Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

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Wednesday, August 26, 1998 Governor Tommy G. Thompson Secretary Linda Stewart

News Media Contact Michael H. McCoy 608/267-4400 e-mail: mccoymi@dwd.state.wi.us fax: 608/266-1784

For more information contact:
Marie Lange, 608/261-4422
Sheryl Billlups, 608/266-9615

New business quality awards
to be presented this fall

Wisconsin Forward Award Web Site

Madison, Wis. -- Forward Awards will be presented here Oct. 15 for the first time to honor Wisconsin manufacturing and service companies investing in quality, the Governor’s Council on Workforce Excellence announced today.

The special ceremony also will feature Jeff Pope, whose Minneapolis marketing research and customer satisfaction services firm in 1996 became the first professional services firm and smallest organization ever to receive a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The Wisconsin award creation was announced in February by Governor Tommy G. Thompson, who said it was designed to "recognize the best and the brightest among Wisconsin companies."

Companies which nominated themselves for the competitive process will be judged on seven criteria -- leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource development and management, process management, and business results.

"For this initial award, we asked manufacturing and service business to participate," said Linda Stewart. Stewart, the state’s Workforce Development Secretary, said education, government and non-profit organizations also will be eligible starting in 1999.

The recognition program is modeled on the Baldrige Award, she said. Four levels of awards will be presented, with the highest achievement level being the Governor’s Forward Award for Excellence.

 A total of 12 companies applied by the deadline and are being judged now in a "rigorous and demanding review process that mirrors the Baldrige Award process in many respects," Stewart said. It includes on-site reviews by a team of examiners.

The Oct. 15 special ceremonies will be held in Madison at the Monona Terrace, with Pope as the keynote speaker.

Pope is a co-founder and partner of Custom Research, Inc., which also was honored with the Minnesota Quality Award in 1995.

Pope also is the author of Practical Marketing Research, published by the American Management Association, and serves on the external advisory board of the A.C. Neilsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin.

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