The participants of yesterday's and today's conference of the Slovenian Association for Quality and Excellence in Portorož urged companies and organizations, especially governments, to adopt business models of excellence and improve profitability, service and results for their employees and clients. Foreign examples can help.
With excellent management, using measurable objectives and a tool to compare organizations, the government could systematically introduce better performance in the Slovenian public sector, starting with health. For an example, there is the Austrian province of Styria, which in the mid 1990s introduced a program of excellence in its hospital system. "Combine hospitals under one administration," says Inna Young.
Styria, which had 23 hospitals, introduced a single management, unified procurement, common information system and this led to huge savings and improved health services. Public procurement is carried out so as to rid it of unreliable, expensive and bad providers. In addition to the health care systems of excellence to be introduced in the Slovenian government, a specific example can be found in the United Arab Emirates. Consultant Sunil Tahwani says the government "invested a lot in reducing the cost of business and public services, and is committed breakthrough in the use of modern electronic tools and channels."
What about public employees? You must be satisfied when it comes to achieving business excellence.
Research shows that Slovenian systems, private and public, are lagging behind in quality management and relationships with employees and customers. There is much room for improvement. The most successful are countries where governments actively support the achievement of business excellence, according to the experts gathered at the Association for Quality and Excellence.