P Organizational Profile 3

Criteria for Performance Excellence

Begin with the Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is the most appropriate starting point for self-assessment and for writing an application. It is 

critically important for the following reasons: 

• You can use it as an initial self-assessment. If you identify topics for which conflicting, little, or no information is 

available, use these topics for action planning.

• It sets the context for understanding your organization and how it operates, and allows you to address unique aspects 

of your organization in your responses to the Baldrige Criteria questions in categories 1–7. Your responses to all other 

questions in the Criteria should relate to the organizational context you describe in this profile.

• It helps you identify gaps in key information about your organization and focus on key performance requirements 

and results. 

• The Organizational Profile is an invaluable tool for new and seasoned employees to fully understand your 

organization.

P Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is a snapshot of your organization and its strategic environment.

P.1 Organizational Description: What are your key organizational characteristics?

a. Organizational Environment

(1) Product and/or Service Offerings What are your main products and/or services? What is the relative importance (including percentage of revenue/budget) of each product or service to your success? What are the delivery 

methods for these products and/or services?

(2) Mission, Vision, Values, and Culture What are your mission, vision, and values? What are the defining 

characteristics of your organizational culture? What are your organization’s core competencies, and what is 

their relationship to your mission and vision?

(3) Workforce Profile What is your workforce profile? What are your workforce or employee groups

and segments and the key engagement drivers for each? What key changes are you experiencing in your 

workforce capability, capacity, and composition?

(4) Assets What are your major assets, such as facilities, equipment, technologies, and intellectual property?

(5) Regulatory Environment What are your key applicable regulations, and accreditation, certification, or registration requirements? 

b. Organizational Relationships

(1) Organizational Structure What are your organizational leadership and governance structures? What are the 

key components of your organization’s leadership system? What are the reporting relationships among your 

governance system, senior leaders, and parent organization, as appropriate?

(2) Customers and Stakeholders What are your key market segments, customer groups, and stakehold

groups, as appropriate? What are their key requirements and expectations for your products and/or services, 

customer support services, and operations, including any differences among the groups?

(3) Suppliers, Partners, and Collaborators What are your key types of suppliers, partners, and 

collaborators? What role do they play in producing and delivering your key products and/or services and 

customer support services? What role do they play in contributing and implementing innovations in your 

organization? What are your key supply-network requirements? 

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 44–51).
4 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework

Notes

P.1a(1). How you deliver products and/or services to your 

customers might be direct or indirect, or through dealers, 

distributors, collaborators, or channel partners. Nonprofit 

(including government) organizations might refer to their 

product and/or service offerings as programs or projects.

P.1a(2). Your values are part of your organization’s culture. 

Other characteristics of your culture include shared beliefs, 

norms, and values that contribute to the uniqueness of the 

environment within your organization.

P.1a(2). If your organization has a stated purpose as well 

as a mission, you should include it in your response here 

and as appropriate in the process categories. Some organizations define a mission and a purpose, and some use the 

terms interchangeably. Purpose refers to the fundamental 

reason that the organization exists. 

P.1a(3). As applicable, your workforce profile should 

include the location of your workforce, your organized 

bargaining units (i.e., union representation), and the special 

health and safety requirements of the workforce. Your 

workforce profile should specify any workforce groups the 

organization has identified for segmenting data. Organizations that also rely on volunteers and/or temporary staff 

members to accomplish core work (producing output that 

is necessary and/or customer-facing) should include these 

groups as part of their workforce. Workforce or employee 

groups and segments might be based on type of employment or contract-reporting relationship, location (including 

remote work), work shift/tour of duty, work environment, 

use of flexible work policies, or other factors. Current and 

anticipated changes impacting your workforce members 

might relate to scheduling, location, and their requirements 

and expectations. 

P.1a(5). Regulations and requirements include any applicable occupational health and safety regulations; industry 

standards; and environmental, financial, and product 

regulations. In the Criteria, industry refers to the sector in 

which you operate, and industry standards might include 

industrywide codes of conduct and policy guidance. For 

nonprofit (including government) organizations, the sector 

in which you operate might be charitable organizations, 

professional associations and societies, religious organizations, or government entities—or a subsector of one of 

these. Depending on the regions in which you operate, 

environmental regulations might cover greenhouse gas 

emissions, carbon regulations and trading, and energy 

efficiency. 

