Mohammad Bin Rashid Business Award goes to outstanding companies

Dubai : Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, yesterday honoured the winners of the fifth round of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MRM) Business Award 2010 yesterday.

The annual awards, organised by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, are given to 16 companies in eight categories including manufacturing, finance, re-exports, construction, logistics and supply chain, all of which are operating in the UAE and free zones.

Under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the award ceremony was attended by heads of government departments, dignitaries, board members of the Dubai Chamber, representatives of business councils and a large number of business people and members of the media.

Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy and chairman of the award's judging panel, said: "The award plays an important role in stimulating economic development. As well, it is a good incentive to spread the culture of business competitiveness."

The MRM Business Awards had reinforced their position as the leading awards for assessing and evaluating institutional performance in the UAE, he said.

"Today, an MRM Business Award has become one of the most prominent recognitions in the country as it highlights the best business practices and excellent performance of organisations that anxiously wait to see the results of their upgraded functioning and areas of strength and development. The winners of this award are by virtue Global Winners," he said. "The assessment criteria of the award this year focuses on performance in key areas like leadership, strategy, customer, workforce and talent management, operations and processes, innovation, governance and corporate social responsibility."

To be a winner, Al Mansouri added, an organisation must have a sustained record of performance that ensured progress in the economic, technological and competitive environment, depending upon the organisation's resources, capabilities, profile, size and objectives.

To encourage overall business performance excellence and to boost competitiveness, the Dubai Chamber introduced a new category, "Most Outstanding Performance for the Year". This went to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, which demonstrated exceptional business performance in addition to its valuable contribution to the economic development of the country, award organisers said.

Abdul Rahman Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Dubai Chamber, said the new version of the awards was geared to helping businesses interact with each other, to identify and improve their strategies, processes and performance, to provide an institutional and educational opportunity for the participants to evaluate and analyse their own business performance, and at the same time benefit from other participants' experiences in seeking excellence.

Revamped

Hamad Bu Amim, Director-General of the Dubai Chamber, said the awards had been completely revamped to meet future business challenges.

"It is highly sophisticated and aligned with internationally recognised business performance models," Bu Amim said.

"The award allocates more weight to the overall results, which is weighted at 60 per cent of the total points, whereas the processes are weighted at 40 per cent of the total points. It is a business and not a quality award."

Besides recognition, the awards process also offers entrants an intensive learning programme, and helps business people interact with each other and identify and improve their strategies, processes and performance.

He added: "The award provides an institutional and educational opportunity to the participants to evaluate and analyse their own business performance, as well as to benefit from other participants' experiences in seeking excellence".

Moreover, Bu Amim announced there would be new categories in the awards' sixth round including tourism, IT and telecommunications, and health care.

Unibeton and Danube are at the forefront of innovation

 Unibeton Ready Mix, one of the winners, said it had always remained at the forefront of innovation and with its own in-house team of leading scientists, some of whom are renowned in academic circles.

Unibeton, part of Al Fara'a Group, was the first to introduce self-compacting concrete in the UAE, and hosted a symposium on the topic for industry in conjunction with the UAE Society of Engineers in 2001.

Dr J.R. Gangaramani, President and Executive Chairman of Al Fara'a Group, said: "We are very grateful for the opportunity to have participated in these awards, which has been a wonderful journey of learning and interaction."

Unibeton was the first to introduce concrete described as environmentally friendly and low emission to the industry in 2009. The company said this concrete could save up to 70 per cent on carbon emissions at no extra cost to the contractor.

Danube Building Materials, a leader in construction, building materials and shop fitting industries, has also received an award for outstanding performance. The company has been investing Dh200 million in expanding its footprint across the GCC and India, despite challenging economic conditions.

Finance sector

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi received the Best Business Performance Award in the Finance while DIFC registered financial institutions category as Bank Sarasin-Alpen (ME) Limited, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were also announced winners.

In the manufacturing category, Unibeton Ready Mix and Dubai Oil Mills were announced winners and Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries-Julphar received the Best Business Performance award.

National Petroleum Construc-tion was honoured with the Best Business Performance award in the construction category, and Vopak Horizon Fujairah received the Best Business Performance award in the supply chain and logistics category. Federal Express won an accolade in the same category.

For companies operating in the free zones, Mars GCC FZE took the best business performance award of the UAE Free Zones manufacturing category with National Fire Fighting Manufacturing FZCO (Naffco) and KEF Holdings also winning in this category. Landmark Group bagged the UAE Free Zones Re-Export Category Best Performance Award and Danube Building Materials FZCO also emerged a winner in this category.