Eligibility of an award to be considered as an active Business Excellence Award
Business excellence awards were considered as “active” if they were based on a holistic business excellence framework and used similar assessment methods to internationally recognised frameworks such as the EFQM Excellence Model and the Baldrige Excellence Framework. Also, to be included, an awards program must have been run in 2016, 2017 or planned for 2018.

In addition to the 55 countries, 18 countries did not have an awards program but were running initiatives to encourage organisations on a business excellence journey. Therefore in total 73 countries have a business excellence award or initiative.

List of Active Business Excellence Awards
We encourage readers of this blog to check the list and inform us if our information on your country’s award is incorrect or missing.

The following graph shows that the EFQM Excellence Model is the most commonly used, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. 30 countries use the EFQM Excellence Model or models similar to it. The Baldrige Excellence Framework is also popular with use in the United States and many countries in Asia. 19 countries use the Baldrige Excellence Framework or models similar to it. 15 awards programs use a unique model and one business excellence award in Sweden enables award applicants to choose between using the Baldrige Excellence Framework, EFQM Excellence Model or the Swedish Business Excellence Model.

This research was conducted by Saad Ghafoor, PhD student and Dr Robin Mann, Head of COER.

COER supports organisations and countries in business excellence in a number of ways:

• COER is undertaking research that is improving our understanding of National Business Excellence Awards and strategies. COER’s “Excellence Without Borders”. Project aims to assist the administrators and custodians of business excellence to effectively develop and manage regional and national business excellence strategies and awards.
• COER is working closely with a number of countries to help them develop national business excellence strategies and services. For example, refer to our recent work in Tonga and how we assist organisations on their improvement journey through Dubai We Learn.
• COER is currently organising with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, APQO and GBN the Global Organisational Excellence Congress, 10-12 December 2018, Abu Dhabi, UAE. This event includes the International Best Practice Competition and GBN’s Global Benchmarking Awards.
• COER’s BPIR.com resource contains a wealth of best practice information including 1,000’s of best practices that are categorized by business excellence frameworks, and over 80 self-assessment tools.

For more information on COER’s work please contact Dr Robin Mann, r.s.mann@massey.ac.nz

Have you undertaken an improvement project and not got the breakthrough you were looking for? Or do you recognise the value of benchmarking but are finding it difficult to get your organisation to commit the time and resource to projects? If you have answered yes to either of these questions you should be considering rapid benchmarking.

This free report, download here, describes how the TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology has been used for rapid benchmarking by Fonterra, a multinational dairy co-operative and New Zealand’s largest company. TRADE is a benchmarking methodology consisting of 5 stages; Terms of Reference, Research current state, Acquire best practices, Deploy best practices and Evaluate. The methodology is prescriptive in its approach with 5 to 9 steps for each stage of TRADE. The methodology includes a project management system to guide users through a project.

TRADE best practice benchmarking methodology

Normally the TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology is used for projects that require a team approach with projects typically taking 2 to 5 months to identify best practices and develop an implementation plan. The term “rapid benchmarking” is used for Fonterra’s approach as Fonterra uses TRADE to identify best practices and develop an implementation plan within 5 days. The report describes how Fonterra organises the 5 days, provides three case studies showing how rapid benchmarking has been used and describes the success factors for rapid benchmarking.

Fonterra’s rapid benchmarking approach and its relationship with the stages of TRADE

For case studies on the standard approach to TRADE refer to how it has been applied within the Dubai government. Our free book can be accessed here – Achieving performance excellence through benchmarking and organisational learning – 13 case studies from the 1st cycle of Dubai We Learn’s Excellence Makers Program.

What is the Current State of Organizational Excellence around the World? The “Organizational Excellence Technical Committee” (OETC) aims to answer this question with a global assessment of organizations across industry sectors and geographical regions. You are invited to participate in the Global Assessment on the Current State of Organizational Excellence that is being conducted by the Organizational Excellence Technical Committee (OETC) Quality Management Division, ASQ.

Background

On March 31, 2015, the Organizational Excellence Technical Committee QMD, ASQ (OETC) launched the ‘first global assessment on the current state of organizational excellence. This research has been supported by the Global Benchmarking Network, International Academy for Quality and ISO Technical Committee 176. The project is intended to provide data on the extent to which organizations are characterized by the principles and the best management practices of high performing organizations that are found in excellence models.

Over 20 years of global research has validated the positive relationship between implementing an excellence models and developing a culture committed to excellence and improving organizational performance. Much of this research has focused on the organizations that have successfully applied excellence models (e.g. EFQM, Baldrige, Canadian Framework for Excellence, Australian Business Excellence Framework). This particular research project is more robust in that it aims to gather data from a more varied population:

• Leadership and management personnel (up to two people per organization)
• Different size organizations (micro, small, medium, large)
• Different types of organizations (government, business, non-profit)
• 233 countries or 6 regions
• 21 industry sectors (International Standard Industrial Classification)
• Organizations with and without awareness of excellence models

With enough respondents, the aggregate findings will provide a snapshot of the current state of organizational excellence around the world and provide a summary of the strengths and opportunities for improvement by organization size, industry sector and country.

