"Promoting what is truly outstanding"

Robert Vogel brings with him a wide range of experience as a member of the board of directors and executive committee of other associations. Through his work as President of GS1 Switzerland, the professional association for sustainable value networks, he came into contact with the ESPRIX Foundation and thus also with the EFQM Model. The lawyer - he works as a lawyer at swisslegal (Aarau) AG - was immediately taken with this model and its diverse management topics.

Mr. Vogel, to what extent was the topic of "leadership" the main reason for your joining the ESPRIX Foundation?
Robert Vogel: Leadership has interested me personally as a topic for several years, especially excellence in connection with the EFQM model. In March of last year, I was once again a guest at the ESPRIX Forum for Excellence and was asked by Dr. Thomas Troger, whom I had known for some time through my interest in the model, whether I would like to become his successor. He found the combination of factual orientation on the one hand and leadership orientation on the other hand in connection with the idea of excellence a good prerequisite for this office.

You have now been the new president of ESPRIX for just over half a year. What is your first interim assessment?
In the first half of the year, it was certainly a matter of being able to assess the day-to-day business a little. At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, we also had to say goodbye to two members. So I was already on the lookout in advance for new people to strengthen the Board of Trustees. I was then able to introduce three new members, Dieter Sommer, CEO of Privera AG, Marianne Wildi, CEO of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, and Dr. Ludwig Hasler, so that today we once again have seven members on the Foundation Board. These three personalities were exciting for me because they bring a broad perspective. In my work on other boards of directors or at GS1, I was always concerned that people not only bring in their own industry focus, but also think in perspective. Business disciplines are one thing and certainly important, but as a company leader per se, I have to be able to orient my sen-sors in a variety of ways. Because in a time of many buzzwords, I must be able to judge what is decisive and what is not, and also be able to sense disruptive elements.

The purpose of the foundation is to promote the competitiveness of organizations through business excellence. What do you personally understand by "excellence"?
Actually, not this what is commonly assumed by this term.

Now I'm curious ...
I am of the opinion that the EFQM model is generally a great thing. But - and this is now my train of thought - how can standards and measurability be reconciled with excellence? Up to now, the topic has always been that Excellence is achieved when I deliver an outstanding performance in the sense of a predefined checklist, i.e. when I get as close as possible to the achievable 1000 points. That is certainly an outstanding performance. But my thoughts go in a further direction: Because the literal meaning of "Excel-lence" means "to stand out from all the others". And there is no yardstick for that. So I am concerned with promoting precisely this "outstanding" which is fundamentally not measurable. One could now say that this is nothing more than the promotion of creativity. Others think that when someone sacrifices all their energy and passion for a cause, that is above all outstanding.

So there's a subjective component that comes into play here.
Exactly. Promoting competitiveness is - as you said - the purpose of the foundation. And the EFQM model is a tangible and excellent instrument for this purpose. I am very fond of it because it focuses on management responsibility that cannot be delegated. For me, it's a philosophy. However, once it becomes an ideology, that would be the first step towards its destruction. Everything in connection with the EFQM model is an excellent part, and we will look with the foundation to further improve this over the next years.

Specifically?
For example, we want to examine whether the diversity of offerings, which sometimes causes confusion, could be made more collaborative. On the other hand, I would like to introduce a "plus" component, so to speak, which would give the term "excellence", which is used too much today, back its original meaning - "outstanding".

Why, for example, does outstanding quality have to be a desirable goal?
I once learned: Quality is what the customer wants, not what the manufacturer thinks. Many people have already made big mistakes here. A prominent example is Sau-rer: they built trucks with which you could drive millions of kilometres even back then. But by the time a driver has managed to cover two million kilometres, his workplace has changed so much - air conditioning, stereo system, etc. pp. -that he was hardly willing to continue driving with old, but still functioning technology. So: Quality is what the customer wants or thinks he wants. And that is where the dialogue with the customer begins in the service sector and also the responsibility of the service provider: Does he really want my service or do I even have something that is better for him?

In other words, quality alone would not sell at all?
Quality is simply difficult to define. I remember the time when everyone looked to Japan and wanted to know how the Japanese did it. Then China came along and everyone looked to China. The fact is that these countries do things differently, of course, they use the Kanban system or lean management. But they were always booming markets. In a phase of growth, you can have any management philosophy or quality rule; if the customer snatches the goods out of my hands, then I can't defend myself, then I'm simply successful. That's something we've missed a little bit in Europe. Instead of asking what the quality of tomorrow is, we have looked too much at what is happening in growth markets. And that actually puts us twenty to thirty years behind the times. We should have taken our lead back then and built on it. Then we would be ahead again today.

Against this background, one has to have an appetite for the future - in accordance with the motto of this year's ESPRIX Forum?
We Swiss have a certain tendency to always want to question everything. When someone comes up with a new idea, the first question is always: "Why?" But with the title of this event we want to say: "People, why not?" We live in a time in which never before has such a high capacity for change been necessary and in which never before has it been possible to make changes as quickly as today.

These are good prerequisites for taking the ESPRIX Foundation forward. With what means?
We have made initial considerations regarding the strategic direction. The existing model is clear and we do not want to leave it. But - as I said - I would like another "plus". This can certainly take the form of a kind of "preaching activity", with which we show people: "Be courageous! Have an appetite for the future and not a fear of it." We can assume that never before has so much been possible as today. But nevertheless, I must have a passion, a conviction - a clear longing for the horizon.

Have you also set yourself quantitative goals, for example in terms of membership growth?
Consciously not. Ideas come through enthusiasm, and through enthusiasm comes quantity. But it is a clear goal to inspire even more people. As a foundation, we have several sources of income: On the one hand, assessments and training and further education, but on the other hand, sponsoring is still our main source of income. We want to try to broaden our base and open up new revenue opportunities so that we are not dependent on a few large donors.

Despite the many activities of ESPRIX and the SAQ with regard to the EFQM Model, it is still too little anchored in the population of all Swiss companies, measured in terms of the benefits it can bring to a company. Or is this impression deceptive?
That effectively stands out. The community is relatively small.

A small, initiated circle, so to speak - or just ideologists after all?
Of course you're proud to be there. That would actually be a good trademark. But I think we need to get the virus out there even more. The model, as I experience it, has to be used very consciously. It involves a lot of effort - in terms of time, money and the need to get the teams excited about the goal. That's why I have a great deal of respect for all these companies that win a prize.

To spread this virus: Has the foundation worked out any concrete projects on this yet?
At a meeting of the Board of Trustees in November 2016, we began to think about this. Now we want to put these ideas on paper in the first half of 2017 and break them down into individual activities.

Finally: What motivation does an organization need to become a member of the ESPRIX Foundation?
I don't want to relate it only to the EFQM model. For a company, membership can also be interesting in other ways, because you can obtain various services and meet a community where you can develop your business further and get perspectives on where the world can go. In short: get a taste of the air of excellence!