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SINGAPORE: Top leadership and a focus on customers saw nine organisations honoured at the 2008 Business Excellence Awards.
Out of the nine organisations, four were given the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) for excellence in business capabilities.
The SQA has been given out to local companies - from both public and private sectors - which have excelled in areas such as planning, processes, and people development.
Organisers say two qualities in particular set the 2008 winners apart from the pack.
Chairman of SQA Governing Council, Cham Tao Soon, said: "They (the winners) have very good leadership in the organisation - the leadership pervades all the way down, that quality is a very important feature.
"The other thing that they have stood out is... they are all very customer-conscious. That means they are organisations that respond very well to customers needs. So these two are the main features of this year’s winners."
The winners also attributed their success to a focus on people and innovation.
These included the Housing and Development Board (HDB), which bagged a special award for continuing improvements after it won the SQA in 1997. For example, one of its premier developments, The Pinnacle@Duxton, saw cost savings of nearly S$50 million because of innovation and value engineering.
CEO of HDB, Tay Kim Poh, said: "We emphasize on coming out with new ideas, innovative products in whatever we do. So I think this has helped to encourage our staff to take on various aspects of innovation in their daily work."
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also made their mark. Avi-Tech Electronics joined the list of SQA winners as the third SME to win the award to date.
CEO of Avi-Tech Electronics, Lim Eng Hong, said: "This award is dedicated to my team of managers and staff. They are the ones that made it happen. They believe in the company. And they always go towards continuous improvement in our business."
SMEs account for 46 per cent of the economy's total value added, but only 27 per cent of SMEs enjoy a turnover growth of more than 10 per cent.
One major challenge they face is manpower. To address this, Spring Singapore and the Singapore Workforce Development Authority have launched a package of tools, templates and guidelines to help companies with human resource (HR) issues.
Chief executive of SPRING Singapore, Png Cheong Boon, who is also a member of the SQA Governing Council, said: "I think for SME's HR, they are not very familiar with HR issues, particularly in terms of recruitment, career development and training of their employees.
"So what the HR package does is really just to provide a simple template, a guidebook as well as some tips... SMEs can use in their various HR practices."
The package will be available for free from websites of the Singapore National Employers Federation and Singapore Human Resources Institute. The two firms will also offer training by November.
Moving forward, the SQA Governing Council said it will highlight other aspects of the business, including corporate governance, risk management, and business continuity, in the judging for future awards.
The council said this is important, especially in light of the latest developments in the global financial industry.
- CNA/yt
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