Full speed ahead to excellence

From the very beginning, the SAQ has seen itself as an active partner in the European quality scene. As early as 1971 it became a full member of the European Organization for Quality (EOQ). In 1995 it officially secured the representation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) for Switzerland. A year later, in 1996, it founded the ESPRIX Foundation together with today's Credit Suisse, which has since presented the annual Swiss Excellence Award, the national EFQM prize. And since 2007, SwissBEx, the national competence center for business excellence, has been operating under the SAQ umbrella.

The driving force behind these association activities relating to business excellence was former SAQ President Hans Dieter Seghezzi. As a member of the Executive Board for many years, he helped shape the modern understanding of quality at Hilti AG Schaan. And since 1988, as a professor at the University of St. Gallen, he has decisively shaped the theoretical foundations of integrated quality management ("St. Gallen Concept"). Thanks to his achievements, Seghezzi is still considered a "doyen" of the Q-scene at the age of over 80 and is honored with honorary memberships of national and international organizations (see box "EFQM - the trail leads to Tokyo").

The Japan Shock

In the 1970s and 1980s, companies in the USA and Europe were literally in "Japan shock". Car manufacturers such as Toyota and Japanese camera and electronics manufacturers put the fear of God into their competitors, because they used new methods to successfully launch their products onto the market at low cost and high quality. Top managers were perplexed and irritated by the Far Eastern wind. They tried to get to the bottom of concepts such as "lean production" or "kaizen" through on-site visits. And they slowly realized that the Japanese corporate culture did not remotely match the scientific management of a Frederic W. Taylor, which still shaped the thinking of Western managers.

Interestingly, it was American production experts, above all Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) and Joseph Juran (1904-2008), who suggested to the Japanese after the war the consequences of constant quality improvements. In contemporary quality management, people are at the centre of all processes. The leitmotif "Make people before products " becomes the source of creativity and drive. With this reference, Ishikawa Kaoru (1915-1989) is considered a pioneer of quality-related activities in Japanese companies (keyword "quality circle").

While American companies were surprisingly quick to learn their Japanese lessons from the crisis, partly with Deming's help, and to regain their leading role in business, in Europe a suitable response to the new challenges was sought in vain for a long time. But at the end of the 1980s, something exciting happened:

A European response at last

In September 1988, 14 CEOs of European companies met with Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, to sign a letter of intent for a European Foundation for Competitiveness. This "self-help group", as the small group of illusory

The top managers stood helplessly in the Far Eastern wind.

The top executives of Bosch, Bull Computer and Philips were among those who were once derisively referred to as the "top executives of the world", alongside Umberto Agnelli of Fiat and Horst Hahne of Volkswagen. From Switzerland, Heini Lippuner of Ciba Geigy, Nestlé with Oswald Maucher and Fritz Fahrni, the young CEO of Sulzer AG, were present.

One year later, almost at the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EFQM was officially founded in October 1989 in Montreux by 67 heads of companies. The task was to develop a European framework for quality management, independent of industry and company size. As early as 1991, the EFQM model was presented as a guideline for organisational self-assessment and as the basis for the European Quality Award (today the EFQM Excellence Award, EEA). The award was presented for the first time in 1992. The Europeans had thus caught up with their overseas competitors: the Japanese "Deming Prize " (since 1951) and the American "Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award" (since 1988) and the models of corporate management on which they are based.

Paths to excellence

In 2014, the EFQM celebrated its 25th birthday. In recent years, the model has been continuously developed and improved. Originally, it was based on the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM), i.e. a holistic view of the organisation. Based on self-assessments and assessments by others, it was intended as a tool to help identify strengths and potential for improvement in order to improve business success and the quality of production and services. This objective has remained unchanged since its inception, as has the structure of the model with nine enabler and outcome criteria and the RADAR logic, which aims to measure, test and learn from what you do in order to take the next steps.

Nevertheless, important new accents were set over several revisions: In 1999, the move away from TQM towards "Business Excellence" took place. Behind the concept of excellence is the demand for "superior practice in managing an organization and achieving results" (Seghezzi). And in 2010, the concept of "sustainability" brought it closer to the practice of current business strategies: excellent organizations achieve sustained outstanding performance, meeting or even exceeding the expectations of all their stakeholders, from customers to employees. "Sustainable Excellence" has since become the guiding principle of successful organizations.

Success factors

Companies can orient themselves on eight concepts (see graphic); together with the nine EFQM criteria and the RADAR logic, this results in the "trilogy of success". Since then, experts have agreed that the EFQM Excellence Model is considered one of the best of all management philosophies. It has proven itself in countless organizations of all types and sizes, from industrial companies to hotels, hospitals or care, consulting and educational institutions, all over Europe. Two approaches in particular deserve special mention:

1. freedom of choice in approach: Unlike ISO certifications, EFQM gives users the freedom to do what is exactly right for the organization. With regard to the eight orientations, each company makes its own selection depending on the situation and environment. No weighting is given. According to Hans Dieter Seghezzi, there are good reasons for the freedom to create one's own tailor-made solutions: "In a free market, competitiveness depends primarily on excellent differentiation from competitors and on a targeted focus on the relevant stakeholder groups." Each organization therefore defines for itself what it means by excellence. But however it goes about it, it can make its decisions on a sound basis of knowledge and the experience of others.

