Editor's note: Quality Digest will be hosting a webinar with EtQ on this subject on July 29th, 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. Click here to register.

Frank was ex-Special Forces with a fine arts degree—an unusual mix. He achieved a lot in his business career by following five simple principles that he was able to apply to any business, and many have achieved a lot by learning to do the same.

Years ago, William Rowden and I owned a business. In that business we wanted to build amazing software for our clients, and we adopted several practices to help us do this.

Much has been discussed about the value of tomorrow’s leaders learning about the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence while still