Principle 1: Senior Executives as Role Models (Item 10)

The senior executives' constant role modeling of these Business Excellence Principles and creation of a supportive environment are necessary to achieve the organization's potential.

Why this question is important

Your senior executives should be knowledgeable about the 10 Business Excellence Principles. They should understand what the Principles mean, how they interact, how they add business benefit and the specific requirements of a Business Excellence Framework.

If your senior executives are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the 10 Business Excellence Principles, they will be constantly leading in directions that are not in the organization's best interest. They should become extremely familiar with these Principles so that they will make fewer, avoidable errors.

Roles that demonstrate knowledge

Because of their huge influence on all phpects of the management system, the actions of the senior executives always affect how the company addresses each of the Principles. For example:

• In Principle 1, (`Role Models') senior executives should help set the company's basic beliefs and hence its behavior in such phpects as trust, honesty and integrity.
• In Principle 2 (`Focus on Achieving Results'), senior executives should help set direction; and create strategies to focus the company on its purpose (Mission), direction (Vision), objectives (essential goals) and values (beliefs). These provide a focus for all strategies, activities and decisions of the company.
• In Principle 3 (`Customers'), senior executives should create an environment wherein the company wants to align itself with providing what the customers value as the number one strategy of the company.
• In Principle 4 (`To Improve the Outcome, Improve the System'), senior executives are the only ones who have the authority to actually fix processes and company systems so that the output and outcome of those processes and systems can produce what is required. Senior executives should understand that the only way to get a different outcome is to change the system and that they control that system. Senior executives are also the people who can move away from an environment of blame.
• In Principle 5 (`Improved Decisions'), senior executives should establish a work environment that always seeks data on which to make decisions, that routinely tests its ideas and strategies to see if they are successful. Senior executives should understand data and how it can be useful and should do their own analyses.
• In Principle 6 (`Variability'), senior executives should understand variation and its impact or their processes. They should establish routine systems to control variation, not chase random fluctuations and red herrings, know when to hunt down a special cause of variation and how to drive out common causes of variation.
• In Principle 7 (`Enthusiastic People'), senior executives should create an environment in which enthusiastic people volunteer their hearts, minds and creativity to the benefit of the company, its customers and other stakeholders. Senior executives should enable their employees by providing knowledge, skills, resources, opportunities, authority and power so employees can do their work.
• In Principle 8 (`Innovation'), senior executives should create an environment that is constantly learning and improving — building on its knowledge and capabilities. Senior executives should establish processes that generate innovative ideas and turn them into real solutions and products.
• In Principle 9 (`Value to the Community'), senior executives should work to fulfill the company's commitments (written and unwritten) to the community of doing no intended or unintended harm to the community or the environment.
• In Principle 10 (`Value for All Stakeholders'), senior executives should seek to provide value to all the company's stakeholder groups – owners, customers, employees, the company itself, community and alliance partners; and work to provide the most effective balance between those competing interests for the long term viability of the company.