A brief historical review of the events aimed at boosting in the world the awareness of the importance of quality - first in industry and then in services - reveals the fact that Japan had developed already in the fifties, its own systematic approach to quality control (Total Quality Management), which resulted, in 1951, in awarding the first quality award called the "Deming Prize" (after an American, Dr. W. Edwards Deming), to the companies found the best according to a number of important indicators or criteria.

The US automotive and arming industries reacted to this in the beginning of the sixties by starting to intensely develop the requirements for an adequate quality assurance system, using special questionnaires, which led to the development of the first standards. In the eighties, the USA completed the Japanese TQM model by adapting it to the American conditions, and awarded, in 1988, the first Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)

During this time, Western Europe saw the issue of the first ISO 9000 standards and a boost in the number of certified quality systems. Productivity research and benchmarking in the car industry showed, however, that the European car manufacturers were way behind the Japanese and the USA. This encouraged fourteen leading European companies to establish, in 1990, the European Foundation for Quality Management (hereinafter referred to as "EFQM"), with the assignment to develop an approach or a model whose use would increase the European competitiveness. With the support of the European Organisation for Quality (EOQ), and the European Commission (EU-DG III), EFQM developed a business excellence model, which still provides the basis for the European Quality Award, and which combines the experience from the MBNQA and the Deming Prize. The first Award was presented in 1992 (for more detail on the European Quality Award see www.efqm.org).

With the development of the model, a step forward of the quality assurance philosophy has been made, since the model contains elements which comprise the entire business system and represent an upgrading of the system. Many national awards have since been established in Europe, the majority being based on the European Business Excellence Model.

Also in Slovenia, after it became an independent state, we were faced with the requirements of new markets to replace, almost overnight, the Yugoslav market. The importance of quality for our competitiveness, productivity and life standard has thus become obvious.

Based on this, clearly identifiable need, and on the more and more articulate national awareness of quality, the RS Government brought before the National Assembly a Bill on the Business Excellence Prize of the Republic of Slovenia. Following two pilot projects (in 1996 and 1997), our country obtained, in 1998, its national prize as the highest recognition for achievements in the field of business excellence or excellent performance, based on a business excellence model equivalent to that of the European Quality Award.