P.1b(1). The organizational leadership and governance 

structures for privately held businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies may comprise an advisory 

board, a family council, or local/regional leaders who 

are assembled to provide guidance. For some nonprofit 

(including government) organizations, reporting relationships might include publicly elected officials, boards, 

and commissions, as well as relationships with major 

funding sources, such as granting agencies, legislatures, or 

foundations.

P.1b(1). The Organizational Profile asks for the what of 

your leadership system. Questions in categories 1 and 5 

ask how the system functions.

P.1b(2). For some nonprofit (including government) organizations, customers might include members, taxpayers, 

residents, visitors, businesses, clients, and beneficiaries, and 

market segments might be referred to as constituencies. For 

government agencies, the legislature (as a source of funds) 

may be a key stakeholder.

P.1b(2). Customer, stakeholder, and operational requirements and expectations will drive your organization’s 

sensitivity to the risk of product, service, support, and 

supply-network interruptions, including those due to 

natural disasters and other emergencies.

P.1b(2). Customer groups might be based on common 

requirements and expectations, behaviors, preferences, or 

profiles. Within a group, there may be customer segments 

based on differences, commonalities, or both. You might 

subdivide your market segments or customer groups based 

on product lines or features, distribution channels, business 

volume, geography, or other defining factors.

P.1b(3). Your supply network consists of the external 

entities involved in producing and delivering your products 

and/or services to your customers and offering post-sales 

support. For some organizations, these entities form 

a chain, in which one entity directly supplies another. 

Increasingly, however, these entities are interlinked and 

exist in interdependent rather than linear relationships. 

The Criteria use the term supply network to emphasize the 

interdependencies among organizations and their suppliers. 

The term supply network represents an evolution and 

maturity in supply-chain management.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Criteria 

Commentary.
P Organizational Profile 5

P.2 Organizational Situation: What is your organization’s strategic situation?

a. Competitive Environment

(1) Competitive Position What are your size, share, and growth in your industry or the markets you serve? How 

many and what types of competitors do you have? What differentiates you from them? 

(2) Competitiveness Changes What key changes, if any, are affecting your competitive situation, including 

changes that create opportunities for collaboration and innovation, as appropriate? 

(3) Comparative Data What key sources of comparative and competitive data are available from within your 

industry? What key sources of comparative data are available from outside your industry? What limitations, if 

any, affect your ability to obtain or use these data?

b. Strategic Context

What are your key strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and opportunities?

c. Performance Improvement Sy

What is your overall system for performance improvement? What key tools and methods are used as part of this 

system? 

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 44–51).

Notes

P.2a. Nonprofit organizations often compete with other 

organizations and alternative sources of similar services 

to secure financial and volunteer resources, membership, 

visibility in appropriate communities, talent, and media 

attention.

P.2b. Strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and 

opportunities might be in the areas of business, operations, 

societal contributions, and workforce. They might relate 

to products; finances; organizational structure and culture; 

emerging technology; digital integration; security and 

cybersecurity; emerging competitors; organizational resilience and risk management; changing stakeholder requirements and expectations; workforce capability or capacity; 

brand recognition and reputation; your supply network; 

globalization; the environment and climate; diversity, 

equity, and inclusion; and the upgrade and maintenance 

of facilities. Throughout the Criteria, “business” refers to 

a nonprofit (or government) organization’s main mission 

area or enterprise activity.

P.2c. Excellence is not possible without robust evaluation 

and improvement of key processes, systems, and organizational results. The Baldrige Scoring System (pages 26–32) 

uses performance improvement through learning and 

integration as a factor in assessing the maturity of organizational approaches and their deployment. This question 

is intended to set an overall context for your approach to 

performance improvement. The system you use should be 

related to your organization’s needs and compatible with 

your organization’s capabilities, capacity, and culture. 

Specific tools and methods that might be utilized as part of 

the system include, for example, the PDCA methodology, 

ISO standards, a Lean Enterprise System, and the Six 

Sigma methodology, among others.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Criteria 

Commentary.