Client: Wallace Co., Inc., Houston, TX
Summary: As the Creative Director of a fast-rising multimedia studio, I was tasked with writing and directing the production of a corporate documentary, profiling the transformational results of this small industrial firm applying Total Quality Management principles to avert disaster. The documentary was shown at the White House, Department of Commerce, numerous business schools and on PBS. This was my debut corporate documentary.
The result: A very happy client:
“I personally have seen many video productions over the last few months – however, none have been able to capture that unique experience or the ‘special moment in time’ that is so alive in our video. It is the highlight of every presentation… (I) believe in the quotation that, ‘Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.’ That you do so well!”
– Michael Spiess, Executive Vice President
Contents
(1) Background
(2) The script I wrote for this documentary
(3) The documentary
(4) The Results
(1) Background
The most prestigious award in American business, presented by the President of the United States each year
In the mid-1980s, Wallace Co., Inc., a Houston-based distributor of petrochemical industry products in Houston, TX, was on the verge of financial devastation. Only after applying the principles of Total Quality Management, in consultations with the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), was Wallace able to avert financial disaster.
In 1990, Wallace decided to apply itself to the rigorous criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is awarded each year by the President of the United States. According to the Harvard Business Review in a 1991 article:
In just four years, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award has become the most important catalyst for transforming American business. More than any other initiative, public or private, it has reshaped managers’ thinking and behavior. The Baldrige Award not only codifies the principles of quality management in clear and accessible language. It also goes further: it provides companies with a comprehensive framework for assessing their progress toward the new paradigm of management and such commonly acknowledged goals as customer satisfaction and increased employee involvement.”
Wallace won the award in the small business category, alongside three large companies: Cadillac, IBM and Federal Express.
President George HW Bush, left, with the four MBNQA winners; Wallace CEO John Wallace is at right.
About the MBNQA, and its founder, Jack Grayson
Jack Grayson (1923-2017)
The APQC’s founder and chairman, Dr. C. Jackson “Jack” Grayson, Jr., created the MBNQA. As described on the APQC’s site:
“Established in 1987, the Baldrige Award was the brainchild of APQC founder Jack Grayson, who envisioned an award that would set national standards for quality and recognize organizations that met and surpassed them. Grayson worked with business leaders and Congress to have the idea passed into law. The award is named in honor of Malcolm Baldrige, the US Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan Administration, who passed away while the bill was still in Congress. The award is administered by the Baldrige National Quality Program, under the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the US Department of Commerce.”
The multimedia studio I worked for, as Creative Director, was retained to produce the Wallace Co., Inc documentary
One obligation of each year’s MBNQA winners is to produce a video, documenting its journey, and the principles it learned, and applied.
When Jack was asked by the Wallace Co., Inc. senior management if he knew of a quality studio that would be able to produce its documentary, he suggested Rainbow Multimedia Group (RMG), the Phoenix, AZ studio, where I worked as the Creative Director.
After RMG’s CEO and I met with Jack and Wallace officials, and they considered local contenders, we won the contract. We selected video production firm Pantheon Studios (Scottsdale, AZ) as our partner in the project.
(2) The script I wrote for this documentary
I flew to Houston several times with our video crew to conduct in-depth interviews with Wallace executives, managers and line personnel, and obtain site photography, which enabled me to write this script:
Wallace Co., Inc.: “Th… by jonsutz
(3) The documentary
From start to finish, this documentary — my debut — took about five months to write, design, produce and edit.
(4) The Results
The first, most important result was that Wallace Co., Inc. was thrilled with their documentary. Here is an excerpt from its letter of appreciation, addressed to me, personally:
“After winning the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (presented by President Bush in 1990), it became apparent that we needed to produce a video documenting our journey… I personally have seen many video productions over the last few months – however, none have been able to capture that unique experience or the ‘special moment in time’ that is so alive in our video. It is the highlight of every presentation… (I) believe in the quotation that, ‘Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.’ That you do so well!”
– Michael Spiess, Executive Vice President
The second result was that Wallace’s video has been shown:
- At the White House, Department of Commerce, and in numerous business schools
- In quality-improvement training seminars, and on public television stations, throughout the U.S.
The third result was only for me: One of the great privileges of my life was the time I got to spend with Jack, learning more about TQM, and his work to help American industry reform itself, to meet and surpass the quality expectations that, at that time, were Japanese products’ trademarks. Over the following years, as busy as he was, traveling the world as an evangelist of quality processes, Jack would make time so we could chat, one on one, about a wide range of issues that concerned us, from America’s economic and cultural situation to the desperate need to reform our educational system.