Avenue des Olympiades 2
1140 Brussels
Belgium
14 December 2008
Dear Madam or Sir:
EFQM was established in 1988 by 14 leading European companies to
assist in improving the
competitiveness of European business. Membership was invited and
currently there are over 700 members
from a whole range of sectors from private to public, from large
to small organisations from every corner of
Europe. For detailed information on EFQM consult their website:
www.efqm.org. Right from the start,
EFQM saw Recognition of good/best practice as an important means
of achieving its objective and
established The European Quality Award emulating the success of
the newly established Baldrige
Awards in the United States.
Robert began working for EFQM pro bono in 1991 as a consultant
to head of the European Quality Award.
His experience in manufacturing, service quality and the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award, in
addition to his academic knowledge, proved extremely useful to
EFQM in the early days of our
organisation. I worked directly with Robert and supervised his
work for EFQM from 1992-1999.
Robert contributed to EFQM through research, development and
writing of two case studies and
instructors notes used in a variety of ways by EFQM but
particularly in the training of Award assessors
(senior managers of European companies who, in teams, assess
Award applications). His experience as a
Chief Quality Officer, research at Northwestern University and
IMD, and relationships with CEOs at
Motorola and Intel was invaluable in developing the case study,
Alpine Electronics Suisse, based on the
semiconductor industry. Because the scoring criteria for EFQMs
Quality Award discern management
practices and results across a continuum, Robert illustrated the
case with examples corresponding to basic,
good and best performance. The following year, Robert developed
a 125-page financial services case for
EFQM, General Bank of Switzerland, through his relationships
with banks in Europe and the US,
management consultants at McKinsey and BCG, and faculty at
Harvard Business School. In addition to
writing these cases, Robert worked with me as a lead trainer and
assisted in training Award assessors to
interpret management practice according to the guidelines and
scoring criteria of the EFQM excellence
model (upon which The European Quality Award is based).
Robert worked as well with me and my staff at EFQM - executives
from diverse business and cultural
backgrounds. I found Robert to be professional and adaptable to
different audiences in an international
setting. His experience in manufacturing, finance and teaching
was particularly useful in explaining
management theory and practice. He was also dedicated - I recall
Robert attending a working session of
EFQM staff and corporate partners in London on crutches with a
cast on his leg. He had surgery the week
before!
My experience working with Robert was particularly
rewarding.
Yours sincerely,
W Mike Gallagher PhD
