Excellence Canada and Global Competitiveness

There was strong evidence at that time that Canada was losing competitive ground internationally. A national commitment to quality was needed in order to refocus and energize the private sector to move to a quality-based, globally-competitive, economy.

Excellence Canada quickly set about its work and established the Canadian Framework for Business Excellence in conjunction with Industry Canada and quality experts across Canada. The Framework provides Criteria for best practices that can help Canadian organizations to achieve world-class performance.

At the same time, Excellence Canada assumed responsibility for the Canada Awards for Excellence (CAE). The awards were originally established in 1982 by Industry Canada as the Canadian Business Excellence Awards. Today, both the Framework and the Canada Awards for Excellence programs have become sought-after hallmarks for those seeking recognition as leaders in organizational excellence. The scope of both the CAE and the Framework was also extended to the public and the not-for-profit sectors.

More recently, Excellence Canada has undertaken pioneering work through its Progressive Excellence Program® (PEP), and through the promotion of its Healthy Workplace® program. Both of these innovations are drawing rave reviews from professionals involved in both the domestic and international “business excellence” field.

The work of Excellence Canada has resulted in a growing Canadian demand for access to benchmarking and excellence programming. The recipients of the Canada Awards for Excellence are a blue-ribbon group of public and private sector organizations that can claim leadership in their respective sectors. The success of the original investment by Industry Canada in the Excellence Canada partnership has produced outstanding and sustainable performance results for Canadian businesses – a significant achievement indeed.