2. assessments: the comprehensive system of assessment is the main contributor to this. The first step is a self-assessment. With the help of the model and the RADAR method, the central strengths and possible deficits of the organization can be identified, from which individual areas for improvement can be derived and appropriate programs and projects for implementation can be initiated.

In addition to the self-assessments, the companies benefit from so-called "site visits" or external assessments. External designated assessors check the results of the self-assessment directly on site. Their feedback reports are highly valued: "This has enabled us to have our own view mirrored by the outside view.

Comparison with the best

An external view clears the mind", is also the conviction of Peter Staub, head of pom+ Consulting AG in Zurich, which has been showered with awards for excellence, because "an external view of ourselves and a comparison with the best competitors and the market is part of our benchmarking strategy".

All users agree on the positive effect of the assessments. Above all, the learning effect is emphasized. Those who want to provide top performance for their customers appreciate the cycle of learning that begins with the diagnoses and assessments based on EFQM and leads to a learning process for employees and managers.

The bar is high

Not every newcomer to EFQM wants to apply for an award, be it ESPRIX or EFQM Excellence Award (EEA). It is still a very challenging goal that requires staying power, often for years, and consistent commitment. The acid tests of an application are no walk in the park. In 2012, the podium at the ESPRIX Forum for Excellence in the KKL Lucerne even remained empty, with no company making it to the top, either as a finalist or as a prize winner or even an award winner. But that was an exception. From a Swiss point of view, the balance sheet for the EEA looks rather bleak: In 2001, the dental practice Dr. Harr of the Frenkenklinik Group in Niederdorf was the only organization to win the coveted award; in 2003 and 2004, the Winterthur building technicians of Hunziker Partner AG were celebrated as prize-winners; and most recently, in 2012, pom+ Consulting AG from Technopark Zurich also managed to win the European prize-winner award - all small and medium-sized enterprises. The abstinence of Swiss industrial companies, in contrast to the EEA presence of competitors in Europe, gives pause for thought.

Not every newcomer wants to compete for an award.

The soft entry

Even within the EFQM it has been discussed for years whether the model of Business Excellence is not too complex and too costly, rather discouraging than encouraging.

For this reason, the EFQM has created a recognition programme, the "Levels of Excellence". This enables newcomers to the model to slowly advance to the top of excellence in defined steps and with increasing levels of ambition, step by step, without overexerting themselves.

Every year, up to 40 organisations in Switzerland and Liechtenstein take part in this programme to develop themselves further. SwissBEx, the SAQ competence centre, and the ESPRIX Foundation support them in this. If they reach one of the EFQM levels of excellence, they receive the corresponding award from the SAQ. In addition, SwissBEx offers them industry-related discussion platforms for the exchange of experience and mutual learning.

Pragmatic approach

However, such recognitions, but also the prizes and awards are ultimately no more than a "nice to have", says Bettina Plattner-Gerber, the EFQM front woman of the Swiss hotel industry. All this is only the "cream on the cake", it should never be the goal. EFQM works like a "map for thinking", helps with orientation in the jungle of possibilities. Plattner: "A super instrument to put theoretical things into practice and to measure constantly in order to improve."

In fact, EFQM provides a broad framework within which organizations become capable of high performance, a pragmatic thinking model to make them sustainably successful. One learns from the results, changes procedures and processes and grows into the role of a learning organization - at every level. The experienced EFQM consultant Bruno Birri also demands: "Access to EFQM for laymen cannot be achieved through explanations. Definitely not. It can only be done through experiences."

SustainableFitness

One should therefore start as soon as possible with examples. With projects in which employees and teams play a leading role. Then everyone involved will notice very quickly where they are already fit and where they are not. "Something like business excellence will never be established with theory alone. It has to happen on an emotional level. People have to feel addressed and they have to find the connection between what they have experienced and how it shows in everyday life," pom+ CEO Peter Staub is convinced.

EFQM is a matter for the boss

The consequence of this is that EFQM cannot be implemented with a technocratic understanding! The biggest stumbling block is probably when the management tries to delegate EFQM to the quality department - according to the motto "you do it". Quality professionals may know the model, but have little power or ability to implement it in the company. But they can take on important detailed tasks in strategy implementation together with the teams.

EFQM is and remains a matter for the boss. During my visits to ESPRIX and EEA winners over the years, without exception I have only met CEOs who were literally fed up with the idea of excellence. The prerequisite remains the enthusiasm of the top management, the will to Excellence must come tangibly from them. Only a CEO who is "on fire" for EFQM will succeed in inspiring the entire management team for the Excellence culture, with the effect that the entire team will be infected.

Under such conditions, the old founding idea of the EFQM, that European companies sustainably assert themselves in global competition, can be successfully continued.

Literature

• Hans Dieter Seghezzi, Fritz Fahrni, Thomas Friedli, Integrated Quality Management, 4th edition, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2013
• MQ-ESPRIX, special issues of "Management und Qualität ", volumes 2001 to 2013