The European Model for Business Excellence - now called the EFQM Excellence Model - is said to be the most

widely used framework for organisational self-assessment in Europe and has become the basis for the majority of national and regional Quality Awards. The EFQM Excellence Model is a non-prescriptive framework based on nine criteria. Five of these are 'Enablers' and four are 'Results'. The 'Enabler' criteria cover what an organisation does and the 'Results' criteria cover what an organisation achieves. Through a process of continuous self-assessment, feedbacks from the Results help an organisation to improve the Enablers, which in turn improves the 'Results'. Although this model recognises that there are many approaches to achieving sustainable excellence, its overriding premise is that organisational performance, including customer satisfaction, is achieved through leadership driving policy and strategy, and employee teams delivering processes.

The Fundamental Concepts of Excellence For an organisation to maximise the benefits of adopting the EFQM Excellence Model, a management team must first ensure that it is comfortable with these concepts. Clearly if these Concepts are not fully understood and accepted then progress with adopting the Model will be difficult and potentially meaningless. There is no significance intended in the order of the concepts. The list is not meant to be exhaustive and they will change as excellent organisations develop and improve. The Fundamental Concepts are: Results Orientation Excellence is achieving results that delight all the organisation's stakeholders. Customer Focus Excellence is creating sustainable customer value. Leadership and Constancy of Purpose Excellence is visionary and inspirational leadership, coupled with constancy of purpose. Management by Processes and Facts Excellence is managing the organisation through a set of interdependent and interrelated systems, processes and facts. People Development and Involvement Excellence is maximising the contribution of employees through their development and involvement. Continuous Learning, Innovation and Improvement Excellence is challenging the status quo and effecting change by utilising learning to create innovation and improvement opportunities. Partnership Development Excellence is developing and maintaining value-adding partnerships. Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence is exceeding the minimum regulatory framework in which the organisation operates and to strive to understand and respond to the expectations of their stakeholders in society.

The EFQM Excellence Model Regardless of sector, size, structure or maturity, to be successful, organisations need to establish an appropriate management framework. The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced at the beginning of 1992 as the framework for assessing organisations for the European Quality Award. It is now the most widely used organisational framework in Europe and it has become the basis for the majority of national and regional Quality Awards. The EFQM Excellence Model is a practical tool that can be used in a number of different ways: As a tool for Self-Assessment As a way to Benchmark with other organisations As a guide to identify areas for Improvement As the basis for a common Vocabulary and a way of thinking As a Structure for the organisation's management system

The EFQM Excellence Model is a non-prescriptive framework based on 9 criteria. Five of these are 'Enablers' and four are 'Results'. The 'Enabler' criteria cover what an organisation does. The 'Results' criteria cover what an organisation achieves. 'Results' are caused by 'Enablers' and 'Enablers' are improved using feedback from 'Results'. The Model, which recognises there are many approaches to achieving sustainable excellence in all aspects of performance, is based on the premise that: Excellent results with respect to Performance, Customers, People and Society are achieved through Leadership driving Policy and Strategy, that is delivered through People, Partnerships and Resources, and Processes. The EFQM Model is presented in diagram form below. The arrows emphasise the dynamic nature of the Model. They show innovation and learning helping to

improve enablers that in turn lead to improved results.