The Concept of Business Excellence - Assignment Example

Business Excellence Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Business Excellence Question One The concept of Business Excellence (BE) means the strengthening and development of particular processes and management systems in a firm which is aimed at creating value and enhancing the performance for the business’s stakeholders (Asif et al., 2011). BE supersedes just an organization developing a quality system for themselves. It is mainly concerned with the achievement of excellence in all the business practices of a company which includes information management, customer focus, strategy, and leadership. Precisely, the central focus of BE is to attain superior business results. From another perspective, BE is concerned with some outstanding practices regarding organizational management which are aimed at attaining the best results which are based on particular fundamental concepts. These ideas include public responsibility, partnership development, results orientation, continuous learning, customer focus, management by facts and processes, people involvement and development, and constancy of purpose and leadership (Asif et al., 2011). The concept of BE is mainly focused on making a given company deliver its goals, achieve high levels of success, produce significant profits, and enhance its general performance. Relating to the implementation of BE in the organization, it entails a given set of tools and principles which can be utilized to drive the organizational performance. However, as is often the case with the utilization of any particular tool in business management, it is often prone to misuse or the value of the tool is either lost or diminished. As such, it is highly encouraged that organizations make efficient use of these BE tools and be careful not to misuse them for them to achieve the highest levels of Business Excellence. The primary difference between the ineffective and efficient utilization of BE often lies majorly in the manner that the approach is being put to use as opposed to the approach in itself. The critical factor regarding the success of BE implementation depends on the mindset of the individual user of the approach. Therefore, it is imperative to set a clear and effective mindset regarding the ways which BE can be put to maximum use so that an organization can oversee the improvement that they all strive to achieve. Thus, when evaluating the meaning of BE, as many would just describe it as an approach, it is still essential to understand the real understanding regarding the principles that it is based on, how it works, and also the ways that it can be utilized to have maximum effect. The common factor regarding BE is that regardless of the kind of business, it results in significant productivity enhancements. Another paramount factor that needs to be considered when understanding what BE is the understanding of the concepts as well as the core values from where the BE models were obtained from. These refer to the behaviors, beliefs, and the attributes that firms need to exhibit for them to be considered as BE companies. These concepts and core values are the core foundation of the BE approach and are typically grounded on the fabric of some successful firms (Asif et al., 2011). Question Two Business Excellence and Leadership It is evident that BE is aimed at overseeing that there is a positive growth for the individual organization. This positivity regarding a firm’s growth, which is concerned with development and performance, is closely dependent on the leadership effort which then implies that leadership plays a central role when it comes to the achievement of BE (Doeleman, ten Have, & Ahaus, 2012). Leadership entails influencing individual tasks and objectives which then control the commitment and compliance in the tasks that are undertaken to achieve these different goals, therefore, influencing and maintaining the way an organizational culture is molded. In the same light, leadership can be described as the process of people mobilization with particular motives, values, and characteristics which mean that leadership is essentially a partnership between a leader and their group members. Additionally, leadership is also concerned with lifting the vision of people to elevated levels while upgrading their specific standards of performance. From the above perspectives of leadership and sound systems of leadership, it is apparent that real and efficient leadership results in the development and growth of the business performance which is central aspects when it comes to fostering BE. Precisely, the most important ingredients that are entailed in active leadership are reflecting upon the individual visions of people. Following this, as a paramount factor which significantly promotes the aspect of BE, leadership continues to play a central role regarding overseeing that the right workers are allocated the right jobs that are in line with their abilities and vision (Doeleman, ten Have, & Ahaus, 2012). When the leadership of a company ensures that the right people have the right jobs, then it is the most efficient and simplest strategy that can be applied to achieve high success levels and in the process also enhancing the BE levels of the particular organization. Regarding leadership, there are some characteristics of leaders which can be useful in improving business excellence. These two major leaders’ characteristics include them being influential and visionary. For the enhancement of a company’s excellence, the stakeholders who are responsible for all the business activities need to be influenced in one way or the other so that they can help in the accomplishment of the strategic goal of a firm. On the other hand, visionary leadership will ultimately result in the enhancement of a company’s outlook and the business excellence inclusive. Leadership is also concerned with strategizing to realize a better company which then acts as a path that drives leaders to lead organizations to achieve high levels of organizational performance. As a firm realizes enhance performance due to effective leadership, then they are riding towards achieving business excellence. This is because they exhibit characteristics which tend to focus on fostering high levels of business prosperity (Doeleman, ten Have, & Ahaus, 2012). Evidently, business excellence is highly dependent on the positive leadership traits that are exhibited by leaders of an organization. Therefore, the enhancement of a company’s level of BE is reliant on the implementation of some innovative changes which can only be achieved if there is proper and efficient leadership. Question Three Business Excellence and Business Strategy There is a relationship which exists between strategy and business excellence. Typically, Business Excellence (BE) is achieved by firms that habitually strive to strike a balance between their strategy execution and strategy development. Strategy development entails obtaining an absolute focus and clarity on what the priorities of the firm are and the things that need to be implemented so that these priorities can be achieved (Lu, Betts & Croom, 2011). On the other hand, strategy execution entails the ways to effect the things that need to be achieved while at the same time handling the various uncertainties that come about during operations (Lu, Betts & Croom, 2011). BE supports the execution of business strategy through forming a platform and giving a background on which the business strategy can be developed and implemented. As has been discussed earlier, BE is concerned with the enhancement of success of a company through the achievement of its goals, mission, and vision. These are the same guidelines that need to be followed when it comes to executing a business strategy. In the same light, when a firm is regarded as a BE organization, then it means that the particular company can be viewed holistically with its central focus being on the ‘total team’ and ‘total organization’ as being the underpinning concepts (Lu, Betts & Croom, 2011).. Thus, this means that the BE supports executing the business strategy through making the firm’s vision and mission turn to reality and in the end adding significant value to the organization. Since the process of developing a business strategy is usually defined as the highest process level that a company can be engaged in, then it becomes the starting point where the mission and vision can be realized which is then followed by BE overall. On the other hand, strategy plays a central role in the BE program implementation. Organization leaders typically formulate particular policies which are intended to develop the internal capabilities and at the same time serve customers with the aim of achieving the overall organizational goals (Young Kim, Kumar & Murphy, 2010). At the same time, strategy enables a company to account for their organization performance precisely the financial results. All of these are significant determinants of BE and as such are essential entities in the implementation of BE. Additionally, various challenges may be faced when implementing the BE program among the most evident being the lack of clearly defined strategic goals and the various uncertainties in the external environment. Firstly, BE cannot be achieved if there is nothing to guide its achievement in the long run. Therefore, the business strategy provides the wider framework and picture that enables the leadership of a firm to be informed of the ways of realizing BE. Secondly, the business strategy helps in implementing the BE program in that highlights the uncertainties of the firm’s external environment as well as the internal capabilities that may affect the realization of the primary goal of BE which is enhanced business performance (Young Kim, Kumar & Murphy, 2010). References Asif, M., Searcy, C., Garvare, R., & Ahmad, N. (2011). Including sustainability in business excellence models. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 22(7): 773-786. Doeleman, H. J., ten Have, S., & Ahaus, K. (2012). The moderating role of leadership in the relationship between management control and business excellence. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(5-6): 591-611. Lu, D., Betts, A., & Croom, S. (2011). Re-investigating business excellence: Values, measures and a framework. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 22(12): 1263-1276. Young Kim, D., Kumar, V., & Murphy, S. A. (2010). European foundation for quality management business excellence model: an integrative review and research agenda. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 27(6): 684-701. Read More