Two Bronze Awards in performance excellence awards

21st November 2014

Two Bronze Awards in New Zealand’s toughest and most prestigious performance excellence awards

The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation will present two New Zealand Business Excellence “Bronze” Awards at their annual gala luncheon on Friday 21 November.

The awards, which are administered by the Foundation, are the only awards in New Zealand which are fully aligned to the internationally respected and calibrated US Baldrige criteria. Foundation CEO, Fiona Gavriel, says “We sincerely congratulate this year’s Award winners on successfully completing a rigorous and demanding evaluation process to achieve this accolade. The Business Excellence Awards are not easy to achieve and it is a credit to the tenacity and focus on excellence that they have both achieved bronze status. Each organisation is assessed on its own merits during the evaluation process and it is pleasing to see two recipients from the health sector being recognised for their commitment in what are difficult and challenging operating environments.”

In receiving this award, Counties Manukau Health is only the second District Health Board in New Zealand to be recognised with an award since the New Zealand Business Excellence Awards commenced in 1993. They are an organisation that is demonstrably pioneering performance improvement and who fully appreciate the challenge of deploying this framework across a large, complex organisation.

MASH Trust, another health care provider has been on the journey for several years, relentlessly pursuing excellence in their services. They have partnered effectively with others in the sector to share information and benchmark their performance.

These awards place Counties Manukau Health and MASH Trust amongst the best in the New Zealand health and disability sector in terms of measuring performance and integration of their systems.

NZBEF Chairman and General Manager Corporate Support of Gold Award winning organisation Spectrum Care Trust Brett Marsh says

“the New Zealand health and disability sector providers are taking an increasingly strong leadership role in the business excellence community, role-modelling how seriously they take their responsibilities to the communities they support. Both organisations are committed to organisational improvement and New Zealand is served the better for their presence in the community, their leadership, and the example they become for others. The Business Excellence Awards are not difficult if they are undertaken with an aspiration to be something better, and being resolute about those aspirations. All organisations have opportunities for improvement, but it is the development of a culture of courage and innovation to address these that marks some organisations out. For their aspirations, their resolution and their courage, both Counties Manukau Health and MASH Trust are to be commended. Their leadership is now recognised in the business excellence community and beyond.”

Geraint Martin Counties Manukau Health CEO says

“One of CM Health most important values is the pursuit of ‘excellence’ and we are driven in all our activities to be at the forefront of our field. The better we can be as an organisation, the more able we’ll be to deliver patient care and achieve our vision to be the best health care system in Australasia by 2015.”

Mash Trust Chief Executive Carol Searle stated

“Business Excellence has resonated with us for two main reasons.

1) Business Excellence allows you to measure your business using international criteria and benchmark against world class organisations. While we are a provider of social services, we also need to recognise that we run a multi-million dollar business;

And 2) It recognises that the people undertaking tasks are best suited to identify how they can improve processes using a systematic approach.

I am extremely proud of the MASH Team who strive to be the very best in all that we do. Achieving a Bronze level the first time we have submitted our organisation to an evaluation process is a huge achievement.

While this is a fantastic result, we acknowledge that it is only one step along the continuing quality journey.”

The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation was established in 1992 by public and private enterprise to improve the overall performance of New Zealand organisations. The Founding trustees included a number of leading businessmen including the Rt. Honourable Jim Bolger (Patron), Sir Douglas Myers (Founding trustee) and Sir Ralph Norris. These well recognised business leaders acknowledged and created this Foundation in the belief that New Zealand business could and must have internationally-recognised benchmarks by which to guide continuous improvement. That driver has not changed today.

The 2014 New Zealand Business Excellence Awards Gala Luncheon takes place at Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT University Business School in Auckland, 11.45 – 3pm on Friday 21 November 2014.

ENDS

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