The Eighth Criteria, Market Focus, is the missing piece in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance excellence. The Eighth Criteria gives marketing professionals the means to improve productivity, overall performance, and helps you create strategic planning processes that lead directly to improvements in bottom line results. The Eighth Criteria can also help overcome the divide that exists between business owners and senior executives who often make critical strategic decisions that directly affect marketing but who fail to effectively communicate these decisions or fully appreciate the role that marketing plays in their own organization.