EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK EUROPE (EFE)
Excellence means doing the right things right, getting a little better every day.
The Excellence Framework Europe makes this journey measurable, across 6 areas and 5 maturity levels. Find out in just a few minutes where you stand today:
Excellence Self-Check for entrepreneurs
Leadership Self-Check for leaders
Team Check for employees
How it works
No prior knowledge needed. You answer practical, everyday questions and receive your personal evaluation directly by email.
Three assessments, three perspectives, one goal: an honest look at the maturity level of your
organisation. Choose your role and start right away.
THE EFE MATURITY MODEL
Five levels. One path. A little better every day.
The EFE maturity model shows you where you stand and which improvements take you to the next level.
Good to know: From Advanced Maturity onwards, applying for an Excellence award becomes genuinely interesting: the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis in Germany, the Austrian Excellence Award or the ESPRIX Swiss Excellence Award in Switzerland. Your self-assessment shows you how close you are.
VOICES ON EXCELLENCE
What Excellence thought leaders say
US management guru and author
You are excellent when you consciously decide, right now, to do something better.
Executive Board Member, Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis
The Excellence Framework Europe connects entrepreneurial intuition with future-oriented structural work.
Chair of the Board of Trustees and Managing Director, ESPRIX Excellence Suisse
What I particularly appreciate about Marc Klejbor is his ability to translate Excellence from theory into business practice. He always considers the perspectives of entrepreneurs, leaders and employees. This makes Excellence not only understandable, but useful in day-to-day work. Excellence that works.
Business Development Business Excellence and Awards, trainer and assessor, Austrian Excellence Award (Austria)
The greatest risks often lie where nobody is looking. Blind spots are not caused by a lack of competence, but by a lack of perspectives. The Excellence Framework Europe makes them visible.
The only Ludwig-Erhard-Preis winner in platinum
The Excellence Framework Europe is a practice-oriented business system that any organisation can apply immediately.
Ludwig-Erhard-Preis winner since 2010, Excellence ambassador
Excellence is not a state, it is a habit. The +1 mindset supports this: acting a little better every day than the day before.
Europe's youngest assessor
Alina at the TÜV Rheinland assessment in 2025.
With the Excellence model, employees, leaders and managing directors gain confidence, clarity and orientation for continuous progress with excellent results.
OUR COOPERATION WITH THE ILEP
This picture shows a moment that makes us proud: the presentation of our cooperation certificate with the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis e. V. We received the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis ourselves in 2010. So we know how it works.
Today we pass on this experience on a voluntary basis, as ambassadors for Excellence, because we are convinced: Germany can do more.
For us, Excellence is an attitude from which everyone benefits: customers, employees, companies and society. That is why: together.
An excellent network
Since 1997, the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis has been awarded annually in Berlin to German companies for excellent performance. As an award winner, you can become part of an excellent network of more than 500 organisations.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Nothing. All three self-assessments are free of charge and non-binding.
Through our initiative Machen-statt-Meckern we cover the costs of programming and providing this service. In doing so, we support the future of Excellence in organisations.
Just a few minutes. Depending on the assessment, you answer 20 to 24 short questions and receive your evaluation directly by email.
No. The questions are phrased in practical, everyday language. The model works in the background and translates your answers into a maturity level.
A personal evaluation by email: with a chart of your areas, an assessment for each area and a recommendation for your next step.
Since 1997, the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis has been awarded annually in Berlin to organisations that impress with excellent performance. It is regarded as the most prestigious award for Excellence in Germany.
As an award winner, you become part of a strong network of more than 500 companies and organisations in Germany.
Yes. In Austria it is the Austrian Excellence Award (formerly Staatspreis Unternehmensqualität, awarded since 1996), in Switzerland the ESPRIX Swiss Excellence Award. Like the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis, both assess on the basis of the Excellence Framework Europe (EFE). Your self-assessment therefore works as a first step in all three countries.
The EFE is published by the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis (Germany) together with Quality Austria (Austria) and ESPRIX Excellence Suisse (Switzerland). More information at https://excellence-framework.eu/.
Erfolgsimpulse GmbH is a cooperation partner of the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis e. V. (Germany) and ESPRIX Excellence Suisse (Switzerland) and supports Excellence in Europe as a volunteer ambassador.
