The Journey to Excellence

Introducing a new paradigm of excellence -
to entrepreneurs, management teams & individuals.

The Southern Africa Initiative
of German Business - SAFRI

Since its creation in 1996 as a B2B initiative, SAFRI has brought together people from every sector of business and industry in order to draw the attention of German entrepreneurs to the economic potential of the member nations of the Southern African Development Community, SADC.

In parallel, it reaches out to entrepreneurs, management teams, and enter-
prising individuals in SADC through the SAFRI Journey to Excellence Program (J2Ex).

Sponsored by Daimler AG, the program works to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking, thereby helping to create jobs, raise the standard of living, and generate and improve business opportunities. The Chairman of SAFRI is Prof. Juergen E. Schrempp, retired Chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG.

Its multi-part, multi-level curriculum integrates best practices and lessons learned over the course of our long history of working with entrepreneurs. Various workshops provide entry points into the program.

Introducing a New Paradigm of Excellence

SAFRI's Journey to Excellence (J2Ex) Program aims to create a new paradigm of excellence in peoples' minds. This paradigm is dynamic, and focused on continuous improvement. Good is no longer good enough: competitiveness is linked to excellence, and excellence is a moving target.

The implementation-oriented program focuses on enhancing competitiven- ess by improving performance excellence. To do so, it coorganises and facilitates workshops for entrepreneurs, management teams and individuals aspiring to leading an entrepreneurial life, and promotes entrepreneurial mentoring. It also promotes the development of local facilitators and mentors.

The J2Ex is a multi-level, multi-part program that caters to the neews of businesses with differing levels of organisational maturity. A business that diligently continues its Journey over time, through the various steps, can progress to levels of excellence that compare well with international bench- marks.

It's all about competitiveness
and sustainability

At the core of the Journey to Excellence are two intertwined workshop series: Preparing to Excell and Assessing Excellence

Prepareing to Excel workshops are dedicated to assisting businesses, organisations, and also individuals, take the first steps on their Journey to Excellence by developing and implementing a solid strategic framework.

Take Charge of your Business! (TCYB) workshops are for owners and management teams of businesses that do not yet have clearly-formulated vision, mission, values, goals, and strategies in place and implemented. It also well-suited for people who are in the process of starting a business.

Take Charge of your Life! (TCYL) workshops are similar to TCYB, but focus on the individual. They are well-suited to managers and aspiring entrepreneurs. Strategic Alignment workshops are for more mature organisations wanting to review and improve on their strategic alignment. It is also good preparation for an Assessing Excellence workshop.

The Journey to Excellence engages entrepreneurs, MDs/CEOs and their management teams in a process that initiates arobut cycle of continuous improvement - if followed over time. As with any other journey, though, travellers want to know periodically how far they progressed. The workshops in the Assessing Excellence series provide them with the means to measure their progress always at a level of rigour appropriate to the organisation's level of maturity.

All assessments are done by the managers/entrepreneurs themselves, using the EFQM Excellence Model, a globally respected management tool. It enables them to very objectively and holistically assess their company's per- formance excellence relative to good and best practices, determine strengths and areas for improvement, and identify key improvement opportunities.

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