Senate Reading Room, The State House, Boston

May 5, 2010 ... “In his historic address to the Massachusetts Legislature delivered here, at the State House on January 9, 1961, John F. Kennedy spoke of the historic leadership of Massachusetts in the affairs of the nation. In that speech, he said of Massachusetts:

‘Its leaders have shaped our destiny long before the great republic was born. Its principles have guided our footsteps in times of crisis as well as in times of calm. Its democratic institutions—including this historic body—have served as beacon lights for other nations as well as our sister states.’

“This great tradition of leadership has continued through more recent years as the nation has taken many of our ideas on health reform and included them in the most significant change in health care since Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ produced Medicare and Medicaid.

“Massachusetts has another opportunity for leadership in legislation, adopted last month by the State Senate, which will put Massachusetts in the forefront by employing performance measurement principles in evaluating one of the state’s most critical functions—promoting economic growth for our Commonwealth in the global marketplace.

“The bill requires the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development to act as chair of the boards of all state authorities engaged in economic development and business assistance activities. Thanks to advocacy and testimony by MassExcellence in support of specific provisions that subject the Commonwealth’s economic development agencies to performance management reviews, we will now evaluate effectiveness by taking into account both output measures, such as the average length of time to return a call, and outcome measures, such as the number of jobs retained. It will go even deeper by evaluating the quality of those jobs and how well they add to the state’s economic growth and vitality.

“Just as they supported performance measurement in reforming the state’s economic development agencies, MassExcellence is ideally positioned to partner with senior leaders in state government, as well as the private sector. Their demonstrated commitment and focus on long–term sustainability and in improving overall organizational performance using the proven, world-class framework of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence is exactly what state government needs at this point in our history.

“The process ought to follow the course that so many industries, including those we honor here today, have measured their performance using rigorous standards of excellence. For example, during one Baldrige assessment, the senior examiner leading a NIST review team during a site visit asked a basic question. ‘How do you build relationships with your existing customers to acquire new customers? And what have been the results? Have you gained new customers and increased the engagement with the ones you have?’ Then he added, ‘Of course, we'll need to see the detailed evidence for each of your responses.’

“Up until now, the state’s economic development agencies would sometimes trumpet how many jobs they helped to bring to Massachusetts or to expand in current businesses, but they haven’t talked much how they’ve improved the state’s engagement with current companies or the jobs that were lost and why we lost them. These are important measurements to help us improve state policies and services so that the Commonwealth can be even more effective in promoting economic growth and job creation.

“Performance measurement can also tell policy makers if some initiatives are less successful than others and where we should concentrate scarce resources or incentives. Up until now, we’re really not measuring the right statistics or drilling down to understand them better.

“Businesses have long known that performance measurement is an essential tool to promoting quality improvement. It makes sense, at least to the Senate leadership, to ask the state agencies working with businesses to measure their performance with the same standards. If we can do that why wouldn’t we also want to expand the concept to assess the billions of tax dollars spent on education, health care, public safety, and a myriad of other state and local services. MassExcellence has an enormous agenda for the future.

“Of course, it will take time, even to incorporate Performance Measurement Principles into the economic development agencies. As the noted Roman poet, Horace, once said, ‘No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.’ Massachusetts will need the help and guidance of many of those gathered in this room and across the region to help us launch this bold new effort in state government.

“Massachusetts is not embarking on the process of performance measurement to achieve an award. It is the improvements that will be developed in following the process that will teach us how best to value the business that are here, how we can incubate new start-up companies, and how we can attract other businesses to locate and grow with us. Following the award process to improve our economic development efforts will be the genuine and lasting reward for our efforts. As former Senate President Calvin Coolidge, whose portrait looks down on us today, once remarked: ‘No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.’

“The MassExcellence program has much greater value than any plaque because the process itself involves taking a solid action forward to becoming a world-class organization! The award process begins an assessment process conducted by a specialized team of examiners who will develop a feedback report for the senior leadership of the state’s economic development agencies to use in planning how to attract and retain businesses with high quality jobs. The assessment provides a comprehensive review of the agencies’ current processes against the Baldrige Criteria categories of Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information and Knowledge Management, Workforce Focus, Process Management, and Results. This process is an opportunity in learning for all key stakeholders!

“This is the process that has brought American Eagle Credit Union, Action Ambulance, and Gemini Industries here today. While we heartily applaud their success and recognize their success through the awards they will receive in a few moments, the real value to them, and to all of us, is what their experience can teach others, including Massachusetts state government, how to achieve performance excellence. 

“Congratulations to the award recipients who are with us today, and thank you to MassExcellence for being one of those ‘beacon lights’ that President Kennedy mentioned guiding our businesses, institutions and government toward higher levels of achievement and success to benefit our customers and constituents.”

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