Excellence Framework Europe

The Excellence Framework Europe

The Excellence Framework Europe consists of three central parts:

  • Excellence Framework Europe – Principles
  • Excellence Framework Europe – Hexagon
  • Excellence Framework Europe – Maturity Model

Click on (sub)area to get more information about capability aspects.

EFE Hexagon

A

Provide Orientation

A1

Creating meaning and defining futures

A1 – Creating meaning and defining futures
  • Developing and anchoring understanding of meaning and purpose
  • Enabling shared purpose
  • Anticipating, forethinking and shaping the future
  • Transforming visionary ideas into viable concepts

A2

Fostering culture and building identity

A2 – Fostering culture and building identity
  • Agreeing and embedding values
  • Making culture visible and shaping relational spaces
  • Living leadership and self-leadership as cultural drivers
  • Fostering identity and creating commitment

A3

Embracing diversity and understanding stakeholders

A3 – Embracing diversity and understanding stakeholders
  • Understanding the environment, involved parties and interest groups
  • Integrating social and environmental demands
  • Leveraging diversity and contradictions
  • Resolving obstacles and managing complexity

B

Develop a strategy

B1

Understanding the environment and organisational capabilities

B1 – Understanding the environment and organisational capabilities
  • Understanding the environment and market
  • Incorporating sustainability aspects
  • Understanding core competencies and opportunities
  • Aligning stakeholder requirements with one another
  • Gaining comprehensive insights

B2

Defining strategy

B2 – Defining strategy
  • Deriving information from analyses, designing scenarios and solutions
  • Defining and aligning strategic content
  • Developing and refining business model(s)
  • Setting strategic objectives
  • Deciding and implementing strategic initiatives

B3

Implementing and reviewing strategy

B3 – Implementing and reviewing strategy
  • Designing consistent communication of strategy
  • Cascading strategic goals
  • Anchoring implementation
  • Reviewing effectiveness
  • Initiating adaptation of systems

C

Shape collaboration

C1

Involving stakeholders

C1 – Involving stakeholders
  • Segmenting stakeholders
  • Attracting and engaging employees
  • Acquiring and retaining customers
  • Finding partners and suppliers and developing together
  • Providing feedback

C2

Designing products and services

C2 – Designing products and services
  • Defining value proposition
  • Designing and implementing innovation processes
  • Considering the life cycle
  • Assessing technologies
  • Managing the value proposition portfolio
  • Identifying and securing knowledge

C3

Designing structure and organisation

C3 – Designing structure and organisation
  • Defining and delimiting added value
  • Designing value creation processes
  • Enabling adaptable structures
  • Utilising trust and personal responsibility as design principles
  • Promoting learning ability and transferring knowledge
  • Balancing tensions

C4

Providing technology and resources

C4 – Providing technology and resources
  • Raising and providing capital
  • Preparing, approving and implementing investments
  • Managing and securing data, information and knowledge
  • Mastering technologies and reducing complexity
  • Improving and innovating simultaneously
  • Shaping digital transformation

D

Create Value

D1

Attracting and inspiring customers

D1 – Attracting and inspiring customers
  • Communicating customer benefits and winning customers
  • Obtaining and integrating customer feedback
  • Designing and improving customer experiences
  • Aligning the value chain with customer needs
  • Refining value proposition for specific markets and customer segments

D2

Empowering employees

D2 – Empowering employees
  • Embracing leadership as a service
  • Testing new ideas and driving things forward
  • Promoting lifelong learning
  • Promoting feedback and communication
  • Expanding room for manoeuvre and motivating employees

D3

Creating value with partners and suppliers

D3 – Creating value with partners and suppliers
  • Shaping partnerships strategically and ensuring sustainability
  • Selecting, developing and retaining partners and suppliers
  • Living partnership through dialogue
  • Creating alternatives and strengthening resilience
  • Utilising feedback and optimising collaboration

D4

Managing value creation, technology and resources

D4 – Managing value creation, technology and resources
  • Keeping specifications compact and increasing flexibility
  • Optimising and digitising core processes
  • Utilising data and accelerating decision-making
  • Connecting and strengthening supply chains
  • Applying technologies and driving innovation

