A Campaign to Expand Impact
BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE & SOUTHWEST ALLIANCE FOR EXCELLENCE
Our seven-state territory represents America's most dynamic economic frontier, with a combined regional GDP exceeding $2.8 trillion and five states ranking in the top 10 for GDP growth nationally. As the region’s premiere performance excellence programs, we're transforming this unprecedented opportunity into measurable excellence.
The Challenge: Accelerate Regional Transformation
In the heart of America's fastest-growing economic region, RMPEx and SWAE are uniting to transform how organizations operate. We've evolved from recognizing high performance to facilitating high-performing cultures that deliver exceptional results.
Expanding Our Impact
RMPEx and SWAE are aligning efforts around a bold initiative: to increase our impact of helping dozens of organizations achieve their desired results to enabling hundreds – and eventually thousands - to embrace performance excellence as the approach to how works gets done.
We envision a future where performance excellence becomes the standard, not the exception—driving a flywheel effect that transforms our regional economy and ensures sustainable success for all organizations we serve.
Our Vision
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To be a trusted partner and catalyst, empowering organizations to achieve sustainable excellence and deliver lasting impact.
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Pat Lapekas
Chair, RMPEx BOD
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David Provencher
Chair, SWAE BOD
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Mike Gratz
Executive Director RMPEx
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Bob Mitchell
Executive Director SWAE
Dear Friends & Partners
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To better serve, we have transformed our operating model from one of recognizing high performance in organizations to one of facilitating the development of high-performing cultures that deliver high-performing results. Today, we serve as a business excellence incubator, nurturing high performance and organizational excellence by identifying and sharing best practices within and between organizations in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, creating customer value, engaging the workforce, operational excellence, and knowledge-driven decisions.
Thank you for taking time to acquaint yourself with our work and our commitment to growing—both in reach and impact. We invite you and your fellow community leaders to join this important strategic endeavor to expand our programmatic capacities, become an even stronger partner in the communities we mutually serve, and grow our fiscal strength to assist our partners at all levels.
Sincerely, Pat & David
Creating Competitive Advantage
We champion a performance excellence framework that gives organizations a competitive edge by leveraging their unique strengths and resources. Our mission is to transform performance excellence into a cultural advantage, enabling organizations to confidently navigate opportunities and challenges.
By embedding innovation and excellence into their core, organizations thrive, adapt to change, and create lasting impacts for their teams, customers, industries, and economies. We serve as a performance excellence incubator, fostering collaborative networks that integrate best practices into everyday operations.
Our approach cultivates a collaborative environment where continuous improvement and performance excellence become sustainable business practices. Performance Excellence includes a focus on agility and resilience for organizations to adapt quickly to address changes in the operating environment
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Executive Director, High Plains Library District
“HPLD implementation of the Baldrige Framework transformed our organization into a regional powerhouse of innovation and workforce development. By using the Baldrige Excellence Framework, we established the Library Innovation Center (LINC), which emerged from comprehensive stakeholder engagement and now serves as a vital hub for STEM innovation, skills development, and strategic business partnerships.
Our collaborations with industry leaders like Snap-on Tools and the Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado demonstrate the framework's power to create sustainable, mission-driven impact. The remarkable success of LINC has attracted more partnership opportunities than we can currently accommodate, proving the scalable potential of RMPEx's approach. By embracing the Baldrige Framework through RMPEx, we've built a resilient organization that consistently delivers measurable value to our community while maintaining laser focus on our mission."
Driving Success Through Dynamic Collaboration
Imagine a thriving ecosystem where a hospital in Denver enhances patient care by learning from a manufacturing plant in Phoenix, or a small business in Omaha accelerates growth using strategies from a school district in Salt Lake City. This daily cross-pollination of excellence is made possible through our collaborative networks.
Our collaborative networks deliver:
Organizational Impact – We bring together business, healthcare, education, government and non-profits to learn from each other.
Cross-Sector Value – We break down knowledge silos and foster cross-industry innovation
Economic Growth – We serve as an economic engine in one of the fastest growing regions of the country
Strategic Member Benefits – We develop leadership for today and tomorrow through participation in our collaborative networks
EXPANDING COLLABORATION
GROWING
IMPACT
Invest Today
By investing in this initiative, you empower us to amplify our message, strengthen our collaborative networks, and expand our impact. Your contribution will drive regional economic growth and innovation, setting a national standard for performance excellence.
The Accord -
Transcending Traditional Industry Boundaries
“Since adopting the framework, our sales have doubled, driven by our commitment to performance excellence. We have enhanced strategic alignment by setting clear goals based on data-driven decisions, while a focus on operational excellence has improved efficiency, product quality, and on-time delivery. Strengthening customer relationships through proactive feedback has led to greater satisfaction, while ongoing workforce development has built a skilled, engaged team.
