Caterpillar Financial, a client of Belmont University’s Center for Professional Development, has become the first Nashville company to win the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award from the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Belmont management professor Dr. Susan Williams comments on the award in this story from today’s Tennessean.
Seven companies were recognized this year, chosen from 68 applicants. Cat Financial, along with Boeing Aerospace Support of St. Louis, captured top honors in the service category.
That’s a hard-to-win area, said Susan Williams, a Belmont University management professor who has just completed a three-year term as a Baldrige Award judge. She got to know Beard and Cat Financial through Belmont’s Center for Professional Development.
A winning service company must have an ”extremely strong application and what I call extraordinary deployment,” meaning that the company must back up written goals with action, she said.
Here is the Caterpillar Financial press release.
The Center for Professional Development was created by Belmont University to offer training in the principles and practices of Continuous Improvement. The Center’s original mission was to become a training and resource center to facilitate the university’s transformation to Continuous Quality Improvement. The Center has grown and evolved into a nationally recognized stand-alone entity, and also continues to provide training for Belmont University employees and serve as a resource center for the University.
