APPLICATION OF BUSINESS EXCELLENCE CONCEPTS IN CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS' PRACTICE

Business Excellence is a new paradigm in managing organization through a holistic way of management. It is based on principles of Total Qualtity Management (TQM) and measurement and improvement of many different aspects of the whole organisation in terms of satisfaction of all stakeholders. These are beside shareholders, customers, suppliers, partners, employees, local and broader society, care for environment and others. Among all other things, Business Excellence provides the basis for the long term success and sustainable developement of organizations and society. For Business Excellence application, different models which have its origins in prestigeous Quality Awards are in use. These are, The Deming Prize in Japan, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in USA, and European Quality Award (EQA) in Europe. European Business Excellence Model is developed by European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), and this model is the strongest and widely accepted by organizations of all kinds; production and services, large, medium and small, profit and non-profit sector. Beside the European Business Excellence Model (EFQM BEM) the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model is being often used as well. Both models in their complementary approach reinforce the organizations to navigate towards their excellence through clear vision, mission and strategy.By the empirical resarch presented in this paper, it is shown that Croatian organizations in their business practice insufficiently apply Business Excellence concepts. To establish, sustain and empower its competitive position in the years of a very rough globalization and its approach to European Union, Croatian organizations will have to implement in a very intensive way the concepts based on the Business Excellence principles.