organizational priorities.

This category asks how you

• consider key elements of risk in your strategic planning process, including strategic opportunities, challenges,
and advantages, and the potential need for transformational change in organizational structure or culture;

• optimize the use of resources, ensure the availability of a skilled workforce, and bridge short- and longer-term
requirements that may entail capital expenditures, technology development or acquisition, supplier
development, and new partnerships or collaborations; and

• ensure that implementation will be effective—that there are mechanisms to communicate requirements and
achieve alignment on three levels: (1) the organization and executive level, (2) the key work system and work
process level, and (3) the work unit and individual job level.

The questions in this category encourage strategic thinking and acting in order to develop a basis for a distinct
competitive position in the marketplace. These questions do not imply the need for formal planning departments, specific
planning cycles, or a specified way of visualizing the future. They do not imply that all your improvements could or
should be planned in advance. An effective improvement system combines improvements of many types and degrees of
involvement. This requires clear strategic guidance, particularly when improvement alternatives, including major change
or innovation, compete for limited resources. In most cases, setting priorities depends heavily on a cost, opportunity, and
threat rationale. However, you might also have critical requirements, such as societal contributions, that are not driven by
cost considerations alone.

2.1 Strategy Development

Purpose
This item asks how you establish a strategy to address your organization’s challenges and leverage its advantages and
how you make decisions about key work systems and core competencies. It also asks about your key strategic objectives
and their related goals. The aim is to strengthen your overall performance, competitiveness, and future success.

Commentary
A context for strategy development. This item calls for basic information on the planning process and for information on
all key influences, risks, challenges, and other requirements that might affect your organization’s future opportunities
and directions—taking as long term a view as appropriate and possible from the perspectives of your organization and
your industry or marketplace. This approach is intended to provide a thorough and realistic context for developing a
customer- and market-focused strategy to guide ongoing decision making, resource allocation, and overall management.

A future‐oriented basis for action. This item is intended to cover all types of businesses, for-profit, and nonprofit
(including government) organizations, competitive situations, strategic issues, planning approaches, and plans. The

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-6

questions explicitly call for a future-oriented basis for action. Even if your organization is seeking to create an entirely
new business, you still need to set and test the objectives that define and guide critical actions and performance.

Competitive leadership. This item emphasizes competitive leadership, which usually depends on revenue growth and
operational effectiveness. Competitive leadership requires a view of the future that includes not only the markets or
segments in which you compete but also how you compete. How to compete presents many options. Deciding how to
compete requires that you understand your and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and also involves decisions
on taking intelligent risks in order to gain or retain market leadership. Although no specific time horizons are included,
the thrust of this item is sustained competitive leadership.

Data and information for strategic planning. Data and information may come from a variety of internal and external
sources and in a variety of forms, and they are available in increasingly greater volumes and at greater speeds. The ability
to capitalize on data and information, including large datasets (“big data”), is based on the ability to analyze the data,
draw conclusions, and pursue actions, including intelligent risks.

Blind spots. Blind spots arise from incorrect, incomplete, obsolete, or biased assumptions or conclusions that cause gaps,
vulnerabilities, risks, or weaknesses in your understanding of the competitive environment and strategic challenges your
organization faces. Blind spots may arise from new or replacement offerings or business models coming from inside or
outside your industry.

Managing strategic risk. Your decisions about addressing strategic challenges, changes in your regulatory and external
business environment, blind spots in your strategic planning, and gaps in your ability to execute the strategic plan may
give rise to organizational risk. Analysis of these factors is the basis for managing strategic risk in your organization.

Work systems. Efficient and effective work systems require

• effective design;
• a prevention orientation;
• linkage to customers, suppliers, partners, and collaborators;
• a focus on value creation for all key stakeholders; operational performance improvement; cycle time reduction;

and evaluation, continuous improvement, innovation, and organizational learning; and
• regular review to evaluate the need for fundamental changes in the way work is accomplished.

