The awards help in establishing stringent quality and management standards for organisations in the emirate.
The UAE is witnessing a grand transformation, shifting from its reliance on oil resources to developing a robust, knowledge-based economy with a global reach.
The country has truly been adept in emphasising the need for excellence in business and quality management through adopting concepts such as Total Quality Management (TQM) - the quest to continuously improve quality standards. TQM replaces the more archaic management practices that are still sometimes followed, in order to more effectively realise the economic and social growth in the country and develop it further.
Abu Dhabi, in particular, has taken remarkable steps in this regard through the Shaikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA) and Shaikh Khalifa Industry Awards (SKIA), held on June 5, as a serious national initiative. The SKEA awards, in their seventh year, have aided in establishing stringent quality and management standards for organisations in the emirate.
Enjoying the patronage of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi and Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, along with Dr Shaikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Head of the Crown Prince's Court, the awards have helped many public and private organisations to upgrade their business practices and add greater value to the economy.
The awards provide organisations in the UAE with a benchmark for setting their standards according to the best management practices worldwide and chalking out avenues for development and improvement. The realisation of these goals is recognised and encouraged by SKEA's higher committee through the annual awards scheme.
The awards are bestowed on companies that show superior standards of quality and business practices, according to the ratings they receive on nine criteria that function as the basis of the quality model. Awards are given for different sectors, which range from services and trade to tourism and the professional sector.
This year's judging culminated in a grand ceremony held on June 5 at the Emirates Palace Hotel. Dr Shaikh Sultan announced winners of the Excellence as well as the Industry awards. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries, members of the board of directors of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, top-ranking government officials and executives from the private sector.
Companies that won awards for business excellence this year included National Petroleum Construction Company, Kanoo Travel, Altorath Engineering Consultants, Ahalia Hospital, Xerox Emirates and MiO Advocates, among others.
Roger Brown, Business Development Manager with responsibility for quality and excellence at MiO Advocates, considers winning the Excellence Award for the Professional Sector to be a 'greatly educative' experience. "All of us were extremely excited and a lot of staff wanted to know how they could help out for the next award," he says. "The biggest driving factor for us was having a senior management that was fully dedicated to the award. There was also a tremendous amount of hard work put in, and there's no substitute for that."
Brown says the company is in a consolidation phase and aims to progress to a higher level, and a higher award, in the next two years.
The SKEA model is based on the International Business Excellence Model and is aligned with other global quality and excellence awards, particularly the European Award for Business Excellence and the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in the US.
According to Saeed Abdel Jalil Al Fahim, director of SKEA's supreme committee, "The development model of the Shaikh Khalifa Excellence Award is a global pragmatic roadmap, based on the latest human experiences, with the aim of providing the national organisations operating in the UAE with an appropriate examination mechanism."
Grand scheme
The Shaikh Khalifa Excellence model is based on nine criteria. Of these, five are 'enablers' and four are 'results'. The enablers cover how the organisation works while the results cover what the organisation achieves (as a result of the enablers).
Of the nine criteria, different weights are applied to each one depending on their relative importance in the grand scheme of the award model.
Organisations of any size and from any sector can apply for SKEA. The assessment team, which comprises experienced managers and professionals who are selected and trained each year, assess applicants' submission documents individually. Subsequently, they meet to agree on a common view and scoring profile for each organisation. The assessors also visit the organisations in teams of four to six, depending on the size of the organisation.
The jury panel is composed of five senior assessors, managers and academics and is the overall governing body of SKEA's assessment process. The jury receives information and scores for each applicant from the award office and often interviews the senior assessors in order to reach their conclusions.
SKEA has succeeded in fostering healthy competition between organisations in the country. SKEA officials have often emphasised that there are no losers in the whole process.
The real prize given out to the applicants is the diagnostic document prepared by the distinguished team of experts that highlights the strengths and areas for improvement.
Indeed, participating in SKEA can truly present the groundwork from which applicants can start their journey towards total quality and business excellence.
SKEA PROCESS
Criteria and weights
1. Leadership: 10 per cent
2. Policy and strategy: 8 per cent
3. People: 9 per cent
4. Partnerships and resources: 9 per cent
5. Processes: 14 per cent
6. Customer results: 20 per cent
7. People results: 9 per cent
8. Society results: 6 per cent
9. Key performance results: 15 per cent
EXCELLENCE
The winners this year are?
Trade
1. Xerox Emirates - Mohammad Hareb Al Otaiba, Ahmad Hareb Al Otaiba
2. Mohammad Issa Oudeh (Advocates & Legal Consultants) - Mohammad Issa Oudeh, Khalid Riad Atmeh
3. Liwa Private School - Ali Saeed Bin Harmal, Sheren Jobran
Tourism
1. Kanoo Travel - Mohammad Kanoo, Ameen Al Murshidi
Manufacturing
1. Ruwais Fertiliser Industries
2. National Petroleum Construction Company - Aqeel Abdullah Madhi, Afeef Salem Ali Al Maskari
3. Grand Mills for Flour & Feed - Ahmad Hassan Al Hosani, Ahmad Al Shehhi
Certificate winners
Services
1. Itqan Al Bawardi - Mansour Al Alami, Fares Al Jabi
2. Oil & Gas Construction Co. - Sher Shan Nabi, Maher Eid
3. Altorath Engineering - Ahmad Al Mazroui, Mazen Al Jabi
Professional
1. Ahalia Hospital - Saeed Bin Houfan Al Mansouri, Dr. V R. Anil Kumar
Trade
1. Shibani Hitech - Maha Al Shaibani, Salam Siger
2. Kanoo Group (Oil & Gas) - Mohammad Kanoo, Ameen Al Murshidi
Construction
1. Emirates Real Estate - Ilham Abed Al Rahman Abdullah
Manufacturing
1. Queenex Corrugated Carton - Hamid Rashid Al Hajeri, Mohammad Al Hajeri
