Business Excellence Course

Summary

Quality and business excellence awards that recognize a high level of performance have emerged as an essential component of the productivity and quality promotion strategies of many countries. The article evaluates 76 national as well as three regional award programs that are used to be given to the best business performers in different countries globally. The regional awards cover three areas, which are Europe, Asia Pacific, and Ibero-American while the other 76 are for individual countries. For a well-presented analysis, four segments were included in the article. The first part- research methodology- presents descriptive results of the comparison of the various business awards after performing an inductive analysis of the data. Additionally, the purpose and the main concepts of the award program are one of the bases of comparison. The structure, the eligibility, as well as the criteria for measuring organizations’ performance are the other bases. The second section of the article describes the world region allocation of the distinguished award programs in the five continents. The primary mission of the awards is to encourage competition, improvement of processes and practices along with excellent management of business enterprises. Moreover, the beliefs and the attitudes portrayed by the best performers in the business world are the main concepts of the award programs. Every award program was found to mention the following values: social responsibility, leadership, customer, and people. In the conclusion of the paper, the author notes that the awards in different countries are similar except for handling emerging trends in organizations (Cauchick Miguel 2005, pp. 36-45).

Key Learning Points

The main ideas of the article’s analysis are quality management, benchmarking, excellence framework, and rationale of the awards program. The article gives the intention of business awards as an attempt to increase the efficiency of business enterprises. Quality management in the industry involves adopting effective practices, which are continually monitored. Consequently, any problems arising in the organizations are corrected before they become a crisis (Chevalier 2007, p. 152). For that reason, the productivity of the company remains high. The other issue addressed by the article is benchmarking. The organizations in a certain country compare themselves with other companies to achieve excellence (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 40). The excellence framework as evaluated in the analysis acts as a guidance on the values organizations must adopt to be productive. There are core values common to all companies while others are unique to specific regions. Last yet important, the performance measurement according to the analysis does not involve the evaluation of only one element of a company but different aspects. Some of the things measured are the general outcomes of a company, the policies utilized, along with with with with the requirements of the stakeholders (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 43).

Relevant Statements to the Session

The analysis in the article deals with various issues, which are relevant to management sessions. The first one is innovation. It has become one of the most significant elements of business management in the contemporary world. Innovation assists in a competition by producing goods or services with unique qualities (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 41). Secondly, the concept of customer relationship management is also dealt with by the analysis. The most important focus of a business enterprise is the customer. As a result, companies must always strive to satisfy the customers’ needs and wants. The award programs in all the regions include the customer as one of the core values. Thirdly, the idea of leadership is discussed in the article. The leadership of an organization determines the practices that the business has. Therefore, it can influence the ability of the company to win a national or regional excellence award (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 41). The last management concept in the analysis is the management of human resources. The workforce is the connection between an organization and its consumers.

Critical Analysis

The author of the article analysis has presented the ideas in an organized and understandable format. However, some ideas have shallow information and lack of supporting evidence for the reader to comprehend them deeply. For instance, the practices that the author refers to the best among top companies in the industry are not defined. The article states that in order to achieve excellence, a company should adopt outstanding practices (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 40).Without examples of these practices, an organization that wants to win the award will not be able to perform a benchmarking. Some of the practices include teamwork, motivational strategies, and accountability of employees among others.

In addition, how firms attain Total Quality Management (TQM) is not discussed in the analysis. Furthermore, the developing nations that have included TQM in their mission statements are not in the analysis (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 40). This idea requires more information to be informative. The concept should also be a requirement for all the firms taking part in the business excellence awards. TQM includes various processes and actions to increase the quality of goods and services continuously. Every person in the firm has a role in supporting the idea for it to succeed. Therefore, the notion that TQM is only important to develop nations’ award program is misleading. Both the developed and the developing countries require it in their management (Dubrin 2012, p. 355).

Finally, the latest tendency in companies of management of fact is not clear. Considering it is a new trend, the analysis should have evaluated it comprehensively. Apart from stating its score in the award criteria, which is considerably high, there are no other details. It carries a score value of between 40% and 45% (Cauchick Miguel 2005, p. 41). In general, the analysis is informative, it only requires some additional details.

Practical Implications

Since the main aim of the awards is to enhance performance in institutions all over the world, the idea can be integrated into the management of the Dubai Municipality. Some of the challenges facing the municipality are littering, sandstorms, the sewerage system and housing for the middle-income citizens (Ahrens 2013, p. 23). By borrowing from practices from the best municipalities in the world, the Dubai Municipality can eliminate or reduce these problems. For instance, despite the municipality having sweepers with one of the most advanced technology, littering is still a challenge. The municipality should enact rules prohibiting littering. Moreover, it should undertake campaigns to make aware of their duties to keep the environment clean. Quality management is also a crucial measure in solving the other challenges of the municipality. Therefore, the municipality can plan for the quality of services it needs to offer the residents. Then quality control and assurance measures must be put in place to monitor the quality of the services such as sewerage, water, and housing (Ahrens 2013, p. 24).

Learning Reflections

The article teaches various lessons about the administration of the business world. Firstly, benchmarking against the organizations that have the best performance in the industry is necessary. As Cauchick Miguel (2005, p. 40) mentioned, it is difficult for businesses to measure their performance without comparing them to other organizations. Secondly, healthy competition among businesses improves their practices and processes. A company that wants to be the best will be forced to adopt processes that cut costs and boost efficiency. It will also produce high-quality goods and services (Lussier 2012, p. 59). The other lesson from the article is that the core values that define excellence in business companies are almost similar in all companies irrespective of the country of operation. According to Cauchick Miguel (2005, p. 41), some values are common in all the award programs in all the continents. All the awards considered focus on people, effective leadership, social responsibility, and being customer-oriented. Finally, recognizing the efforts of both public and private companies plays a key role in ineffective management. The managers are keen to serve the interest of their companies rather than personal interests.