Since its founding in 1963, LANB has operated on many of the principles found in the Baldrige criteria, including structured processes for listening to customers and employees. We began to formalize these efforts in the 1980’s when our senior management began studying the management philosophy of W. Edwards Deming, and attended Motorola University quality briefings in 1988. Our quest to improve quality—and competitiveness—of our products and services meant learning to listen more carefully to our customers, employees, and shareholders. We also continually examine and improve our internal processes in response to their needs.

This dedication to becoming a quality-driven organization inevitably led us to the Baldrige process. Adherence to the Baldrige criteria gave us a systematic approach to our growth, encouraging planning based on facts rather than just intuition.

By the early 1990’s, organizations in New Mexico felt a need to develop a statewide quality program that would enhance the state’s competitiveness in an emerging global economy. Bill Enloe, CEO of LANB, was a founding organizer of Quality New Mexico, and is a past member of its Board of Directors. The creation of Quality New Mexico gave LANB and other organizations in the state a Baldrige based mechanism for self-assessment that would address all key areas of their operations. Feedback reports from LANB’s New Mexico Quality Awards applications have helped us emphasize our strengths and identify our opportunities for improvement.

One major outcome of our participation in Quality New Mexico was the establishment of the LANB Quality Council. This team, made up of senior and departmental management and employees from throughout the bank, monitors and coordinates our process improvement efforts. By 1997, we believed that application to the New Mexico Quality Awards program would be invaluable in helping us to assess our progress. That year, we received invaluable feedback from our examiners and Roadrunner recognition for our efforts. We repeated the process again in 1998, receiving Roadrunner recognition again.

In 1999, we involved the Quality Council and employees in all areas of the Bank in our self-assessment. The Quality Council chartered a team for each category in the application, allowing us to make the most comprehensive assessment of our internal processes. The effort resulted in our receiving the Zia award, the highest level of State recognition, demonstrating progress in our efforts.

Once the self-assessment was completed, its contents were shared with every employee in the bank, through an extensive training program. In addition, the application has been published on the company intranet.

In addition to the award, we received high-quality feedback from our Quality New Mexico examiners. The exit interview was open to the entire Quality Council and other employees who were involved in preparing the self-assessment. LANB senior management made a commitment to continue the improvement process by submitting a self-assessment to the Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in May of 2000. In November of that same year, we were named the recipient of the 2000 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. LANB is the first company in New Mexico and the first bank ever to receive this prestigious award. Our commitment to quality continues as we address opportunities for improvement cited by the Baldrige examiners.

Having reached the Baldrige level in our progress, we are excited to recognize our obligation to help other organizations improve quality of their own processes. We invite representatives of any organization that are considering a commitment to the Baldrige process to visit LANB, and learn more about the bank’s processes. Please contact:

Lisa Schwarz
Marketing Director
Los Alamos National Bank
1200 Trinity Drive
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544
(505) 662-5171
lanb@lanb.com