Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
During the formative years of APQC in the early 1980’s, it was apparent there was a need for business to place emphasis on the need for increased productivity and quality. APQC Founder and Chairman Jack Grayson envisioned an award that would set the national standards and recognize companies that excelled in this area. For Grayson’s vision to become a reality, then President Ronald Reagan said the idea must be passed into law and so the process began. Grayson and Co-chair Sanford McDonnell, CEO of McDonnell-Douglas, brought together business leaders to determine the criteria and establish an administrative organization for the award. It took four years, 45 meetings (18 of which were in the White House) and a final 75-page proposal to get the 10 category criteria passed into law.
In setting up the program, Grayson worked extensively with Malcolm Baldrige, who served as United States Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan administration. While the bill was in the commerce committee, Malcolm Baldrige tragically passed away in a rodeo accident and so the award was named after him.
In this fashion, The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was passed into Law by President Regan in 1987. APQC and the American Society for Quality (ASQ) jointly administered the award during its first three years. Today the Baldrige Award is the only formal recognition of the performance excellence of U.S. organizations given by the President of the United States. It is now administered by the Baldrige National Quality Program, which is based at and managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.