1- Can you introduce yourself and what your role is at EFQM?
My name is Gianluca Mulé. Some of you might know me already. I have been at EFQM for more than 10 years now, starting as an analyst in 2006. Since then I have changed roles many times and have been working closely with national partner organisations from more than 40 countries. Since January 2018 I have been appointed COO with a strong focus on reviewing the EFQM value proposition based on what “new” excellence is today and what organisations’ new needs are.

2- What is your view on what “new” Excellence is today?
A prescriptive recipe for excellence today does not exist; however, we have a good idea of what the main ingredients should be. The first critical success factor ingredient is network as we all know the importance of joining and being part of a network and expand it accordingly. The second factor is performance excellence. It is so crucial to deliver and sustain excellence results! This is only possible when a clear understanding of stakeholders and stakeholders’ needs is achieved. Frameworks and techniques, such as EFQM Model and Radar can help organisations better understand their stakeholders’ expectations and then delivering against them. The third factor is about promptness to changes, even better, promptness to anticipate change. Forces of change are the only constant certainties in today’s world and organisations need to understand how to address new megatrends and challenges on time. The fourth is about visibility and recognition which is driving the trust of customers and the energy of employees. The fifth and final factor is about engaging in learning opportunities and experiences with peer companies and the external world. We should never stop learning from each other and growing together.3- What are you doing at EFQM to address these elements?
At EFQM we have recently launched a new important message, the 5E of Excellence, a new canvas for a reviewed value proposition which goes in the direction of addressing these 5 elements of excellence with extra value that we can provide to our community vis a vis them. We are working on implementing strategic initiatives in each of the 5 blocks.

Network: we are working on integrating the Excellence Network of National Partner Organisation in Europe, in strengthening the relationships with partners all across the world and in giving a new visibility and role to the Global Alliance for Excellence (Global Excellence Model Council) which EFQM initiated years ago. At EFQM, we nurture a vast network for innovative organisations and business leaders to share knowledge, experiences and good practices. We believe in a world where organisations work together and are recognised as the benchmark for sustainable economic growth.

Excellence development: we are working on simplifying and segmented our services for organisations and professionals. Existing products for training and assessment are being streamlined, additional added value workshops are being developed and new opportunities for professionals will be soon available.

Excellence builders: this is our offering to the community to better understand and act upon forces of changes. We have selected a few themes (namely agile organisations, digital transformation, innovation, business ecosystem, human capital and sustainability) where we are partnering with thought leaders and provide our members with new opportunity to learn and evolve their experiences in addressing them;

Global recognition: we offer recognition and exposure to organisations and professionals. Our flagship offering for organisations is obviously the EFQM Global Excellence Award which we are continuing to refine and the Global Excellence Index. Acting as an official EFQM assessor is a unique opportunity for professional exposure and recognition.

Sharing, learning and benchmarking: we are working on initiatives which will leverage the aspect of sharing and learning within the community. On top of the Good Practice Visits, webinars and CoPs, we will pay attention to the construction of benchmarking portal (together with our partners) and sharing platforms.

4- Can you expand a bit more on the Excellence Builders?
The idea is to work with thought leaders (blending their competence with our methodology) on each theme and offering opportunities to members to share experiences on how to address these challenges, develop learning programs, exploiting the holistic approach of EFQM, planning learning events and sharing good practices, etc. In the past weeks we have successfully run the first webinars as part of the builders.

On the 12th of April, as part of Human Capital builder, we presented the first webinar in a series of three webinars on Leadership and Employee Empowerment based on the framework of EFQM entitled “What is Employee Empowerment and why is it important as an organisational strategy?”

Our next webinar with Dr Richard Griffith entitled “Leading Across Borders: Capitalizing on your Cultural Currency” looked at to accumulate and wisely invest your cultural currency so you can better claim the value inherent in international business.

Our last webinar for the month of April was a unique opportunity to learn from an EFQM member on how to address, in practical terms, the challenges of digital transformation. An excellent real-life experience from #ENAGAS with Víctor Gimeno Granda.

We will soon be running new webinars which will touch upon a wide range of subjects such as Business Ecosystem Excellence and Innovation. On the 22nd of May we will look at how a structured approach to Innovation can make the CEO’s dream of being innovative a reality. On the 24th of May, we will discover how today the innovation landscape is changing and how it calls for more partnerships with external partners and very often partnerships with companies we barely knew before.

On 28th June, EFQM together with Renault Nissan Consulting we organise in Paris an interactive day on “Strategy and Agile Execution”. This topic is crucial today as, in the ever more complex business world that we operate in today, organisations have to be able to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently to changes in the environment and customer behaviour. On this occasion, we offer to the EFQM Community the occasion to discover the brand new products/services developed by EFQM and RNC to support organisations to improve their capacity to execute their strategy in a more agile way (e.g. the Agility Good Practice Exchange Platform, the “Agile Transformation Programme”, how to build an app, etc.). This kick-off meeting will be hosted by EDF (EDF Cap Ampère – 1 Carrefour Pleyel, 93200 Saint-Denis, France). Please note that there will be 40 seats for this unique event that will be assigned on a first come-first served basis; so, contact us ASAP to register.

For innovation we already have a comprehensive programme available for members which makes use of the leading-edge technology. We have also been mapping out the competencies of EFQM professionals to see how they can contribute further to this topic! Exciting projects are on their way in the months to come and the whole team is looking forward to bringing these to fruition.

“It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path.” Michael Dell

5- Do you have anything else you would to like to share?
We are hoping to start distributing the Model free of charge in digital format, through a sponsorship pattern very soon – more information soon… We have already some languages sponsored, which will be made openly available through the EFQM website as well as our national partners organisations’ platforms. We are looking for organisations interested in sponsoring the English version. This is an opportunity to associate an organisation with the EFQM Excellence Model, and build awareness among more than 50,000 model-users. (For more information: contact us at info@efqm.org)

And as a final word, I am looking forward to meeting you later this year at the EFQM Forum, the Symphony of Excellence, on 18 & 19 October in Vienna.

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” Bobby Unser