Business Excellence is often described as outstanding practices in managing the organisation and achieving results, all based on a set of fundamental concepts or
values.These practices have evolved into models for how a world class organisation should operate. These models have been developed and continue to evolve through extensive study of the practice and values of the world’s highest performing organisations.
Business Excellence (BE) is about developing and strengthening the management systems and processes of an organization to improve performance and create value for stakeholders. BE is
much more than having a quality system in place. BE is about achieving excellence in everything that an organization does (including leadership, strategy, customer focus, information
management, people and processes) and most importantly achieving superior business results.
BEMs help organizations to assess their strengths and areas for improvement and guide them on
what to do next. BEMs provide senior managers with a holistic method with which to manage
their business and get buy-in to key decisions that will lead to sustainable and measurable
success. In a sense, the BEMs serve as the organization’s own internal business consultant –
ensuring that business decisions incorporate the needs of all stakeholders, are aligned to the
organization’s objectives and take into account current thought on international best practices.
Figure 4 shows the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) which is used in the United
States but has been adopted in many countries in Asia (in some countries small revisions have
been made to it). The model is composed of seven categories. Six of these, labeled 1 to 6, are
called the ‘Process’ categories and the other is called the “Results” category. The processes show
what an organization does and the Results show what an organization achieves. Good processes
lead to good results.
Organizations use BEMs to understand and assess which processes need to be improved to
improve results. When considering an organization’s level of excellence it is important to take
into account the ‘Organizational Profile’ (as shown at the top of Figure 4) as every organization is
different. This considers an organization’s environment, key working relationships, and strategic
situation - including competitive environment, strategic challenges and advantages, and
performance improvement system.
Business excellence models are frameworks that when applied within an organisation can help to focus thought and action in a more systematic and structured way that should lead to increased performance. The models are holistic in that they focus upon all areas and dimensions of an organisation, and in particular, factors that drive performance. These models are internationally recognised as both providing a framework to assist the adoption of business excellence principles, and an effective way of measuring how thoroughly this adoption has been incorporated.
Several business excellence models exist world-wide. While variations exist, these models are all remarkably similar.
Business Excellence Models (BEMs) were first called Total Quality Management models. Today
they are usually referred to as Business Excellence Models – this term helps to communicate the
importance of “excellence” in all aspects of a business, not only product and process quality. The
models, such as Figure 4, are used to assess how well BE core values and concepts (the
ingredients of success) are embedded in an organization. These models are now used in at least
83 countries as a key mechanism to help businesses to improve.
The most common include;
The Baldrige Excellence Framework is being used today by business/nonprofit, health care and education organizations as a framework for organizational performance management, assessment and excellence. The Baldrige B.E Model, empowers the organization irrespective of size, and sector can be manufacturing, service, small business, nonprofit or government sector. The baldrige business excellance model enable to reach your goals,enhance results and more competitive by aligning plans, processes, decisions, people, actions, and results It offers something different than Lean Six Sigma, ISO, and other methodologies and strategies; the Baldrige Criteria offer an organization-wide perspective that optimizes an entire system rather than just focuses on pockets of excellence.
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is widely used and deployed across Europe. The EFQM Excellence Model is a practical tool enabling rganisations to implement by measuring where they are on the path to Excellence; helping them understand the gaps; and stimulating solutions. It is applicable to organisation irrespective of size and structure, and sector. EFQM Excellence Model framework is based on nine 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 feedback from 'Results' help to improve 'Enablers'. The Model recognises there are many approaches to achieving sustainable excellence in all aspects of performance
The Singapore Quality Award (SQA) framework is used as a basis for assessing Singapore’s organisations to the highest standards of quality and business excellence. The award aims to establish Singapore as a country committed to world-class business excellence. The framework and award is administered by SPRING Singapore. The Singapore Quality Award (SQA) is a management framework for companies to achieve World-Class Business Excellence. The Singapore Quality Class (SQC) is a scheme to recognise organisations that have attained a commendable level of performance in the journey to business excellence according to the SQA framework. The objective is to develop World-Class organisation that are able to achieve sustainable high performance in business excellence.
Japan Quality Award Model : The Japan Quality Award was established after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which helped trigger the recovery of the U.S. economy during the 1980s. The program supports the management innovation of companies with a framework focused on management quality. Japan Quality Award, contain in their frameworks several total quality management (TQM) concepts, including: leadership and social responsibilities, strategies and plans, customer focus/relations, human resource development, information management, processes, quality, suppliers, and overall results The JQA system is aimed at awarding companies that have a "management system with excellent performance" and that continue to create new values driven by customers through selfinnovation so that they may improve the quality of Japanese companies and organizations towards globally competitive management systems.
The overall aim of any model for excellence is guidance on strategic improvement and the sustainability of improvement. The Canadian criteria (Framework for Business Excellence: A Strategic Approach), and US criteria (Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence Framework: A Systems Perspective), are similar in that they cover the same areas and factors that need to be appreciated and implemented for achieving excellence through a strategic approach to quality improvement. An advantage for a Canadian organization in using the Canadian excellence model is that the Canadian national awards program is based on these criteria, as are a number of Provincial recognition programs within Canada. It is therefore helpful, for those looking for the highest recognition in Canada for their work on excellence through quality, to apply the same criteria that are used for Canada Awards for Excellence adjudication. This business excellence framework is widely used across business in Canada.
The Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) is an integrated leadership and management system that describes the elements essential to organisations sustaining high levels of performance. It can be used to assess and improve any aspect of an organisation, including leadership, strategy and planning, people, information and knowledge, safety, service delivery, product quality and bottom-line results. The ABEF provides organisations with assurance of their sustainable performance and is Australia’s preferred framework for leadership and governance. The ABEF is proven to bring about powerful changes in organisational performance and culture. Organisations using the ABEF are able to develop business resilience and an integrated focus on sustainable performance. The ABEF is based on enduring Principles of Business Excellence that form the basis of a unified theory of management This BE framework is widely used for business all across Australia.
To understand BE, it is necessary to understand the core values and concepts from which Business Excellence Models (BEMs) were derived. In this section, the core values and concepts,
BEMs, and their relationship are explained along with a description of how BE relates to the use of other improvement initiatives your organization may be undertaking.
1. Business Excellence Core Values and Concepts
BE core values and concepts (refer to Figure 3) are the attributes, beliefs and/or behaviors that BE organizations exhibit. They are the foundations of BE and are embedded into the fabric of
successful organizations.
• Visionary leadership: Your organization’s senior leaders should set directions and create a customer focus, clear and visible organizational values, and high expectations for the workforce. The directions, values, and expectations should balance the needs of all your stakeholders.
• Customer-driven excellence: Performance and quality are judged by an organization’s customers. Thus, your organization must take into account all product features and characteristics and all modes of customer access and support that contribute value to your customers.
• Organizational and personal learning: Achieving the highest levels of organizational performance requires a well-executed approach to organizational and personal learning that includes sharing knowledge via systematic processes. Organizationallearning includes both continuous improvement of existing approaches and significant change or innovation, leading to
new goals and approaches.
• Valuing workforce members and partners: An organization’s success depends increasingly on an engaged workforce that benefits from meaningful work, clear organizational direction, and performance accountability and that has a safe, trusting, and cooperative environment.
• Agility: Success in today’s ever-changing, globally competitive environment demands agility - a capacity for rapid change and flexibility.
• Focus on the future: Ensuring an organization’s sustainability requires understanding the short and longer term factors that affect your organization and marketplace.
• Managing for innovation: Making meaningful change to improve an organization’s products, services, programs, processes, operations, and business model to create new value for the organization’s stakeholders.
• Management by fact: Organizations depend on the measurement and analysis of performance. Such measurements should derive from business needs and strategy, and they should provide critical data and information about key processes, outputs, and results.
• Societal responsibility: An organization’s leaders should stress responsibilities to the public, ethical behaviour, and the need to consider societal well-being and benefit.
• Focus on results and creating value: An organization’s performance measurements need to focus on key results. Results should be used to create and balance value for your key stakeholders.
• Systems perspective: Managing your whole organization holistically and understands how its components interact, and are aligned to achieve success.
BEMs are essentially assessment models. They are used to assess an organization’s strengths and areas for improvement. From this information, senior management can make sensible decisions on the actions needed
to achieve the desired results.
There are many different ways that organizations can assess their systems and performance against BEMs. The five principal ways are;
(1) A questionnaire approach: Consists of a set of questions to assess an organization’s performance for each category item. The results can then be analyzed to determine appropriate actions.
(2) A pro forma approach: This involves forms being designed for all of category items. Each form would require the organization to record how it addressed that particular item, its strengths,
weaknesses, and actions for improvement.
(3) A workshop approach: This approach usually involves a senior management team gathering data and evidence to present to peers at a workshop. At the workshop, performance against the
model is scored and action plans are agreed upon.
(4) A matrix chart approach: This involves the creation of a company specific achievement matrix within the framework of a BEM. It typically consists of a series of statements of achievements for
each category using a scale of 1-10 points. Individuals or teams use the matrix to score their business processes/organization.
(5) An award approach: This approach involves writing a full submission document along the lines described by the administrators of a country’s national BE award. Based on the evidence
within the submission document and supporting evidence from a site visit, internal or external assessors evaluate the organization and provide feedback.
The decision of which approach to use depends on the company's objectives and level of BE maturity. In general, it is recommended that companies in the first instance use a questionnaire
approach and then develop, once they are more mature, a more sophisticated approach.
Whichever assessment approach is used it is recommended that all the senior management team are involved and at least a cross-section of employees so that a consensus view on the state of
the organization and the actions required is obtained. Involving a wide-group of participants will help everyone to understand the issues the organization is facing and lead to a greater level of
buy-in to any actions that follow.
Highly used business excellence Models and is deployed in over 25 countries globally, this also includes countries like USA and NZ
Read DetailsEuropean Foundation for Quality Management: Deployed in major European countries
Singapore Quality Award Model: is used as business excellence model in Singapore
Japan Quality Award Model: is used as business excellence model in Japan
Canadian Business Excellence Model: deployed as Business Excellence Model in Canada