BUSINESS at Pinnacle International runs on a brisk and CRISP rhythm. This is because five core values lie at the heart of the automobile company - Creativity, Respect, Integrity, Service and Passion. These are the principles Pinnacle has adopted in its journey towards becoming the market leader in its industry.
The company has grown rapidly since it was established in 1996 and now operates through four subsidiaries. The first, Pinnacle Motors, offers a wide range of parallel-imported cars. Mass-market brands and luxury marques are competitively priced to meet consumers' motoring needs.
Next on the list, Pinnacle Pre-O supplies a good mix of well-maintained second-hand cars, ranging from vintage to mass-market brands.
Beyond Singapore, Pinnacle Export sells used cars abroad. As one of the three export processing zone operators appointed by the Land Transport Authority, the business unit exports about 5,000 cars to various countries each year.
The newest unit, Pinnacle Energy, will offer services in the installation and maintenance of compressed natural gas (CNG) kits.
With its widening range of businesses, Pinnacle now employs over 200 people across more than 40 countries. It also runs a 70,000 square foot workshop stocked with the latest diagnostic equipment to provide after-sales services and maintenance.
As it pursues growth, Pinnacle also spends time and effort establishing business excellence. This bore fruit when it received the Singapore Quality Class (SQC) certification from Spring Singapore, the national enterprise development agency.
Launched in 1997, the SQC provides organisations with a holistic model for attaining business excellence. Companies are certified for attaining a commendable level of performance on the various standards of excellence.
This is the first time that Pinnacle has attained the certification and 'we feel very honoured to have the SQC brand backing our company', says Pinnacle's chief executive Valerie Tan.
The company values the SQC certification for bringing nationwide recognition to its business model. Pinnacle reckons that this could boost its credibility with existing and potential customers.
'Parallel car importers are generally not as well-received as the authorised car dealers,' notes Ms Tan. 'And to globalise, we want to ensure that the foundation within Pinnacle is strong so as to weather any storms beyond the shores of Singapore.
'Therefore, the award of the SQC certification is a testament of Pinnacle's efforts at building a strong brand image.'
While the company considers the SQC certification one of its greatest achievements to date, this is not the only prize it has bagged.
Pinnacle recently received the Enterprise 50 award which recognises the 50 most enterprising privately-held local companies in Singapore. This 'helped to boost our standing in the automobile industry', says Ms Tan.
The company also qualified recently for the ISO9001:2000 certification from T??V S??D PSB, an internationally recognised testing body based in Singapore. According to Pinnacle, it is the first Asian automotive company to receive this certification for its good practices.
Even with sound operations already in place, preparing for the SQC assessment was not a breeze. Companies are scored on seven dimensions of excellence - leadership, planning, information, people, processes, customers and results.
'Rigorous efforts were made to review the business processes and systems of each key area over a period of nine months,' says Ms Tan. 'Steps were taken to improve workflow and plans to ensure that the overall strategy set in place was sound.'
Pinnacle set up work improvement teams (WITs) to develop new ideas and improve processes within the company. On top of that, the WITs visited several companies which had received the Singapore Quality Award to study and extract best practices in those organisations.
Pinnacle also rolled out training courses and incentive schemes to improve employees' mindset towards business excellence. Staff went through 'a great deal of preparation work' for the SQC assessment, says Ms Tan.
And the work has been worth it, especially for a company which aims to set the benchmark for best practices in the automobile retail industry.
'Obtaining the SQC certification has helped to instill confidence and build goodwill for the Pinnacle brand,' says Ms Tan.
In preparing for the assessment, there was 'the opportunity to devote our time and effort to evaluating our business standards. This allowed us to correct what was wrong and strengthen what was right.' For instance, Pinnacle now has a check-list for staff attending to customers, 'from the first encounter to after-sales, to ensure that the experiences are enjoyable and rewarding'.
Having improved its business processes, Pinnacle will be on a stronger footing to continue it expansion, even in today's volatile economic conditions. For its export business, the company has plans to go into growing markets such as Russia, South America and the Caribbean nations.
Its CNG kit-distribution business is currently in Malaysia and Thailand but is entering other South-east Asian countries.
As for its products, Pinnacle will continue to expand its range of automobile spare parts and accessories. It already sources new and high-quality accessories from Taiwan and Japan, offering them at affordable prices as a reward to customers.
'We believe in offering consumers value- for-money purchases,' says Ms Tan.
This article was first published in The Business Times on November 17, 2008.
