Exploring business excellence in Asia

This paper explores the use of Business excellence (BE) within Asian organisations. The paper observes the relative effectiveness of BE in Asian organisations as well as the organisations' attitudes towards BE awards. 74 organisations from five Asian countries were surveyed and 21 discussion groups were also conducted in all five countries. 13 interviews were also held with senior executives of BE award winning organisations. The study found that Asian organisations found BE to be important in helping them reach their organisational goals (both short and long term). However, there are several barriers to long-term commitment to BE within Asia; these include deficiencies in the development of a BE culture and a lack of comprehensive training programmes to fully educate staff in BE.