Six Disciplines Client Wins 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Recipient Has Deployed Six Disciplines Program on Their Performance Excellence Journey

FINDLAY, Ohio, Nov. 26 -- PRO-TEC Coating Co., a Six Disciplines client, was named as one of only five organizations in the U.S. to receive the prestigious 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest presidential honor awarded annually for quality and organizational performance excellence.

"We've been using Six Disciplines for three years," said PRO-TEC's president, Paul Worstell. "The Six Disciplines program has helped us to refine our strategic planning process and to align goals and objectives. We are grateful for the support from Six Disciplines on our performance excellence journey."

Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio is the local Six Disciplines business excellence center franchise that supports PRO-TEC with the Six Disciplines(TM) Program, which includes a repeatable best-practices methodology, ongoing external coaching, and a proactive alignment software system.

"The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive," said Eric Kurjan, president of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio. "It's been a very rewarding experience to partner with the teams at PRO-TEC to build strategic plans and focus their efforts on the execution of those plans. We congratulate everyone at PRO-TEC on this most prestigious recognition of their performance excellence."

"PRO-TEC is a premiere example of how a high-performing organization can use the Six Disciplines Program to help their employees align day-to-day activities with company goals, and to execute their strategies," said Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines Corp. "We are proud to serve such a forward-thinking organization."

Based on years of field testing, client feedback, 100 man-years of research and development and a $20 million investment, the Six Disciplines Program provides organizations with a holistic, enduring approach toward strategy, planning, organizing people and processes, and execution management. Compared to other business improvement and quality programs like Baldrige, Balanced Scorecards, TQM, Six Sigma and Lean, which are prevalent in much larger businesses, Six Disciplines is the first complete program for enduring business excellence, optimized for execution, and designed specifically for small- and mid-sized businesses.

About PRO-TEC Coating

PRO-TEC Coating Company, Leipsic, Ohio, provides world-class coated sheet steel in coil form primarily to the quality-critical automotive market. PRO- TEC is a 50/50 joint venture partnership of U.S. Steel Corporation (USS) and KOBE Steel, Ltd., of Japan. The company is privately held. PRO-TEC organizational culture blends the strong American steel-making tradition of USS and KOBE's technical and analytical Japanese style with the strong work ethic and family values of rural Northwest Ohio to produce a superior product. PRO-TEC is certified to stringent ISO-9001, ISO/TS 16949 and ISO 14001 standards. Visit PRO-TEC at www.proteccoating.com.

About The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses. The annual award promotes excellence in organizational performance, recognizes the quality and performance achievements of U.S. organizations, and publicizes successful performance strategies. The award may be presented to five types of organizations: manufacturers, service companies, small businesses, education organizations and health care organizations. Visit the Baldrige National Quality Program's website at www.baldrige.nist.gov.

About Six Disciplines

Six Disciplines Corporation, founded in 2000, developed the first enduring business excellence program, specifically designed for small- and mid-sized businesses. A business excellence program is an organized way to grow a company's ability to address an ever-changing and ever increasing series of business challenges, with a focused effort on execution. The Six Disciplines Program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, an execution alignment system to align daily activities of every stakeholder, and a shared learning community of like-minded people to accelerate and sustain business excellence. The repeatable methodology is detailed in the top-rated book Six Disciplines for Excellence by CEO and founder Gary Harpst. The program is offered exclusively through a locally-owned national network of Six Disciplines franchises. The organization was awarded the 2006 Entrepreneur Magazine Top Gun Franchise distinction. Six Discipline clients have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, and include several from the Inc. 500, ISO-9000 certified companies, and a 2007 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award recipient. For more on Six Disciplines, visit www.SixDisciplines.com.

Six Disciplines and Be Excellent are trademarks of Six Disciplines Corporation in the United States.