Meeting the Challenge of Excellence – Chapter 1, Business Excellence

Posted April 17th, 2007

Excellence in Business

Businesses also define excellence in a number of ways. Those millions of websites indicate excellence may be related to quality, safety, productivity, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, or profitability. Google “business excellence,” if you want to see other terms used in various industries. Clearly most businesses aspire to excellence. Aspirations are one thing, definitions are another.

Organizations define excellence in very specific terms, in ways that are meaningful to their business. A specific definition is likely derived from those who have an interest or a “stake” in the business. All the stakeholders may not have identical interests, but all have specific expectations. Who are the stakeholders in your business? Stakeholders in most businesses include the public, if the business provides goods or services that the public needs and wants. The public also is interested in safety, due to the hazardous nature of some industries. Stakeholders also include owners, specific customers, regulators, employees, government officials, vendors, contractors, and property owners near the business. Stakeholders expect excellence in the parts of the business that matter to them. The stakeholders define excellence according to their particular interest. It is important that those who lead and work in the business have a clear understanding of what all the stakeholders expect. What are the expectations of your stakeholders in the area of excellence? How well do you understand the expectations? How do the various stakeholders in your company define excellence? A second reason to be excellent is that your stakeholders expect excellence.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Excellence Book.