in Mene's view,ritz-carton's approach to the baldrige award began long before the award was established and before anyone had heard of TQM. About eight years ago Ritz-Carton set out to be a single supplier of luxury properties that met mobil's and AAA's highest standards. Six year later we had achieved recognition from those independent rating organizations as the only hotel company that consistently met their highest standards, he said. now Ritz-carton is the benchmark used by AAA and mobil in rating lodging properties