South Africa cannot and will not protect local business from the
threat of global competition, especially in those instances where
domestic business has not made the effort to overcome
inefficiencies, the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI)
director-general confirmed yesterday.
Speaking at a function to celebrate the launch of the new corporate identity of the South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF), in Johannesburg, Dr Alistair Ruiters said that the government was only prepared to support global champions and progressive businesses.
He said it is important for South African business to operate as effectively as possible, incorporating the principles of excellence into the country’s values.
“If we walk into a bank, for example, and get bad service, we should consider if this business would be able to operate internationally according to the accepted standards,” he told the 170 attendees at the event.
“It is not just about an individual getting bad service but the whole country not being as ‘excellent’ as we should be.”
He said it is remarkable how the public and private sectors have grown together as compared to ten years ago when both seemed to have contradicting visions.
He said South Africa needs high performance, sustainability and growth in order for the economy to be successful and quality in the domestic market is thus crucial to achieving such a goal.
Ruiters also challenged the country to take up the issue of attaining excellence in schools and incorporating this philosophy into South Africans from a young age.
“We should take the excellence levels seen by enterprise and encourage our children to achieve these levels,” he said.
The SAEF was established in 1997 and its mission is to be recognised as the primary guiding force in the achievement of organisational excellence in Southern Africa. The company has developed a business model that has eight key concepts with requirements that must be filled before an organisation will be recognised for excellence.
The concepts are policy and strategy, customer and market focus, people management, resources and information management, impact on society, customer satisfaction, people satisfaction and supplier and partnership performance.
The SAEF has had a complete brand redesign, with changes to its business model, logo and the way in which it conducts its affairs.
The organisation will, from now on, recognise not only listed companies but small medium and micro enterprises as well as the public sector and local government tiers.
Speaking at the function, SAEF chairperson Peter Vundla said the new logo symbolises the rebirth and new season of the foundation.
“Our new branding for the foundation indicates that we have embraced the complexity of real life, the way we as Africans embrace the diversity in our country,” Vundla said.
He likened SAEF to a river that creates new banks and paths as the environment changes and presents challenges to it.
“We have turned over a new leaf and we will continue to do so in the future. We are very proud of our new corporate identity,” he said.
Vundla also drew on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address that emphasised the importance of the process of implementation.
“One of the strongest calls by our government is for implementation. Implementation of government programmes at national, provincial and local government level. Implementation of affirmative action targets. Implementation of skills-development programmes. Implementation of job-creation programmes. Implementation of plans to grow the economy. All of these add up to excellence in all that we do. This means that ‘OK’ is no longer good enough!” he said.
The SAEF is also in the process of setting up what it terms an ‘excellence portal’ which will provide companies with a benchmarking database with which to compare their progress with others in corresponding sectors, both locally and internationally.
SAEF is a member of the Global Excellence Model Council, which maintains flexible networking activities among key global players.
Organisations are thereby encouraged to achieve excellence by being productive, innovative and making profits with a conscience.
Speaking at a function to celebrate the launch of the new corporate identity of the South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF), in Johannesburg, Dr Alistair Ruiters said that the government was only prepared to support global champions and progressive businesses.
He said it is important for South African business to operate as effectively as possible, incorporating the principles of excellence into the country’s values.
“If we walk into a bank, for example, and get bad service, we should consider if this business would be able to operate internationally according to the accepted standards,” he told the 170 attendees at the event.
“It is not just about an individual getting bad service but the whole country not being as ‘excellent’ as we should be.”
He said it is remarkable how the public and private sectors have grown together as compared to ten years ago when both seemed to have contradicting visions.
He said South Africa needs high performance, sustainability and growth in order for the economy to be successful and quality in the domestic market is thus crucial to achieving such a goal.
Ruiters also challenged the country to take up the issue of attaining excellence in schools and incorporating this philosophy into South Africans from a young age.
“We should take the excellence levels seen by enterprise and encourage our children to achieve these levels,” he said.
The SAEF was established in 1997 and its mission is to be recognised as the primary guiding force in the achievement of organisational excellence in Southern Africa. The company has developed a business model that has eight key concepts with requirements that must be filled before an organisation will be recognised for excellence.
The concepts are policy and strategy, customer and market focus, people management, resources and information management, impact on society, customer satisfaction, people satisfaction and supplier and partnership performance.
The SAEF has had a complete brand redesign, with changes to its business model, logo and the way in which it conducts its affairs.
The organisation will, from now on, recognise not only listed companies but small medium and micro enterprises as well as the public sector and local government tiers.
Speaking at the function, SAEF chairperson Peter Vundla said the new logo symbolises the rebirth and new season of the foundation.
“Our new branding for the foundation indicates that we have embraced the complexity of real life, the way we as Africans embrace the diversity in our country,” Vundla said.
He likened SAEF to a river that creates new banks and paths as the environment changes and presents challenges to it.
“We have turned over a new leaf and we will continue to do so in the future. We are very proud of our new corporate identity,” he said.
Vundla also drew on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address that emphasised the importance of the process of implementation.
“One of the strongest calls by our government is for implementation. Implementation of government programmes at national, provincial and local government level. Implementation of affirmative action targets. Implementation of skills-development programmes. Implementation of job-creation programmes. Implementation of plans to grow the economy. All of these add up to excellence in all that we do. This means that ‘OK’ is no longer good enough!” he said.
The SAEF is also in the process of setting up what it terms an ‘excellence portal’ which will provide companies with a benchmarking database with which to compare their progress with others in corresponding sectors, both locally and internationally.
SAEF is a member of the Global Excellence Model Council, which maintains flexible networking activities among key global players.
Organisations are thereby encouraged to achieve excellence by being productive, innovative and making profits with a conscience.
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