FROM OUR EXCELLENCE COMMUNITY
News
Autumn 2024 in Nuremberg
The new Excellence Framework Europe is presented for the first time. Over two years, Excellence experts created the new business model. We were honoured to contribute and to take part in the world premiere at Schindlerhof in Nuremberg.
The new model is easier to understand, simpler to apply and richer by one factor that no other management system measures so consistently: impact.
Ambassadors for Excellence in Germany and Europe
... with the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis, for more Excellence in Europe's Mittelstand.
Since being recognised as the best mid-sized company at the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis in 2010, we have acted as "ambassadors for Excellence in companies" in Germany and Europe. Now also in official cooperation with the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis e. V.
Together, we will promote the awareness, application and understanding of Excellence in companies across Germany and Europe.
Klejbor's goes Ludwig-Erhard-Preis
That is what some entrepreneurs think. But it is not true, and here is living proof:
With our 200 employees, we were recognised at the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis in 2010 with 600 to 650 points as the best company (category up to 500 employees). 80% of them were part-time staff.
With a system that employees understand and apply immediately, doing the right things right becomes easy.
If you like, watch our 4-minute employee video of the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis award ceremony:
Shaping Germany's future, together
At the Entrepreneurs' Day on 2 December 2025 in Aachen's Coronation Hall, we publicly presented our nationwide initiative Machen-statt-Meckern® for the first time.
We support young, performance-oriented apprentices and dual students with the third pillar of vocational training in the form of a two-year scholarship: 100 scholarships worth 5,000 € each.
Professional competence alone is no longer enough today. What matters are values such as responsibility, reliability and resilience, as well as the ability to take action, and much more.
We support personal development with the Positive-Ausbildungs-Prinzip® (PAP®).
As ambassadors for Excellence
At the invitation of the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis e. V., this time we had the pleasure of personally meeting 14 award-winning companies, the hidden champions of their industries in Germany.
You can find more about this on our LinkedIn profiles.
Together with Dr. André Moll, executive board member of the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis (LEP), Alina accompanied the assessment of TÜV Rheinland from 9 to 11 April 2025 as part of the LEP.
Three intensive days full of exciting impressions, varied conversations and inspiring encounters. It was all the nicer that TÜV Rheinland was awarded the Gold Prize in June, a great success on which we once again warmly congratulate them!
For Alina, it was a special experience to help shape the assessment and to get to know the people behind the processes.
(From left to right: Dr. Wilfried Kienzle; Alina Klejbor; Michael Fübi, CEO of TÜV Rheinland AG; Dr. André Moll, executive board member of the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis; Dr. Achim Ernst.)
Collaboration across generations
At the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis e. V. (ILEP) generations come together: Volker David, the longest-serving assessor, and Alina Klejbor as the youngest member of the initiative. Alina is delighted to be part of this network.
Because here, too, collaboration across generations is a lived reality. And that is exactly what she values. In the assessments, we bring together experience and fresh perspectives. It is precisely this diversity that complements itself and leads to well-founded results.
This is how the generations shape the future, together.
ILEP supports the nationwide initiative Machen-statt-Meckern®
Following the successful premiere of our nationwide initiative with 100 scholarships for committed, determined and performance-oriented apprentices and dual students with the third pillar of vocational training, we are now starting with support for companies.
Shaping Germany's future, together.
With the Excellence Framework Europe and self-assessment tools for managing directors, leaders and employees that make it easier to take the first step into the Business Excellence community.
Start now with the free self-assessment. Click here.
Winning the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis ...
A moment of historic significance for us: in Berlin, our company was awarded the Ludwig-Erhard-Preis, the highest award for entrepreneurial Excellence in Germany. And that on our very first application: rated at 600 to 650 points, making us number 1 in our category.
The jury recognised our leadership, management and communication systems and our culture as innovative, sustainable and exemplary.
We thank everyone who walked this path with us: our 200 Klejborians, 80% of them part-time staff, our partners and supporters.
Ever since, we have been inspiring other entrepreneurs to live the +1 mindset, "a little better every day", together with their employees. Because if we can do it with part-time staff, it is possible in other companies too.
Everyone benefits: customers, employees, the company and society.
The Excellence Framework Europe (EFE).
The compass for future-proof, holistic development.
