The EFQM approach -Sustainable development for all stakeholders

Every organization, whether it's a company, part of a company, plant or department, a project, a public sector entity or a not-for-profit organization, is asked by its stakeholders to improve its performance towards them. Better services or products, more attention to customers, users or clients, better working conditions for employees, more jobs, less impact on the environment, more relevance to the needs of society in general, more profit, lower costs... It is the very essence of sustainable development to ensure a balanced and lasting response to the expectations of all stakeholders. This is what the United Nations' Global Compact approach sums up in the formula "People, Planet, Profit". But resources are limited, so the best possible alchemy has to be worked out and put into practice. This is the challenge of every manager, and engineers are often called upon to be managers.

To do this, managers can draw on their own knowledge, gained through training and experience, on their intuition, and on the examples of other managers around them. And why not draw on the experience of organizations of all kinds and in all sectors which, for over 20 years, have demonstrated their excellence, i.e. their ability to satisfy and exceed the needs and expectations of all their stakeholders? This is the content of the EFQM excellence model. It lies at the heart of the EFQM approach for organizations that want to guarantee sustainable performance, and then contribute to enriching this model of excellence with their own experience.