About Us
Dedicated to Promoting Excellence & Sustainable Improvement
In the mid-1980s, U.S. leaders realized that American companies needed to focus on quality in order to compete in an ever-expanding, demanding global market.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and the associated award were established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987. The program and award were named for Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, an advocate of quality management as a key to U.S. prosperity and sustainability. The goal of the act was to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses. Congress created the Award Program to:
- identify and recognize role-model businesses
- establish criteria for evaluating improvement efforts
- disseminate and share best practices
As the drivers of long-term success have evolved, so, too, have the award and the Baldrige Framework and Criteria. Today, the Baldrige Award recognizes U.S. organizations that are role models for organization-wide excellence.
The Oklahoma Quality Foundation, founded in 1994 as a part of the national Baldrige Alliance program, focuses on developing and recognizing organizations that achieve and sustain proven world-class performance and results. The Oklahoma Quality Foundation is the only official program in Oklahoma that works to determine the level of an organization’s performance and in turn, provide public recognition to award recipients based on their level of accomplishment. It is patterned after the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and enables all Oklahoma companies and organizations access to apply for the national award.
Our mission is to be a catalyst for building better organizations across Oklahoma by inspiring role model performance and results. The Foundation achieves this by administering The Annual Oklahoma Quality Celebration & Conference, examiner and applicant training programs. One of our core purposes is economic development. As organizations grow and improve, so do their communities, and so does our state.
Diverse
Organizations come from business, non-profit, healthcare, and education to make up the Oklahoma Quality Foundation network.
Scalable
No matter your organization’s size, sector, or industry, we can support you and your business in achieving world-class performance.
Connected
Network with like-minded organizations to leverage shared knowledge and collaborate on performance improvement.