Work systems must also be designed in a way that allows your organization to be agile and protect intellectual property.
In the simplest terms, agility is the ability to adapt quickly, flexibly, and effectively to changing requirements. Depending
on the nature of your strategy and markets, agility might mean the ability to change rapidly from one product to another,
respond rapidly to changing demands or market conditions, or produce a wide range of customized services. Agility and
protection of intellectual property also increasingly involve decisions to outsource, agreements with key suppliers, and
novel partnering arrangements.

Work systems and ecosystems. Organizations should view the ecosystem strategically. They need to be open to new
partnership arrangements, consortia, value webs, and business models that support the organization’s vision and goals.
The organization’s growth may depend on the collective growth of the ecosystem and its ability to prepare for the future.
And as competition comes from organizations in different industries, organizations may be able to stand out from their
competitors through new and novel offerings, possibly through the ecosystem. Your strategy should take into account
your role and your desired role within the ecosystem (as a partner, collaborator, supplier, competitor, or customer—or
several of these).

Strategic objectives. Strategic objectives might address product and service quality enhancements, workforce capability
and capacity, rapid response, customization, co-location with major customers or partners, specific joint ventures, virtual
manufacturing, rapid or market-changing innovation, ISO quality or environmental systems registration, and societal
contribution actions or leadership.

2.2 Strategy Implementation

Purpose
This item asks how you convert your strategic objectives into action plans to accomplish the objectives and how you
assess progress relative to these action plans. The aim is to ensure that you deploy your strategies successfully and
achieve your goals.

2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Criteria Commentary A-7

Commentary
Developing and deploying action plans. Accomplishing action plans requires resources and performance measures, as
well as alignment among the plans of your work units, suppliers, and partners. Of central importance is how you achieve
alignment and consistency—for example, via work systems, work processes, and key measurements. Also, alignment and
consistency provide a basis for setting and communicating priorities for ongoing improvement activities—part of the
daily work of all work units. In addition, performance measures are critical for tracking performance. Action plan
implementation and deployment may require modifications in organizational structures and operating modes. The
success of action plans benefits from visible short-term wins as well as long-term actions.

Performing analyses to support resource allocation. You can perform many types of analyses to ensure that financial
resources are available to support the accomplishment of your action plans while you meet current obligations. For
current operations, these efforts might include the analysis of cash flows, net income statements, and current liabilities
versus current assets. For investments to accomplish action plans, the efforts might include analysis of discounted cash
flows, return on investment, or return on invested capital.

Analyses also should evaluate the availability of people and other resources to accomplish your action plans while
continuing to meet current obligations. Financial resources must be supplemented by capable people and the necessary
facilities and support.

The specific types of analyses performed will vary from organization to organization. These analyses should help you
assess the financial viability of your current operations and the potential viability of and risks associated with your action
plan initiatives.

Creating workforce plans. Action plans should include human resource or workforce plans that are aligned with and
support your overall strategy. Examples of possible plan elements are

• a redesign of your work organization and jobs to increase workforce empowerment and decision making;
• initiatives to promote greater labor-management cooperation, such as union partnerships;
• consideration of the impacts of outsourcing on your current workforce and initiatives;
• initiatives to prepare for future workforce capability and capacity needs;
• initiatives to foster knowledge sharing and organizational learning;
• modification of your compensation and recognition systems to recognize team, organizational, stock market,

customer, or other performance attributes; and
• education and training initiatives, such as developmental programs for future leaders, partnerships with

universities to help ensure the availability of an educated and skilled workforce, and training programs on new
technologies important to the future success of your workforce and organization.

Projecting your future environment. An increasingly important part of strategic planning is projecting the future
competitive and collaborative environment. This includes the ability to project your own future performance, as well as
that of your competitors. Such projections help you detect and reduce competitive threats, shorten reaction time, and
identify opportunities. Depending on your organization’s size and type, the potential need for new core competencies,
the maturity of markets, the pace of change, and competitive parameter

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