Studer Group 

Founded in 1999, the Studer Group is a private, for-profit health care 

consulting firm providing coaching, teaching, and evidenced-based 

tools and tactics to health care organizations and rural hospitals 

throughout the United States. Corporate offices are located in 

Gulf Breeze, Florida, with satellite offices in Dallas, Texas; New 

South Wales, New Zealand; and Queensland, Australia. Virtual home 

offices are located across the United States. Revenues were approximately

$47 million in 2010, and the company employs 119 persons.

Company Success Measured

By Successful Partners 

•	Studer Group defines its success based on the results of the

partners it coaches, particularly how patients perceive the quality 

of care they receive from these organizations. On the standardized 

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and 

Systems (HCAHPS) survey, Studer Group partners achieve two 

to three times greater improvement during the same time period 

than the national average. This results in a 20 percentile point 

advantage for Studer Group partners over nonpartners on 

measures of patient perception of care.

•	Studer Group has been committed to providing innovative

products and services since its founding in 1999. Key innovations 

have helped grow annualized revenue from less than $5 million 

during the period 1999 to 2001—when the company first offered 

Introduction of Nine Principles® (described as “a roadmap to help 

leaders navigate the journey to developing an excellence-based 

culture”)—to $45 million for 2009 to 2010. The numerous products

and services driving that growth included executive, physician, 

and emergency department coaching; books such as Hardwiring 

Excellence and the Nurse Leader Handbook; and software such as 

the Patient Call ManagerTM. 

Culture Achieves Highly Satisfied Customers

•	Studer Group integrates its customer support system with its

employee performance management processes to create a culture 

focused on a positive customer experience. The firm models the 

Evidence-Based Leadership (EBL) service excellence it teaches and 

identifies its key support mechanism as “people interacting with people.”

•	Studer Group’s primary focus is helping its partners improve

service excellence by hardwiring its EBL framework. By practicing

what it teaches, Studer Group has adapted EBL to its own firm, 

resulting in sustained high levels of CEO satisfaction and overall 

satisfaction with its coaching services. Since 2006, satisfaction 

ratings have ranged from 4.6 to 4.9 on a 5-point scale, exceeding 

the Service Performance Insight (SPI) Best Benchmark of 4.3. 

High levels of satisfaction have translated into renewal rates that 

exceed 85 percent annually.

2010 Award Recipient

Highlights

•	Key innovations have helped annualized revenue grow

from less than $5 million during the period 1999 to 2001 

to $45 million for 2009 to 2010.

•	Studer Group has sustained high levels of CEO satisfaction

and overall satisfaction with its coaching services. Since 

2006, satisfaction ratings have ranged from 4.6 to 4.9 on a 

5-point scale, exceeding the Service Performance Insight 

(SPI) Best Benchmark of 4.3.

•	Studer Group was named as one of the “Top 25 Best Small

Companies to Work for in America” by the Society for 

Human Resource Management and the Great Places to 

Work Institute in 2008, 2009, and 2010. 

•	Studer Group’s revenues grown more than 30 percent

annually since 2001, exceeding the Association of 

Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) average of 

10 percent annual growth.

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

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•	Senior Leadership Surveys (SLS) from customer organizations

(defined by the Studer Group as “partners”) meet or exceed the 

SPI Best Benchmark of 4.7 “for willingness to recommend” 

Studer Group in 2009 and 2010. Additionally, when asked how 

	 Studer Group compares to other consultants they’ve worked with

in terms of value and impact, senior leaders in their partner 

organizations rate the firm consistently above 4.5 on a 5-point 

scale where 5 is “very good.”

Building A Great Place to Work

•	Overall employee satisfaction, overall employee morale, and

employee engagement based on attitude surveys conducted by 

Sperduto & Associates reached or exceeded the 90th percentile 

from 2006 to 2009 when compared to other organizations in the 

Sperduto database. 

•	Studer Group was named as one of the “Top 25 Best Small

Companies to Work for in America” by the Society for Human 

Resource Management and the Great Places to Work Institute in 

2008, 2009, and 2010, achieving a ranking of 14th in 2010. 

The firm also ranked 12th on the list of “50 Best Florida Companies 

to Work for” by Florida Trend magazine in 2010.

Planning Links Strategy, People,

and Execution

•	Studer Group uses a robust, six-step strategic planning process

(SPP) to develop and deploy its strategies. A seventh step, which 

addresses improvements to the SPP, has resulted in the adoption of 

Rapid Enterprise Development to ensure linkage among strategy, 

people, and execution, as well as a focus on “Big Rocks”— annual 

	 goals that are the most critical to achieving Studer Group’s

strategic objectives. 

Senior Leaders Making a Difference

• Studer Group’s senior leadership has embedded EBL within the

organization to provide the framework for its internal operations. 

	 Employing EBL processes supported by Studer’s Leader Evaluation

ManagerTM (LEM) software (which tracks goals and their achievement),

such as the Six Pillars and Goal Cascade, senior leaders have 

aligned goals, behaviors, and processes to achieve transparent 

communication, high performance, and workforce engagement.

•	Senior leaders have created a culture at Studer Group that is

values-driven, transparent, and fosters passion for making a 

difference. This is accomplished through personal modeling of 

values, coupled with specific “must have” tactics for selecting, 

engaging, empowering, and retaining workforce members.

Commitment to Community

•	To support its key local community and the health care industry,

Studer Group disseminates much of its evidence-based knowledge 

without charge to local organizations and the entire care community.

Additionally, Studer Group offers in-kind donations of free coaching

and training to local nonprofit organizations, as well as sponsorships

and monetary grants for attendance at its conferences. The company’s

monetary and in-kind charitable donations amount to 5.1 to 6.9 

percent of its net income. 

Financial Results Exceed Peers

•	With a focus on financial sustainability, Studer Group’s revenues

have grown more than 30 percent annually since 2001, exceeding 

the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) average 

of 10 percent annual growth.

•	Studer Group’s active contracts with health care organizations have

steadily increased from 2006 to 2009 for both segments of its 

coaching business: general acute-care hospitals and rural hospitals.

	 The firm’s average annual contract growth rate of 18 percent

consistently outperformed the AMCF average of 5.5 percent.

For more information:

Studer Group 

913 Gulf Breeze Parkway, Suite 6

Gulf Breeze, FL 32561

Telephone: (850) 934-1099

E-mail: baldrige@studergroup.com

Website: www.studergroup

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National 

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, and 

help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels. We are 

the only public-private partnership and Presidential award program 

dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on Baldrige, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige, 

call (301) 975-2036, or e-mail us at baldrige@nist.gov.

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

2010 Award Recipient 

Studer Group 

Job #:111146

Date:3.18.2011 Pg2

Version:Studer Group

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