Summary
The management and leadership of an organization are crucial for the progress of the organization because they determine the extent to which it adapts to emerging trends. There are various business excellence models that a firm can use to attain its goals. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the company to focus on diverse ways of achieving excellence. DP World Company is a global firm that offers marine cargo transport services. The company uses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award business excellence model to ensure its success by focusing on customer satisfaction and encouraging its employees to contribute towards innovation.
Introduction
Organizations aim to add value to the provision of products and services. Therefore, the use of business excellence models helps in ensuring that businesses focus on attaining success. The models also assist organizations to align themselves with processes and activities that yield better returns. Business excellence awards, conversely, help in recognizing excellent organizational performance. The awards also promote and communicate positive practices in organizations.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various ways in which DP World Company uses business excellence models to recognize excellence and award its workers. The paper also intends to provide an insight on the methods used to collect data and make inferences regarding the company. Ultimately, the paper recommends strategies that can be used by DP World Company to improve its operations.
Background of the Organization
DP World Company is a global marine terminal and container operator (DP World Global Markets 2013). The company offers marine cargo transport as well as other specialized cargo services. It operates in 6 continents with more than sixty-five terminals (DP World Global Markets 2013, p. 45). The company’s operations kicked off in 2005 after Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International merged to form the DP World. The company’s main offices are in Dubai International Financial Centre. The company is listed in the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) Dubai and the London Stock Exchange.
The firm operates in several regions of the world including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, India, Australia and the Americas. DP World employs over 30,000 workers from various professions. The company’s goal of sustaining its growth causes it to offer excellent services in the business of cargo handling and distribution. For instance, DP World in the Indian subcontinent has had a growth rate of 15% in trade volume with most of its ports operating beyond their capacity (DP World Global Markets 2013, p. 11). The company’s chief focus is ensuring its customers are satisfied.
Literature Review
Business excellence models are tools used by managers in assessing enterprise and organizational changes in pursuit of business fineness (Jang 2001). Business excellence models enhance the productivity of firms in order to satisfy their customers. Customers are the primary focus of every business because they provide the needed resources to keep the companies running. In key organizations, there exist customer service departments to cater to the specific and general needs of the customers, which is a clear indication of the value attached to customers by organizations.
Excellence in business is measured by evaluating a company’s overall operations. The company’s general responsibility to the environment and the society is reviewed to ensure compliance with set regulations. Business excellence is an outstanding practice in the management of organizations, which derives results from eight fundamental concepts (Tan 2002). These notions include forging towards attaining results, management and consistency of objectives, customer centering, administration by procedure and details, participation and advancement of people, incessant learning, modernization and improvement, partnership growth, and communal responsibility (Callingo 2002). The business excellence is more comprehensive than other perceptions such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). In addition, the development of the excellence model provides a basis for awarding organizations and staff members. Therefore, the model is widely used in organizations to improve their performances.
There are two commonly applied awards, which are the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the United States and the European Quality Award (EQA) in Europe (Wilson & Collier 2000). Over 80 countries use the business excellence model especially the (MBNQA) designed by the U.S. government (Tan 2002). These two awards evaluate core values and concepts, criteria scoring systems, evaluation dimensions, and award application processes (De Kluyver 2014).
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award has been introduced to encourage quality awareness, identify requirements for quality excellence and share information about successful quality strategies and benefits (Vokurka, Stading, & Brazeal 2000). The awarding system covers seven parts namely management, tactical planning, centering on clients, measurement scrutiny and information management, personnel focus, process management, and results (Wilson & Collier 2000). The MBNQA aims at providing recognition to organizations that improve their quality continuously (Ford & Evans 2000). Similarly, the European Quality Award honors the outstanding European businesses (Tan 2002).
DP World focuses on customer intimacy and operational efficiency by applying the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The company adopts this excellence model in various activities by creating an environment that favors learning and growth and driving long-term shareholder value. The company also creates satisfying customer experiences and develops efficient, safe and secure methods of managing world trade. The learning process of its employees increases the level of innovation and the efficiency of its internal operations. The creation of customer satisfaction experience as outlined by the model ensures that the company remains profitable.
