The Criteria continue to evolve, seeking to enhance coverage of strategy-driven performance, address the needs of all stakeholders, and accommodate important changes in business needs and practices. The increasing importance of e-commerce, the use of Internet-based interactions, and the alignment of all aspects of your performance management system receive greater attention in the 2001 Criteria. In addition, the Criteria emphasize the roles of data, information, and information and knowledge management and their use in business.

Criteria questions have been better aligned throughout the seven Categories and in the new Organizational Profile to accomplish the purpose of Baldrige self-assessment and external assessment: to determine organizational gaps and alignment in approach and deployment (Categories 1 6) and to determine organizational gaps and strength of performance in results areas (Category 7).

The Organizational Profile, the Criteria Items, and the Scoring Guidelines have been aligned so that the assessment addresses both changing business needs/directions and ongoing evaluation/improvement of key processes. Both are important because prioritized process improvement ("doing things better") and addressing changing needs ("doing the right business things") are critical to success in an increasingly competitive environment, and they frequently compete for the same resources.

The most significant changes in the Criteria and the Criteria booklet are summarized as follows:

• The number of Items has been reduced from 19 to 18.

• The number of Areas to Address has been increased from 27 to 29.

• A new Preface entitled Organizational Profile replaces the Business Overview from the 2000 Criteria. Its...