EFQM 2001

[Stein Smaaland <smaaland@sys.no>]

DENizens!                       Oslo, November 8th, 2001

1) EFQM UPDATE, and
2) WHERE ARE WE GOING/WHAT IS HAPPENING?

1) EFQM UPDATE
I was sad this year for the first time choosing to
miss the Institute Meetings of October. The substitute,
the European Foundation for Quality Management Leaders
Forum in Lucerne, Switzerland, was, however, also a
learning opportunity.

Having been a member and participant of EFQM since
the start in 1992, and this year being the sole
participant from Norway (partly due to September 11th),
please let me give you the three *Uniquenesses* of
this years conference;

1. Top Management Schools are taking over the Quality
Arena. (This is based on the KEY speakers now being
professors from INSEAD, IMD, etc. And also the word
Quality having been substituted since a few years
by the term Business Excellence).

2. Countries from the earlier Eastern Europe are (for
the first time) invited to participate in the Governor
Committee (top management of EFQM). This indicates a 
more OPEN Europe. I think.

3. Only two (!) companies meeting the EFQM standards 
for being Award Winners (usually more), and these
being the new service branches - an English girls
collage, and a Swiss dentist.

Are Quality slipping away?

Or have the Quality Revolution grown the Taylor
Management Principles, and the Quality Projects,
into a new reality, where Quality is embedded in
Management? 

2) WHERE ARE WE GOING/WHAT IS HAPPENING?
I see relations between the three points, which I
believe is worth reflecting on. In doing this, I
also observe that not only Dr. Deming, but also
many of the quality gurus of the last century
are no longer with us.

And I wonder;
Is a new management paradigm on its way? 

Is SoPk in the frontiere here? In the schools?
In the news?

Where are we (I mean DENizens) on the product life
cycle (within the area of management philosophies)?

Are we satisfied with this?

>From a corner of the DEN-world, where the snow just
started to flow down.
Still learning
Deming Scandinavia
Stein
(stein.smaaland@deming.no)
*** The Quality of a SYStem ****