Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence

Mission:
The Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence (KYCPE), a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, was founded to promote and support performance improvement of all organizations across the Commonwealth. The mission includes communicating the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to organizations in Kentucky, helping them to understand and apply the criteria, promoting the sharing of the best practices, and recognizing companies that set examples of success.

Vision:
Our vision is for all Kentucky organizations to be recognized for world-class performance. The purpose at KYCPE is not to give an award, but rather to provide a service to organizations - large and small; to provide a framework for the continuous improvement of the quality of Kentucky's goods and services.

History
The Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence is a private not-for-profit organization governed by an independent Board of Directors through a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with offices in Lexington.
During the late 1970s and early 80's, there was an increasing realization and concern that a key to effective international competition and national economic viability lies in the quality of goods and services being produced by American industry. The concern led to the development of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award that was signed into law in 1982. Beginning in the early 1990's, individual states began developing quality award programs based on the Baldrige criteria. There are currently approximately 44 states with awards or developing programs. The Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence was established in 2005 as a not-for-profit corporation, and is quickly being recognized for its innovative approach and unparalleled success. Today, the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence has a two-fold vision: to be the most successful state or local award program in the US and to be recognized nationally and internationally as a role model as well as our vision for all participant organizations to be recognized for world-class performance.

KYCPE Today

The mission of the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence reflects the organization's emphasis on educating, recognizing significant achievements, and sharing the winning strategies and best practices among all companies and organizations. The purpose is not to give an award, but rather to provide a service to organizations, large and small, to provide a framework for the continuous improvement of the quality of Kentucky's goods and services.

"The purpose is not to give an award, but to provide a framework for the continuous
improvement of the quality of Kentucky's goods and services."

The multi-step "staircase to excellence" system allows all organizations to participate and learn. All participants are recognized for their level of achievement. It is not a competition against other organizations, but rather it is a competition against increasingly difficult criteria, with the prestigious Excellence Award as the most prestigious accomplishment.

KYCPE Members
Member organizations and individuals provide a substantial portion of KYCPE financing. All companies and individuals with interest or involvement with KYCPE are welcome to apply for membership.

Membership in the organization provides access to the collective experience of KYCPE examiners, judges and staff. The benefits of membership include complementary and/or discounted fees for all KYCPE training, conventions and banquets, area meetings, discussion groups and best practices sessions. Members also receive all publications offered by KYCPE.

KYCPE also gives its members a positive profile by publishing a list of its members in its publications, web listing and other materials. Corporate Members receive links from website.

Membership is not required for Kentucky organizations to participate in the Award Process. For those applicant participants external to Kentucky, KYCPE membership is required.

The Award Program
Once an organization’s operations have been described by answering the questions in the Criteria it is time to evaluate how well the organization is effectively implementing the principles.

Every organization that completes the application procedures outlined by this process and meets the criteria of the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence Award Program will be recognized in one of the four award categories: Interest, Commitment, Achievement, or Excellence. The presentation of awards takes place at a special dinner and ceremony each year. This is followed by a Best Practices session where Excellence Award winners share their world-class strategies and processes that brought them to this prestigious level of accomplishment. Because of the learning inherent in completing the application and in the feedback you receive from KYCPE, the effort that goes into the self-assessment and applying for the Award traditionally result in a significant return on your investment. The process will help you prioritize opportunities for improvement and identify strengths to celebrate and build upon. As a result, the rate at which your organization improves should accelerate. Each applicant gains an outside perspective of its organization based on hours of review by members of the Board of Examiners and the Panel of Judges. The results of this review are synthesized in a feedback report outlining strengths and opportunities for improvement based on the Criteria. Feedback reports are often used by organizations as part of their strategic planning process to focus on their customers, strategies, and to improve results. Traditionally the process helps to energize and guide their organizational improvement effort.