This concise introduction to the European Forum's EFQM Business Excellence Model explains how the EFQM framework operates and how to apply it effectively. It introduces the model’s core concepts, including the nine criteria, RADAR logic, and performance measurement structure, and includes a self-assessment survey with 110 questions. Whether you're new to the EFQM approach or preparing for a formal assessment, this document gives you the tools to evaluate, improve, and align your organization’s performance effectively.
This introduction to EFQM offers a hands-on, structured walkthrough of the EFQM framework—complete with clear definitions, diagnostic tools, scoring guidance, and actionable insights and equips readers to use it immediately for performance assessments, improvement planning, and strategic alignment.
This Introduction to EFQM Model Will Help You…
This Introduction to the EFQM Business Excellence Model is your practical starting point for understanding and applying a globally respected performance framework. It’s not just a model—it’s a roadmap that connects organizational ambition with real-world execution.
Whether you’re exploring performance improvement, preparing for an excellence assessment, or aligning your leadership and strategy, this document helps you translate insight into impact.
- Grasp the Big Picture: Understand What Drives Excellence: By explaining the EFQM Model’s nine core criteria and 32 sub-criteria, the document helps you structure your thinking about how excellence is built—from leadership and people to processes and results. This enables you to design assessments and improvement initiatives that are both comprehensive and coherent.
- Apply the RADAR Logic: Move from Ideas to Action: The introduction to the RADAR cycle—Results, Approach, Deployment, Assessment & Review—helps you break down how your organization sets targets, executes strategy, measures progress, and improves. You can use this to guide performance reviews, planning workshops, or operational diagnostics.
- Diagnose Your Organization: Use the Built-In Self-Assessment Tool: With 110 structured questions across all sub-criteria, the included snapshot survey lets you quickly assess your organization’s maturity. This helps you identify areas of strength and weakness, prioritize improvement areas, and build a performance roadmap.
- Link Strategy to Execution: Make Informed, Integrated Decisions: By showing how each element—leadership, people, partnerships, processes—connects to outcomes, the document helps you align internal initiatives with external results. Use this to support strategic planning, resource allocation, and transformation programs.
- Benchmark and Prepare: Understand the Language of Excellence Awards: The section on scoring and award submissions demystifies how performance is judged. This gives you a head start if you’re preparing for EFQM-based awards or seeking to benchmark your organization against “best in class” standards.
Clear, structured, and immediately usable, this document gives you both the conceptual clarity and the practical tools to begin your journey toward business excellence—with confidence.
This Introduction to the EFQM Business Excellence Model is a practical, self-contained guide designed to help leaders, managers, and improvement teams understand and apply one of the world’s most respected performance management frameworks. It distills the EFQM Model into an accessible format, making it easier to connect big-picture goals with everyday actions.
