Excellence models and awards - development and evolution
The foundation of today's excellence models and awards dates back to the first half of the last century.
William Edwards Deming was born into a poor, yet educated, family in Sioux City, Iowa in 1900. He grew to become one of the century's foremost experts on quality. Whilst his early work was not fully appreciated in the US, Deming was invited to Japan in July 1950 by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). Following a series of seminars, JUSE created a prize in his honour16; a prize that would promote the continued development of quality control in Japan. The Deming Prize1 was established in 1950 and annual awards are still given each year.
The rise of Japanese industry naturally raised concern in the west as business performance lagged behind. In 1982 a government initiated productivity study was launched in the US. This work led to the development of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award2, a government sponsored programme which was signed into law in 1987. The results were extraordinary in terms of the number of major companies engaging, not only in the awards themselves, but also in self-assessment and improvement activity.
In 1988, senior business leaders from 14 major European companies came together to address their concerns about the performance of European businesses. Under their leadership, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) was formed.
Drawing on the experience of high performing European organizations alongside the Deming Prize and the Malcolm Baldrige Award, the EFQM Excellence Model was introduced at the beginning of 1992 as the framework for assessing organizations for the European Quality Award3.
Meanwhile, in the UK the government of the time was also turning its attention to these developments. The British Quality Foundation was formed in November 1992 and the first UK Quality Award4 was presented two years later.
Regional activity soon followed, meeting the needs of organizations at a local level. Excellence North West9 was one of the first organizations to be formed at a regional level, coming into existence in 1994. Midlands Excellence10 followed in 1996, whilst London Excellence8 was one of the last regional excellence organizations to be formed in 1999.
Meanwhile, attention was also being given at a national level to more focused recognition to drive improvement in specific areas of activity.
Business in the Community13 was launched in 1982 to promote corporate community involvement.
The government's citizen's charter initiative in 1991 gave rise to the Charter Mark15 - providing recognition for organizations achieving the national standard for excellence in customer service in UK public sector organizations.
Investors in People UK was established by the government in 1993 to give national ownership and business leadership to the Investors in People Standard (IiP)12. IiP is a standard designed to recognize and raise performance, ensuring that people have the right knowledge, skills and motivation to work efficiently.
Changes in the excellence and quality movement are still on-going and in April 2007 Excellence North West, Excellence Yorkshire and the North East Quality Group merged to form North of England Excellence9.
These developments in the UK and Europe are not unique. Many other countries have also been turning their attention to the quality and excellence agenda and similar models have been developed across the globe. Today, many of these models are being rationalised and drawn together. The Global Excellence Model Council (GEM)11 facilitates much of this activity and the variety of approaches across the globe can be found through their website.
The purpose of excellence models and awards
Excellence awards are designed to celebrate and recognize organizations that achieve high levels of performance - not only in what they achieve, but also in how they achieve it. Excellence awards use models - frameworks that not only form the basis of the assessment criteria, but can also be used to drive improvements and benchmark performance as well as being used to manage specific activities such as procurement.
In considering whether to embark on the use of an excellence model or award, it is helpful to consider what you may gain - so that you can design an approach that enables you to achieve your goals.
The London Excellence Awards' purpose is to:
- motivate people to learn about how they can raise their performance
- engage people in improvement activity
- recognize existing good practice
- celebrate their existing achievements
- improve organizational performance
Excellence models and awards - a summary
Excellence models and awards can cover all aspects of an organization's activities and performance or can focus on specific activities and/or specific sectors.
Excellence models and awards that cover all aspects of organizational performance include:
- the Deming Prize1
- the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award2
- the European Quality Award3 and associated national4,5,6,7 and regional schemes8,9,10 which are based on the EFQM Excellence Model.
The full international picture is brought together by the Global Excellence Model Council (GEM)11
The all-encompassing model of excellence in common use within the UK and Europe is the EFQM Excellence Model3. This model is also the basis of the Investors in Excellence Standard10.
Awards and models have also been developed that cover specific aspects of organizational performance. For example:
- Investors in People12 (managing people to raise performance)
- the Investors in People profile
- work life balance
- recruitment and selection
- leadership and management
- National Training Awards17 (achieving success through training and learning)
- Customer First18 (the national standard for customer service)
- Business in the Community13 (corporate responsibility)
- Community Mark
- Awards for excellence
- CR index
- The London Excellence Awards8 (8 themed awards)
- results focus
- customer focus
- leadership
- management systems
- people involvement and development
- innovation and learning
- making partnerships work
- corporate social responsibility
Some models and approaches are specific to certain sectors or functions. Some of these approaches are:
- sector specific but have a wide scope eg PQASSO14 (voluntary sector)
- specific regarding both sector and function eg
- Charter Mark15 (customer service in the public sector)
- the Procurement Excellence Model19 (procurement in the public sector)
Further information
Whichever model or award you choose, the key to its productive use is to consider:
- is it a robust model/award?
- how can it add value to my organization?
- how can I use it to drive improvements in business performance?
Further information to help you to answer these questions can be found on the member only page.
References and related websites:
- ^1 2 http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=52
- ^ http://www.quality.nist.gov/
- ^ 1 2 3 http://www.efqm.org
- ^ http://www.bqf.org.uk
- ^ http://www.walesqualitycentre.org.uk/
- ^ http://www.qualityscotland.co.uk/
- ^ http://www.cforc.org/
- ^ 1 2 http://www.london-excellence.org.uk
- ^1 2 http://www.northofenglandexcellence.co.uk
- ^ 1 2http://www.midlandsexcellence.org.uk
- ^ 1 2 http://www.excellencemodels.org
- ^ 1 2http://www.investorsinpeople.co.uk
- 1 2 http://www.bitc.org.uk
- ^ http://www.ces-vol.org.uk/
- ^ http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/chartermark/
- ^ http://www.juse.or.jp/e/deming/index.html
- ^ http://www.nationaltrainingawards.com
- ^ http://www.customerfirst.org/
- ^ http://www.ogc.gov.uk/procurement_documents_procurement_excellence_model_publications_guidance.asp