DFRC LAUNCHES THE SADC SME MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME

The DFRC in partnership with SAFRI HRD Project of Germany completed the development of the SME Mentorship model titled “The Journey to Excellence (J2Ex)”, with the Pilot project being launched at BEDCO (Lesotho) in
October 2006. The model was developed to enable management teams and entrepreneurs to self-assess the organization excellence of their businesses, and then use the results to plan and implement appropriate improvement activities. “That’s really what it’s all about”, said Nina Mapili, the SAFRI HRD Project Manager. “In our workshops,
participants – and these should ideally be entire management teams – assess their business or organization against
the framework of the EFQM Excellence Model. They determine where they are relative to other companies – and
then use their findings to identify their company’s strength and areas for improvement, prioritize key improvement
opportunities and appropriate action plans. Along the way they see that this is a dynamic process. Excellence is a
moving target. Businesses have to entrench a culture of continuous improvement into everything they do if they are
to have a chance of being competitive and surviving over time.”
The Journey to Excellence workbook is currently available in two versions: Level 3: for large organizations and
well-established SMEs and Level 2: for SMEs and other organizations just beginning to focus on excellence. Level
1, for micro enterprises, is still in development.
Journey to Excellence workshop are always held in conjunction with local partners, such as enterpreneurs’ organisations, consultants etc.