E

Demonstrate impact

E1

Demonstrating impact on social interests

E1 – Demonstrating impact on social interests
  • Demonstrating and evaluating the impact on social interests
  • Demonstrating the impact of suppliers and partners on social interests
  • Presenting future viability based on the impact on social interests
  • Ensuring communication and transparency on social impacts
  • Reporting on laws and sustainability standards

E2

Demonstrating impact on environmental interests

E2 – Demonstrating impact on environmental interests
  • Demonstrating and evaluating impact on environmental interests
  • Demonstrating the impact of suppliers and partners on environmental interests
  • Presenting future viability based on the impact on environmental interests
  • Ensuring communication and transparency on ecological impacts
  • Reporting on laws and sustainability standards

E3

Demonstrating impact on economic interests

E3 – Demonstrating impact on economic interests
  • Identifying and evaluating the impact on economic interests
  • Demonstrating the impact of suppliers and partners on economic interests
  • Presenting future viability from an economic perspective
  • Presenting future viability based on the impact on economic interests
  • Ensuring communication and transparency on economic impact
  • Reporting on laws and sustainability standards

F

Master change

F1

Winning people for change

F1 – Winning people for change
  • Promoting a willingness to change and developing a positive mindset
  • Telling the story of change and building the ability to change
  • Living exemplary leadership and providing psychological safety
  • Obtaining continuous feedback and making adjustments

F2

Empowering the organisation for change

F2 – Empowering the organisation for change
  • Planning and balancing change at an organisational level
  • Defining and leading change processes
  • Measuring and optimising the effectiveness of change (from the organisation's perspective)
  • Reflecting and strengthening the capability for change in corporate culture

F3

Changing the organisation in context

F3 – Changing the organisation in context
  • Designing and strengthening relationships in an organisational context
  • Ensuring and adapting communication within the organisational context
  • Identifying and using synergies in an organisational context
  • Driving change in the value creation network

Excellence Framework Europe –
The Principles

Values and responsibility as the foundation of excellent organizations

The Excellence Framework Europe takes a holistic view of outstanding organizations – in their actions, their impact and their results. Excellence is not only reflected in success or in the perception of stakeholders, but above all in the consistent adherence to common principles and values.

European values as a basis

The European and global basic concepts of living together in freedom, self-determination and democracy form the ethical and social framework of the Excellence Framework Europe.

The central reference frameworks include:

  • Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Treaty of Lisbon)

  • European Convention on Human Rights

  • European Social Charter with 19 social rights

  • Directive 2000/78/EC – Equal Treatment Framework Directive

  • UN Global Compact (2000) – Principles for sustainable and socially responsible corporate governance

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2015)

Self-commitment to lived values

Each organization is responsible for defining and transparently communicating its own lived values and principles framework. When evaluated according to the Excellence Framework Europe, for example in the context of award procedures, participating organizations consciously commit to complying with the principles and values that define Europe.

Further information on the principles of the Excellence Framework can be found in our brochure.
Download the brochure now.

Excellence Framework Europe –
The Hexagon

The model for lived excellence

The Excellence Framework Europe hexagon forms the heart of the framework. It describes the content and fields of action that excellent organizations consistently implement in order to clearly stand out from the crowd.

Six dynamically connected areas

The EFE hexagon is divided into six interconnected areas that influence each other and “pulse” in a coordinated rhythm.
It clearly shows what organizations actually DO to live excellence – practical, observable and transferable.

Overall, the hexagon includes:

  • 6 areas of organizational excellence

  • 20 sub-areas that specifically describe the actions of successful organizations

Further information and a detailed description of the hexagon areas can be found in our brochure.
Download the brochure now.

Excellence Framework Europe –
The Maturity Model

The path to objective organizational assessment

The EFE maturity model makes it possible to determine the maturity level of any organization – regardless of size, industry or management system used – easily, quickly and comprehensibly.

Holistic instead of formalistic

The focus is not on rigidly working through criteria, but on holistically classifying the organization into clearly defined, differentiated maturity levels. At the same time, strengths and development potentials become visible, which form a solid basis for targeted further development.

Five maturity levels with clear capabilities

The model distinguishes five organizational maturity levels. For each level, the organizational capabilities that must be mastered for the respective stage of development are described.

These capabilities include central topics such as:

  • Stakeholders

  • Employees

  • Culture

  • Leadership

  • Strategy

  • Structure

  • Results

  • Improvement

  • Success

Detailed information on the maturity levels and assessment criteria can be found in our brochure.
Download the brochure now.