Launched in 2001 the Innovation Excellence Award (I-Award) is the highest accolade given to innovative organisations in Singapore and is based on the business excellence niche standard for innovation. It is conferred upon the best of the best in recognition of their attainment as models of innovation excellence for others to emulate. The Award recognises and celebrates organisations whose outstanding innovation capability development approach has contributed significantly to business excellence.
The Award supports SPRING’s business excellence initiative which provides organisations with a framework to develop and strengthen their management systems and processes to achieve high performance and be more competitive. It is based on the business excellence niche standard for innovation that support the framework which is aligned with the business excellence frameworks adopted for the US Malcom Baldrige Quality Award, European Quality Award, Japan Quality Award, and the Australia Business Excellence Award.
Award Criteria
Assessment of an organisation's ability to develop a total environment conducive for sustaining innovations is based on the business excellence niche standard (innovation). For more information, please refer to the Interpretation Guide of the standard.
The business excellence niche standard for innovation enables organisations to develop their innovation management capabilities. Based on the business excellence framework, it covers 6 categories namely, Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, and Results.
The I-Award criteria form the basis for the evaluation and feedback to applicants on their performance. The criteria promote :
- Understanding of the requirements for development of innovation capabilities
- Enhancement of organisational performance practices and capabilities for innovation
- Sharing of best practice information among organizations
For more information, please view the revised scoring for the 2010 application and for the award process, please view the Briefing Slides on the BE Awards.
- You can use the I-Award logo on all your collaterals.
- The logo is a mark of exceptional excellence that shows you have the best possible systems which ensure your business :
o encourages innovation from within
o continuously innovates to stay ahead of the competition
o develops new products and processes
I-Award assessment is based on the criterion in the
Innovation Scorecard for Business Excellence (I-SCORE) self-assessment tool.
Eligibility Guidelines
All public and private organisations in Singapore (except trade associations and professional societies) may apply for the Business Excellence (BE) Awards. Private organisations must have a major business operation in Singapore.
Subsidiary companies or business units applying for any of the BE awards should fulfil the following criteria:
- It should be a business entity with clear definition of an organisation as reflected in the corporate literature e.g. organisation charts, business scope, performance measures, administrative manuals and annual reports.
- It must have existed at least three years prior to the application.
- Its senior management team should be responsible for a wide range of management activities.
Subsidiaries or business units which primarily perform the business support functions of the parent company are not eligible. Examples of business support functions are sale marketing/distribution, customer service, research and development, legal services, purchasing, finance and accounting, and human resource management. A subsidiary/ business unit and its parent may not both apply for the award in the same year.
Past Award Recipients
As a confirmation of their ongoing performance in business excellence, past Award recipients, except for SQA recipients, will be re-assessed at least five years after winning the Award, during the BE Awards cycle. The SQA recipients can apply for the SQA with Special Commendation at least 5 years after winning the Award.
Award Assessment Process
A team of BE Awards Assessors will evaluate each report, and conduct a pre-site visit meeting as well as a site visit. Based on the review of the application and the results of the site visit, appropriate recommendations of Award recipients will be made to the Governing Council for approval. The decisions made by the Governing Council are final.
Application Submission
Organisations interested to participate in any of the BE Awards assessments in 2010 are required to submit the following by 31 March :
- Application Form
- Organisational Chart
- Chart(s) to illustrate the relationship with the parent organisation and/ or other subsidiaries where applicable
- Organisational Profile
- Application Report (5 sets for niche awards, 10 sets for SQA)
- Definition of Terms and Abbreviations used in the Application Report
For details on the application process, please refer to the
Application Guide.
Administration Fees
There is no fee for the application. However, applicants that are shortlisted for site visits will have to pay an administration fee for the site visits. This fee is
$1,000 per site visit day. The duration of the site visit will be determined when the visit is scheduled.
Business Excellence Awards Secretariat
SPRING Singapore
1 Fusionopolis Walk
#14-00, South Tower, Solaris
Singapore 138628
Email :
be@spring.gov.sg
Tel : (65) 6279 3921 / 6279 3157
Award recipients are required to share information on their successful performance and best practices with other organisations. This may take the form of seminar presentations, hosting company visits and other forms of public sharing activities like publication of the application report. However, recipients are not required to share proprietary information even if such information was part of their award application.