Baldrige Award

Consulting Team Member
Kathleen Penley

Kathleen’s experience includes leadership development, leading and facilitating process innovation teams, developing strategic plans, conducting benchmarking studies, counseling in organizational development issues, as well as delivering a full complement of training workshops to clients domestically and internationally. She has managed clients in several industries including utilities, manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare and governmental agencies.  Accomplishments include:

·        Conducting Baldrige-type assessments for companies such as the U.S. Postal Service and a chemical company, identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement, prioritizing areas to improve and planning strategies.

·      Identifying best practices for telecommunications companies to establish billing strategy and to redesign billing statements and bill design processes to achieve customer preferred bills and service.

·      Assisting hospitals improve processes resulting in reductions of registration and patient care cycle times.

 ·     Leading the implementation of process management in the U.S. Postal Service Purchasing & Materials organization and reducing processing cycle time at an air mail facility by 25%.

·        Bringing culturally diverse and potentially hostile groups together to jointly resolve problems & issues.

·      Personally coaching executives at a nuclear power company in England on the implementation of quality improvement and redesign of the two core processes of Operating and Maintaining the Plant resulting in improvements exceeding $20 million. 

·      Leading a re-organization effort in a manufacturing plant that saved over $500,000 per year.

Kathleen has been appointed by the Department of Commerce to the Malcolm Baldrige National Board of Examiners for a second year (1998 & 1999) and advises clients on Malcolm Baldrige assessments and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) criteria. 

Kathleen has extensive experience in helping companies benchmark. She has authored training materials and served on national committees to improve benchmarking practices.  She has written on benchmarking and has served as a key-note speaker in the U.S., England, Australia and New Zealand.

Kathleen served as a corporate quality manager and internal consultant for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Companies in San Francisco, California.  An accounts receivable project which she lead resulted in savings of $16 million per year.  As Executive Vice President in the banking industry, she managed over 220 employees and $2 billion in liabilities.