There is a projected eight-step procedure for corporations to perform self-evaluations to ensure competitiveness and business superiority. Business excellence models evaluate the quality of businesses based on financial or non-monetary indicators (Wilson & Collier 2000). The non-financial indicators include levels of innovation and generation of ideas, customer satisfaction, organizational growth, employee satisfaction, involvement, effectiveness, and productivity (Ford & Evans 2000).
Business excellence values and concepts are marks of organizations that portray distinct attributes, beliefs or behaviors (Callingo 2002). These ideals include farsighted management, customer-motivated fineness, managerial and individual knowledge, appreciation of the workforce and associates, dexterity and concentration on the future. They also include management for advancement, societal responsibility, focus on results and creating value and system perspectives. These aspects help companies to capitalize on their areas of strength and evaluate the areas that need improvement.
Data Collection
Information regarding the company is gathered using secondary sources and observation. Secondary sources include DP World brochures, press releases and journals. Observation of key parameters such as market stock prices and financial performance is used to come up with various conclusions. Secondary data is used to make inferences by evaluating the organization’s internal management and leadership models. The reviews made by internal staff and customers determine the operation efficiency of the firm. Consequently, these evaluation criteria provide insights on customer satisfaction.
Discussion
DP World ensures that it maintains its long-term goal of ensuring global growth by continuously increasing efficiency as well as developing safe and secure ways of managing its operations (Wilson & Collier 2000). The company guarantees that it provides safe and secure environments for its workers to boost their drive. The operation methods also help in ensuring environmental sustainability thereby promoting the company’s corporate image. DP World works continuously to have innovations in all its fields, which enables the company to work efficiently and deliver quality services.
The company maintains its reputation by providing highly integrated services that are unrivaled. In addition, the company has harnessed extensive knowledge and experiences across the company’s global portfolio (Callingo 2002). The sharing of information ensures up-to-date technological advances across the company’s network for easy coordination of efforts. The use of excellence model assists the company in the recognition and awarding of outstanding performance hence heightening morale of its employees. The business excellence model also helps the company identify its strengths such as inventiveness, collaboration and environmental sustainability.
Conclusion
DP World Company has a policy of creating customer satisfaction by being the leading handler of marine cargo. The business excellence model used by the company focuses on satisfying its customers. The company creates fulfilling customer experiences by applying the latest technology to reduce the time taken to handle cargo. The company has also allowed its staff the freedom to find innovative solutions, which has enabled the company to design cranes that can handle two forty-foot containers at once hence contributing to higher efficiency. Teamwork among the company’s workers has enabled the firm to implement its plans effectively. Consequently, the business has been able to develop into a multinational company.
Recommendations
The organization should work on improving its security standards to guarantee the safety of cargo. The company should continuously endeavor to create higher consumer satisfaction levels by delivering the cargo inland. The company can venture into new businesses such as cargo monitoring to diversify its operations. DP World Company has developed numerous innovations and information management systems across its stations all over the globe. Therefore, the company should ensure that all its terminuses get current container handling facilities to hasten the handling process.
References
Callingo, L. M. R 2002, “National quality and business excellence awards: mapping the field and prospects for Asia,” in Asia Productivity Organization (ed.), The quest for global competitiveness through national quality and business excellence awards, Asia Productivity Organization, Tokyo, pp. 3-18.
Jang, C 2001, Good to great: why some companies make the leap…and others don’t, Harper Business, New York.
De Kluyver, C. A 2014, Fundamentals of global strategy, v. 1.0. Web.
DP World Global Markets 2013. Web.
Ford, M. W. & Evans, J. R 2000, “Conceptual foundations of strategic planning in the Malcolm Baldrige Award Criteria for Performance Excellence,” Quality Management Journal, vol.7 no.1, pp. 8-26.
Tan K. C 2002, “A comparative study of 16 national quality awards,” The TQM Magazine, vol.14 no.4, pp. 165-171.
Vokurka, R. J., Stading, G. L. & Brazeal, J 2000, “Comparative analysis of national and regional quality awards,” Quality Progress, vol. 33 no. 8, pp. 41-49.
Wilson, D. D. & Collier, D. A 2000, “An empirical investigation of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award casual model,” Decision Sciences, vol. 31 no. 2, pp. 361-390.