……………………The Reality Behind the Recognition

Business Excellence

Outline• Background to LJMU and Business Excellence• The EFQM Excellence Model - Relevance to

Higher Education• The Award Story• Where do we go from here?

BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AND LJMU

Background

Background to LJMU & Business Excellence

• Modern HE – cloistered sanctuaries or complex real-world businesses?

• ‘Out of the Crisis’ (Thank you Tom Peters)

• Reinvent the wheel or adapt that which works?

Out of the Crisis

• 2000 – several years of deficit

• Major Staff redundancies in 1998/99

• (Mis)management by Committee

• Morale poor – and that’s just the management!!

• Who needs a strategy when we have so much fun just putting out the fires?

We had to do something!

When Michael Brown was announced as the new VC in 2000, the Times Higher ran an article

suggesting he’d taken on the toughest job in HE

Higher Education• Complex

– Multiple Stakeholders

– Diverse Customers

– Many products and services

– Diverse people

– Many Processes

• Resource Hungry

• Results Driven

• Huge Strategic Challenges

=But this is a lot easier to

manage

The Excellence Era• New VC in 2000

• HEFCE GMP Project

• Creating financial stability

• Creating structural capability

• Empowering managers, not committees

• Then……………….

The Excellence Era• …Let the Journey Begin

– Gaining commitment to using the EFQM Excellence Model (2002)

– Daring to self-assess the whole University (2003)

– Daring to address the findings (2003-5)• Strategic Planning and Management • Process• People

The Excellence Era

Then doing it all over again

…….... and Again!!

THE AWARD STORYLJMU

UK Excellence and EFQM Excellence Awards

• Run by the British Quality Foundation – British National Partner to the EFQM, and the EFQM respectively

• Rigorous external assessment against all 32 criterion parts within the Excellence Model

• Independent feedback report for each of the 32 criterion part – strengths and areas for improvement

• Fallback levels of Recognition

• Confidential process, unless Finalist

Timeline of Events• Qualification Stage – February 2008 (EFQM January 2009)

• Assessor Team Allocated 31st March 2008 (EFQM February 2009)

• 75-page application to BQF 25th April 2008 (EFQM February 2009)

• Preliminary Meeting with Assessors – May 2008 (EFQM March 2009)

• Site Visit – 7th – 11th July 2008 (EFQM 1st – 5th June 2009)

• Feedback Report – August 2008 (EFQM August 2009)

• Awards Ceremony, London – 14th October 2008 (EFQM Brussels – 28th September 2009)

The Site Visit• 6 Assessors (EFQM 8 Assessors)

• Opening and closing meetings with SMG representatives

• In depth interviews with selected senior staff and others

• Themed and General Focus groups with various staff groupings

• Viewing of evidence ‘on site’

What they assess• Approaches – how we do things, are they systematic,

relevant, effective and aligned to strategy?

• Deployment – Rhetoric or Reality, are the approaches fully deployed across the University?

• Assessment & Review – does the University take time out to review and improve approaches?

• Results – is the University achieving sustained performance results; meeting or exceeding targets across the scope of the ‘business’?

Preparation• Site Visit Plan• Appointments with interviewees – they

come to you!• Briefings for interviewees and focus

groups• Copies of the application available

Possible Outcomes• Nothing….not achieving a score above c. 450

• R4E….achieving a score above c. 450

• Finalist & R4E…. Achieving a score in the low to mid 500’s

• Special Prize Winner…. A Finalist score with an exceptional performance in one area e.g. Leadership, Sustainability etc.

• Award Winner (Public Sector)…. A score well above 600

Expectations• We were not in it to win it – but any formal

recognition would be nice!

• Benefits:– Rigorous and independent assessment– Objective and detailed feedback report– Basis for a further improvement plan– The cheapest but best consultancy you could ever buy!

UK Excellence Award 2008

2008

EFQM Excellence Award 2009• Confirmed as finalist• No Awards made in

2009 in any category• Now that’s a tough

competition!!

2009

What was said…

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

LJMU

Paul EvansDirector of Business Excellence

Liverpool John Moores University

Questions & Answers