Business Excellence And Its Essentials

Business Excellence (BE) is about developing and strengthening the management systems and processes of an organization to improve performance and create value for stakeholders. BE is much more than having a quality system in place. Furthermore, it is about achieving excellence in everything that an organization does (including leadership, strategy, customer focus, information management, people, and processes) and most importantly achieving superior business results.

Business Excellence involves improving customer outcomes and increasing productivity through the organization’s key processes and is driven by organizational leadership and management.

More than just another “buzz phrase”, business excellence underpins any successful company’s strategy and growth.

If you want to take your business productivity and growth to new heights, you’ll need to implement a practical framework and proven approach for business excellence.

Other popular collections of proven practices advocated over the past 70 years include World Competitive Manufacturing, Just in Time, Best Practice, Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Agile, Business Improvement, Process Improvement, Business Transformation and Lean Thinking.

All of these overlap significantly with each other and fit within the umbrella term ‘Business Excellence’. These are all partial solutions, not a complete solution for any business wishing to become the best it can possibly be in the shortest possible timeframe and at the lowest possible cost.

Not surprisingly, CEOs of SMEs / SMBs can get confused as to which methodology and language they should adopt.

Even within Business Excellence there are slight variations around the world regarding the fundamental criteria for success. For example, Singapore, Australia, and the United States promote 7-8 assessment criteria for Business Excellence, whereas the Europeans promote 9 criteria.

Fortunately, all of the 80 or so active national Frameworks / Models have a common core.

In addition to the nine criteria, there are eight principles characterize excellent organizations. These provide a vision which organizations should strive to realize through continual improvement.

1. Results orientation

Excellence is dependent upon balancing and satisfying the needs of all relevant stakeholders (this includes the people employed, customers, suppliers and society in general as well as those with financial interests in the organization).

2. Customer focus

The customer is the final arbiter of product and service quality. Customer loyalty, retention and market share gain are best optimized through a clear focus on the needs of current and potential customers..

3. Leadership and consistency of purpose

The behavior of an organization’s leaders creates a clarity and unity of purpose within the organization and an environment in which the organization and its people can excel.

4. Management by Processes & Facts

Organizations perform more effectively when all inter-related activities are understood and systematically managed and decisions concerning current operations and planned improvements are made using reliable information that includes stakeholder perceptions.

5. People Development & Involvement

The full potential of the organization’s people is best released through shared values and a culture of trust and empowerment which encourages the involvement of everyone.

6. Continuous Learning, Innovation & Improvement

Organizational performance is maximized when it is based on the management and sharing of knowledge within a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and improvement.

7. Partnership Development

An organization works more effectively when it has mutually beneficial relationships, built on trust, sharing of knowledge and integration, with its partners.

8. Public responsibility

The long term interest of the organization and its people are best served by adopting an ethical approach and exceeding the expectations and regulations of the community at large.

This core may be summarized as 5 logical and memorable Prerequisites for SMEs / SMBs seeking a practical implementation approach that is easy to understand. Not surprisingly, the overriding driver of all 5 Prerequisites is Customer Delight for both internal and external customers.

• Process Design & Improvement
• Shared Strategic Direction
• Performance Measurement & Feedback
• Knowledge Capture & Leverage
• Leadership & Management of Change

Implementation of these Prerequisites in the right order maximizes the return on investment. It eliminates the possibility of false starts and poorly focused efforts. To avoid much wasted effort, it is critical for these Prerequisites to become fully integrated with respect to each other as their implementation progresses.