Business Excellence Awards in November

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

National Business Excellence Awards 2010 organized and conducted by the National Chamber of Commerce will be held on November 25 in Colombo.

It is conducted with the objective of recognizing and rewarding the contribution made by business enterprises to economic progress of the country, to recognize enterprises that have created capacity for economic growth and employment generation, to recognize enterprises that have built sustainable market competitiveness, to recognize enterprises that have institutionalized best practices and business excellence and to recognize the entrepreneurs who have demonstrated their capacity to invest.

Any registered business organization domiciled in Sri Lanka and has been in operation for a minimum period of three years prior to the date of application can apply for this awards. The contestant enterprises will be grouped into five categories namely, extra large, large, medium, small and micro.

The evaluation criteria has eight categories in terms of business and finance results achieved, means by which these results were achieved, corporate governance in achieving the results and contribution to the community in the form of corporate social responsibility.

The judging criteria will include factors like integration of cutting edge knowledge, investment in technology, capacity building and performance management.

"We would be looking at how companies set objectives, manage internal processes, monitor on going performance, management of human resources both in terms of training and development will also featured in the evaluation including a range of human resource best practices", National Business Excellence Awards Committee- Panel of Judges Chairman Dr. Uditha Liyanage told Daily News Business.

The winners selected will be multi faceted and excellent in many fields with capacity building in current performance. The evaluation will focus on clear and forward looking distribution and channel strategy reaching markets far and wide. The highlight will be the importance of corporate governance.

"It is not about achieving good results any how. It is necessary to follow best practices in corporate governance, conformance to standards and procedures that are accepted and mandated.

The CSR activities should be integrated with the company's business model. We believe that if CSR activities are integrated it is sustainable as just ad-hoc or one-off would not serve the purpose. It is necessary that CSR programs continued over a period of time and the staff committed to deliver the programs," he said.

There are many benefits for the award winners. All award winners will be permitted to use the award logo on their promotional material for a period of three years from the date of winning the award, every winning enterprise will be permanently listed in the virtual hall of fame in the website dedicated for the National Business Excellence Awards, winners will be included in the Chamber's automated mailing list and will be entitled to receive all Chamber journals, newsletters and other communications, the chamber will arrange for the winners to showcase in leading business journals and will be given recognition at various events sponsored by the Chamber.

Application forms could be obtained from the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. The closing date of applications is August 31.

The applicants need to highlight the areas of excellence, sources of competitive advantage and a description. The judging process is long and tedious. The judges are committed in understanding the process of operations thoroughly and comprehensively, Dr. Liyanage said.