BUSINESS excellence is a journey, not a destination, say this year's five winning organisations of the Business Excellence Awards.
Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd and the Singapore Police Force - each of which have previously won a Singapore Quality Award (SQA) - were conferred the SQA with Special Commendation.
Conrad Centennial Singapore bagged two awards, the SQA and the Service Excellence Award. G2000 Apparel (S) Pte Ltd won the People Excellence Award while Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd won the Innovation Excellence Award.
Speaking at the Business Excellence Awards 2007 ceremony yesterday, Raymond Lim, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, said: "In Singapore, the business excellence framework helps organisations improve their management systems and processes in a holistic way to continually enhance business performance."
He cited a recent National University of Singapore study that showed that turnover per employee at organisations certified to the Singapore Quality Class ran at an average of 18 per cent better than rival operations', and this was a consistent feature since the inception of the framework.
The organisations also reported average annual improvements of 7 per cent for customer satisfaction levels.
The minister encouraged SMEs not to view the business excellence framework as a daunting task that would require a lot of resources. "In fact, many smaller companies have shown that embarking on the business excellence journey is possible - and beneficial," he said.
Spring Singapore has developed two programmes to aid SMEs in pursuing business excellence - the Business Excellence Mentoring Programme and the SME Management Action for Results (Smart) initiative. Smart provides funding support for SMEs to engage consultants to develop and implement a business excellence plan.
Ang Hak Seng, senior assistant commissioner of the Singapore Police Force, emphasised that the police will continue to devote their very best efforts.
"This award is a journey and not a destination," he said. "We will not be complacent in pursuit of our organisational excellence. We believe that the public deserves nothing but the best from Singapore Police Force."
Cheong Hai Poh, executive assistant manager of Conrad Centennial Singapore, attributed the company's win to constant improvement and teamwork.
"The awards will bring the hotel to the next level because it helps us to look into our strengths and weaknesses. It is also a good booster for our team members' confidence."
