Excellence Model Revised
Mark Woods, the founder of Statius, took an MBA with the World's first Professor of Quality, John Oakland, at Bradford School of Management in 1991. Mark's dissertation was undertaken on models for total quality and business excellence. Literally weeks after Mark submitted his dissertation, the European foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) released the Business Excellence Model, totally upstaging Mark and his dissertation findings. So much for timing!
The idea of a model for excellence was originally mooted by a number of European companies who wanted to create a framework to systematically assess an organisations current position and to, more importantly, drive improvement and innovation.
The model has now been around for nearly 20 years and is increasingly used by companies wanting to quantify their improvement activities. Key changes to the model include:
- A definition of excellence
- An increased focus on long-term planning
- More action orientated headings
- An increased focus on creativity
- The introduction of the concept of sustainability (which focuses on the long-term sustainability of the organisation and sustainability from the environmental perspective)
Interestingly, this is the first time a definition of excellence has been included and it suggests excellent organisations “achieve and sustain superior levels of performance that meet or exceed the expectations of all their stakeholders”.
Changes have been made to all sections of the model but the theme has been one of evolution not revolution.
Mark commented of the changes, “When first published, the excellence model was a revolution in thinking, there really were no authorative and tested models for the practitioner to work with. The model has now been around nearly twenty years and all the studies undertaken in assessing its impact show that real and quantifiable improvements can be made. Like a fine wine, it gets better and better with age..”
For more information on the excellence model or the changes, contact Mark Woods on 020 8460 3345 or email him at mwoods@statius.uk.com.