FPL Gives Back to the American Quality Movement

ActiveStrategy CEO Jack Steele was an integral part of the FPL team that piloted the organization’s stunning transformation. As FPL began to see dramatic performance improvements, other companies showed significant interest.

FPL created an instructional and consulting arm called QUALTEC to help impart their newfound knowledge and experience, which led to other companies benchmarking FPL’s success. Jack moved into a new business development role at QUALTEC, where he was responsible for leading these visitors through the FPL journey.

During his tenure, Jack and FPL hosted more than 400 of the Fortune 500 companies in these benchmarking visits. In addition to domestic achievement, FPL was recognized internationally as the first organization outside Japan to win the coveted Deming Prize in 1989.

The FPL management system leveraged the concept of scorecards containing objectives and measures across a balanced set of stakeholders, though it was prior to the birth of the term "Balanced Scorecard." In fact, four years after a visit from Dr. Robert Kaplan to investigate FPL’s highly successful management system, the Balanced Scorecard was launched in a Harvard Business Review article and subsequent book.

In addition, these same managers from FP&L also helped create and draft the bill for the first U.S. Quality Award, which eventually passed through congress in 1988 as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program.

Learn more about:

• The "Strategy Execution Evolution" organizations experience
• Balanced Scorecard Basics
• Assessing Your Organization Using Baldrige Criteria
• 5 Common Hindrances to Successful ESE
• How ActiveStrategy Can Help