Benefits

The aggregate findings are intended to provide benefits for the excellence community in general and for the working population at large:

• Uniting the excellence profession on a common project
• Encouraging organizations to start or continue their excellence journey, using an excellence model
• Providing dashboard results to show aggregate ratings on principles and best management practices by organization size, industry sector and geographical region
• Sharing aggregate results on the OETC Linkedin site
• Encouraging organizations to:
  • benchmark their performance
  • apply for a national excellence award
  • apply for an international best practice award
  • apply for an international benchmarking award
• Envisioning that organizations improving their performance will make a positive contribution to a local economy, trade and resident quality of life
• Enabling all countries to participate, in a more competitive and sustainable way in the global economy
• Making the world a better place for future generations

Assessment Tool

The assessment tool being used in the research is based on the Organizational Excellence Framework. This publication was authored by Dawn Ringrose MBA, FCMC (2010) who has practiced in the field of organization excellence for 30 years and is currently the representative for Canada on the Organizational Excellence Technical Committee http://www.asq-qm.org/organizational-excellence and the Global Benchmarking Network http://www.globalbenchmarking.org/the-network/current-members. The publication is unique in that it “integrates the leading global excellence models” that define the principles and best management practices and is unique in that it ‘provides implementation guidelines’ that are used by quality and management consulting professionals. The publication is available for download at no charge at http://organizationalexcellencespecialists.ca and a high level version of the assessment tool is found in Appendix 3 of the publication.

The automated assessment tool is powered by www.QLBS.com and: shares principles and practices to rate using a five and four point scale respectively, allows the respondent to obtain more information by holding their cursor over the item in question, captures the self-assessment ratings and open ended comments, aggregates the data for further analysis and prepares real time dashboards.

There are two assessments for respondents to choose from:

1. The Teaser Assessment on the principles takes 5 minutes to complete and delivers a free feedback report to the respondent’s inbox http://www.qlbs.com/QimonoVBA/assessment/OrgExFrameworkTeaser
2. The Full Assessment on the principles and best management practices takes between 15 and 30 minutes to complete, depending on organization size, and can be used to benchmark with others http://www.qlbs.com/QimonoVBA/Assessment/OrgExFramework
   Individual organization data will be held in strict confidence and only aggregate data will be reported.

Volunteer Commitment

Organizational Excellence Specialists Inc has agreed to conduct this research project on a volunteer basis and has recruited a talented team of researchers from around the world to work on the project http://organizationalexcellencespecialists.ca/about-us.

Three important roles amongst these volunteers include: Project Leader – Dawn Ringrose; Assistant to Project Leader – Mohammad Hossein Zavvar Sabegh; Project Advisor – Dr. Paulo Sampaio.

The excellence community has also been invited to participate.

All active research partners will be recognized as contributors in the final report.

Contact

For more information on the global assessment research and to participate as a research partner, please contact Dawn Ringrose, Principal, Organizational Excellence Specialists Inc at dawn@organizationalexcellencespecialists.ca

Participate in the Global Assessment Today !

View our Global Assessment postcard here!

View the Real Time Dashboard Results !

• Teaser Assessment – takes 5 minutes, assesses culture of excellence and delivers a free feedback report to your inbox http://www.qlbs.com/QimonoVBA/assessment/OrgExFrameworkTeaser , or
• Full Assessment – takes 15 to 30 minutes depending on organization size, assesses culture of excellence and deployment of best management practices http://www.qlbs.com/QimonoVBA/Assessment/OrgExFramework

Is Your Organization The Best It Can Be?

You are invited to participate in the 1st Global Assessment on the Current State of Organizational Excellence that is being conducted by the Organizational Excellence Technical Committee, Quality Management Division, ASQ (OETC) and has been endorsed by the Global Benchmarking Network (GBN).

This research is intended to provide benefit for all stakeholders:

• Contribute to the OETC mandate “to support and promote the use of international excellence models and to help all organizations attain higher levels of performance”
• Contribute to the GBN mandate “to promote and facilitate the use of benchmarking and sharing of best practices by helping each other and working together”
• Create awareness with leaders and managers about the principles and best management practices that are common to high performing organizations
• Enable organizations to build on strengths and address opportunities for improvement
• Provide a snapshot about the extent to which best management practices are deployed by organization size, industry sector and country

The assessment tool is based on the Organizational Excellence Framework (OEF) that integrates leading excellence models and provides implementation guidelines for the practitioner. Authored by the representative for Canada on the OETC and GBN, the publication is intended to provide additional support for excellence models and encourage organizations to use validated best management practices to improve their performance and productivity. For those interested and as a thank you for participating, the publication may be downloaded at no charge on the home page at http://organizationalexcellencespecialists.ca

Note: Individual responses for both assessments will be strictly confidential. Only the aggregate data will be reported.

In the Asia-Pacific region the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) is working hard to help countries introduce and sustain business excellence. Business excellence is recognised as a prime contributor to productivity growth through its holistic approach that links Inputs (such as Leadership, Strategy, Customer Focus, Workforce Focus, Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management, Operations) to Outputs (Results). It is perhaps the ultimate productivity framework as it encompasses everything an organisation and country should consider to achieve advances in social, political, economic and environmental performance.

Dr Robin Mann, Head of COER, was the Chief Expert for an APO project to develop a guidebook to help national productivity organisations (NPOs) aiming to introduce or enhance their business excellence initiatives for the public sector. This guidebook was developed through workshops organised by the Asian Productivity Organization’s (APO) Centre for Excellence for business excellence.

This guidebook aims to assist NPOs that are:

• Considering whether to introduce a business excellence model or award for the first time in the public sector
• Seeking to enhance an established business excellence model and/or award for the public sector

The guidebook begins with an exploration of the importance of business excellence awards and models through a series of questions and answers. This is followed by a summary of the views of NPOs on business excellence. Thereafter, information is presented on how to promote business excellence, assist organizations in using a business excellence approach, and recognize organizations through an awards process.
The last section provides examples of how NPO member economies are implementing business excellence in the public sector.

The full guidebook can be downloaded from COER’s website here.