The $1.6 billion Elevations Credit Union, the first cooperative to win the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, announced last week the release of a new eBook that features stories, tips and advice on how businesses can improve their performance.
The eBook was developed with three other Colorado organizations that also received the Baldrige award, CH2M, Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado and Poudre Valley Health System.
The Baldrige program provides a framework for organizations to assess and improve their operations based on management by facts to achieve continuous performance excellence in the areas of leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce, operations and results.
Recommended For You
The Baldrige methodology includes a rigorous and disciplined process that requires validations that are audited by industry experts.
The eBook summarizes each organization's achievement in the topics of leadership, strategy, workforce engagements, customer satisfaction and operations.
In the publication, Elevations CU President/CEO Gerry Agnes briefly describes how the Boulder-based cooperative improved its operations through what it calls operational rhythm.
"Operational rhythm is simply about making sure we have the right people in the room with the right information at the right time so they can make the right decisions," Agnes said.
This approach enabled Elevation CU to expand its mortgage business, which is now the No. 1 mortgage lender in Boulder and Broomfield counties.
The eBook also features Agnes' insights regarding leadership.
"Getting to the matter of truth is one of the most important concepts a leader has to embrace," Agnes said. "Baldrige gave us the framework to really understand what was going on in the organization and the opportunity to see what we could do better."
The free eBook is available at elevationscu.com/Baldrige-ebook.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
