A recent FastCompany article entitled “How the Most Successful Brands Take a Peek into the Future” wound itself around a handful of facets that a successful futures-insights company should embrace. The author, Mark McNeilly, wrote about organizations having the ability to take advantage of the future by listening to their customers, competitors, and comparables. Perhaps inadvertently, he has summarized a number of Baldrige criteria questions, and in doing so gave yet another example of how Baldrige can be applied in any organization, regardless of size or industry.
Real-time marketing requires a team of coordinated, aware, and proactive individuals. With the mindset of out-performing competitors, most companies have turned to social media to try and get a better grasp of their who their customers are, and engage in “culture conversations.” McNeilly writes about Oreo’s use of Twitter during the Super Bowl blackout: “Within the hour the tweet had been RT’d over 10,000 times. Oreo was successful at executing their marketing virtually instantaneously because its social media trackers, agency creatives, and marketing execs were all co-located.” In Baldrige lingo, what Oreo did answered the questions in section 3.1 (VOTC) referring to using social media to listen to, interact with, and observe customers, as well as section 3.2 (Customer Engagement) on leveraging social media to enhance customer engagement and relationships with the organization. They were very aware of what their customers were doing and thinking at that moment, and then acted appropriately.
Another point that McNeilly makes in his article is that top-performing companies need to be proactive with their understanding of new business trends, methods, and models. By studying organizations that have comparable processes to your own, regardless of the industry they may be serving, innovation and collaboration can take hold. If a company only looks to its competitors to source best practices, how can it surpass them? Within the Organizational Profile, the Baldrige criteria ask what your competitive position is, but also what key sources of comparative data are available from outside your industry. This is a pertinent question, and I can see it catching many companies off-guard if they aren’t staying on top of market research, best practices, and collaboration efforts.
A successful futures-insights company will need to invent new products and services that succeed into the future; kind of a given, if they want to exist as a company for very long. In section 4.1 (Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management) of the Baldrige criteria, best practices and future performance are investigated. “How do you use performance review findings and key comparative and competitive data in projecting future performance?” “How do you reconcile any differences between these projections of future performance and performance projections developed for your key action plans?” “How do you select and ensure the effective use of voice-of-the-customer and market data and information to build a more customer-focused culture and to support operational and strategic decision marketing and innovation?”
One does not need to be running a futures-insights company to be able to successfully integrate the Baldrige criteria into their daily operations; they need only care about the success of the company.
Editor’s note: NIST has just announced the new 2013 crop of Examiners, and I am very happy to announce that I have been accepted into the Examiner Program and begin training at the end of April! I’m very much looking forward to being an ambassador for the Award, and cannot wait to being training. Many thanks to all those who read and use Baldrige.com every day and continue to support the Baldrige Award; keep coming back! –Michelle
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