TQM and business excellence: is there really a conflict?

The shift in focus from TQM to business excellence and recent changes to the EFQM Excellence Model has resulted in suggestions that quality has been marginalised. It has also been suggested that quality is making a comeback as a result of perceived shortcomings in business excellence. The paper explores the literature and asserts that business excellence and quality complement each other and should co‐exist. It also provides a view on why business excellence might be partly responsible for recent increased interest in quality while maintaining that quality never really “died” in the first place.