International Quality Award Models: Innovation Enablers or Inhibitors?

Abstract

Historical development of models and criteria supporting major international quality awards is driven more by continuous or incremental improvement than by breakthrough improvement. This has been the case in particular relative the most enduring such awards - the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Business Excellence Award, America’s Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence (MBNQA), and the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. In possible contrast are initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the imputed urgency for improvement, innovation and change associated with these, due in large to the sheer scope and magnitude of change needed – especially with respect to societal or environmental challenges. While sufficiently rapid iteration across a large enough number of cycles has the potential of rivaling the magnitude of innovation attained through a focus on breakthrough improvement, such an approach is unlikely to precisely match the destination of innovation attained through breakthrough improvement approaches. One significant reason is that incremental improvements often target minor course corrections with well-defined trajectories, whereas breakthrough efforts target larger strides with more mystery between the point of origination and the targeted destination. Differences in these approaches impact products and services reaching the market in many ways, hence impacting their marketplace performance. Among differences of note are ones in the natures of the product or service brought to market, the timing of their market arrival, the levels of creativity and innovation required, design innovations introduced, consumer receptivity and perception of iteration vs. innovation, perceived impact, consumer perception of the company, and – not to be ignored – risk and reward elements. Questions explored herein are whether the models and criteria used by international quality award frameworks enable innovation and entre-intrapreneurship, inhibit these, or are innovation and entre-intrapreneurial neutral. Similarly, the impact of the UN SDGs in relation to innovation are discussed.