Introduction to Pathways to Excellence®

Northern Ireland companies have been very successful in entering and winning Quality Awards for business excellence. Examples of winners over the past four years have included Ulster Carpets Mills, British Telecom Northern Ireland, Nortel Networks, St Mary’s College (Public Sector) and SAM Mouldings (SME). Most have gone on to win the UK Quality Awards and achieve Finalist and Prize Winner status in the European Business Excellence Awards in 1996, 1998 & 1999. This is a measure of the integrity of the approach applied by the Centre for Competitiveness in assisting organisations to achieve business performance improvement and international role model status.

In assisting small and medium sized organisations (SME) in both the public and private sectors, theCentre for Competitiveness has developed a unique approach under Pathways to Excellence ®. This approach has been derived from the learning and experience of two years of focused research and development applying various methodologies to over 40 SMEs within Northern Ireland. The outcome has provided the Centre for Competitiveness with the practical (hands-on) experience and the products and services that our SME members want. It has provided Northern Ireland with successful and representative SMEs that are proof to the effectiveness of the Pathways to Excellence"® approach.

Pathways to Excellence® is an Internet application of a facilitated self-assessment programme using the principles of the EFQM SME Business Excellence Model. (The Model is outlined and explained in some detail in this Manual.)

The Pathways to Excellence® programme is delivered by Licensed Facilitators and promoted by Centre for Competitiveness Partner Organisations throughout the British Isles and further afield. Licensed Facilitators are trained and licensed by the Centre for Competitiveness and/or its Partner Organisations.

This diagram gives relative positioning of the independently awarded recognition and how they relate to the All Ireland Mark of Excellence, Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK and European Quality Awards for Excellence. The Gold, Silver and Bronze recognition levels are contained within the Public Sector "Steps to Excellence".

Pathways to Excellence® guides organisations through a unique process of continual improvement while helping them to gain recognition at the different levels of achievement. The Mark of Excellence™ is ultimately achieved by an externally validated balanced score of 400+ points (of a theoretically ‘perfect’ 1000 points) against the European SME model. Organisations are expected to improve or maintain their score in line with developments of the European Quality Excellence model in order to retain their recognition status.

Any organisation wishing to integrate its quality system throughout its management operations may enter the Pathway at any point. A diagnostic at the point of entry will determine the deployment that will be necessary to move the organisation to the next stage of recognition. This will be assessed using the Pathways to Excellence® toolkit.

A benefit of the facilitated diagnostic and improvement approach, is that it allows individual organisations to move forward at a pace where improvements can be realised, change can be implemented, and the culture embedded along the way.

Pathways to Excellence® was applied to over 40 SMEs in 1998/1999 in Northern Ireland with considerable success and learning. References to the effectiveness of the product and the process are available.

Pathways to Excellence® is available through our licensed partners in Ireland, UK, Europe and the Middle East, Australia and North America. Further developments are planned and will be implemented in accordance with customer demand.