Our Baldridge journey has been transformative, equipping us with the tools and mindset to sustain and accelerate success. We are proud of our progress and excited for the future.“
David Rogers, N. Las Vegas, NV
Senior Program Manager, Mission Support & Test Systems (MSTS)
“Embracing the Baldrige criteria, coupled with comprehensive internal and external assessments and benchmarking against industry leaders, has been transformative for our organization. This approach has significantly enhanced our key processes and driven measurable improvements in our business outcomes. The journey towards performance excellence is invaluable for any organization, regardless of size or sector.
The Southwest Alliance for Excellence (SWAE) has been instrumental in this process, providing crucial program support and access to a network of experts in the Baldrige Framework. Their resources have been a catalyst for organizations across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah in their pursuit of organizational performance excellence and sustainable growth.
I strongly encourage leaders who are committed to organizational transformation and competitive advantage to explore the performance excellence framework offered by SWAE and RMPEx. It's an investment that yields substantial returns in efficiency, innovation, and overall business performance.”
David Provencher, Tucson, AZ
R.E. Darling Co. Inc.
Vice President Operations, Sales & Programs
Excellence isn't a destination
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it's a journey best traveled together
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Excellence isn't a destination ✴︎ it's a journey best traveled together ✴︎
More Client Testimonials
RMPEx and SWAE have worked side-by-side with some of the best entities in America. Their testimonies say more than we ever could.
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President + CEO of Donor Alliance“The Baldrige Excellence Framework transformed Donor Alliance into a data-driven powerhouse of life-saving impact. Since 2010, our focused improvement initiatives have yielded extraordinary results: organ donations surged 139%, transplants increased 140%, and tissue donations rose 82%. But these aren't just metrics—they represent our commitment to saving and healing more lives year after year.”
A Shared Journey
What sets our approach apart is the belief that excellence is a journey, not a destination, best traveled together. When an organization identifies an area for improvement, they are instantly connected with others who have either mastered that challenge or are actively working on it.
This collaborative method creates a multiplier effect, turning every success story into a catalyst for regional transformation. It's not just about sharing best practices; it's about building better practices and fostering a sustainable culture of excellence that adapts, evolves, and thrives in an ever-changing landscape.
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CEO Community Hospital“At Community Hospital, our Baldrige journey extends far beyond our walls. By partnering with organizations throughout our region, we've expanded our vision from healthcare provider to community catalyst. This commitment to performance excellence has united our employees behind an ambitious goal: leading our entire region toward better health outcomes. Through these partnerships, we're proving that true healthcare transformation happens when we work together as a community.”
Simplifying the path to growth & performance excellence…
Imagine a powerful ecosystem where innovation flows freely across industry boundaries, where a breakthrough in healthcare operations becomes a game-changer for manufacturing efficiency, and where emerging organizations learn alongside industry titans. This is the transformative vision that RMPEx and SWAE are bringing to life across seven of America's fastest-growing states. We are building a coalition of practitioners, simplifying the path for all organizations to develop and strengthen their performance excellence skills.
Invest Today
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Impact Starts with You
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Invest Today ✴︎ Impact Starts with You ✴︎
Over A Quarter Century of Excellence Propels Us Forward
As we stand at the threshold of our 35th year, we’re not just celebrating our past - we’re architecting our future. This milestone represents more than three decades of transforming organizations; it marks the launching point for our most ambitious vision yet.
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City Manager, City of Fort Collins
In 2022, the City of Fort Collins experienced a 14.4% turnover rate, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing workforce engagement and development to maintain high-performing teams capable of delivering premium amenities as well as reliable, exceptional services such as electricity, water, police response, and emergency preparedness. Through initiatives that foster a positive work environment, empower employees, and enhance resources like leadership development and flexible work options, the City successfully reduced turnover to 10.6% by 2024, gaining on a best-in-class target of 10% . These efforts highlight the vital link between workforce engagement, dedication to the mission, and the City’s ability to consistently meet community expectations for dependable and efficient services.
Building Sustainable Impact
Our vision extends beyond immediate program expansion to create lasting regional transformation. Through the establishment of a robust endowment fund, we're ensuring that our ability to drive excellence will remain unshakeable, regardless of economic cycles or market conditions. This financial foundation will empower us to seize emerging opportunities, tackle unexpected challenges, and maintain our position as the region's premier performance excellence catalyst.
Global Leadership
With a strengthened financial core, we're positioned to expand our influence beyond our seven state territory. By deepening our engagement with Alliance partners across national and international borders, we'll bring world-class innovations and best practices directly to our region's organizations while sharing our proven methodologies globally. This strategic evolution ensures that our 35-year legacy of excellence becomes the foundation for generations of organizational transformation to come.
