Launched in 1994 with the Prime Minister as its patron, the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) is the most prestigious award conferred on organisations that demonstrate the highest standards of business excellence. The Award aims to establish Singapore as a country committed to world-class business excellence.
The SQA is the highest accolade given to organisations for business excellence. The Award is conferred upon the “best of the best” in recognition of their attainment of world-class standard of performance 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.
SQA winners are often referred to as “world-class” organisations as the Award is benchmarked against international quality awards such as the :
The SQA is one of the 4 national awards under the Business Excellence Framework.
Singapore Quality Award with Special Commendation
(For Past SQA Winners Only)
Past SQA winners can apply for the SQA with Special Commendation at least 5 years after winning the SQA .The SQA with Special Commendation, launched in 2006, recognises past SQA winners for scaling greater heights of business excellence and for demonstrating sustainable global leadership in key business areas, products or services than when they won the SQA. Applicants need to demonstrate that they are recognised as benchmarks by international organizations.
The SQA is the highest national award for organisations who have achieved the Business Excellence Standard.
The SQA is awarded to organisations with management systems and processes that achieve outstanding levels of business excellence in all areas.
Criteria
The SQA criteria form the basis for the evaluation and feedback to applicants on their performance. The criteria promote :
- Understanding of the requirements for business and organisational excellence
- Enhancement of organisational performance practices and capabilities
- Sharing of best practice information among organisations
For more information, please view Briefing Slides on the BE Awards.
- You can use the SQA logo on all your collaterals.
- The logo is a mark of exceptional excellence. It shows that your business is a “world-class” organisation with systems and processes that ensure excellence in all the key areas of your business.
- Continuous journey of improvement
SQA assessment is based on the criterion found in the Business Excellence Assessment for Continuous Improvement (BEACON) self-assessment tool.
Eligibility Guidelines
All public and private organisations in Singapore (except trade associations and professional societies) may apply for any of the Business Excellence (BE) Awards. Private organisations must have a major business operation in Singapore.
Subsidiary companies applying for any of the BE awards should fulfil the following criteria :
- For the purposes of the BE Awards, a subsidiary is a business entity with clear definition of an organisation as reflected in the corporate literature, e.g. organisation charts, administrative manuals and annual reports.
- The subsidiary must have existed three years prior to the application. It should be an autonomous organisation with its own senior management group responsible for a wide range of management activities.
- Subsidiaries which primarily perform the business support functions of the parent company are not eligible. Examples of business support functions are sales marketing / distribution, customer service, research and development, legal services, purchasing, finance and accounting, and human resource management
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
2 Bukit Merah Central #19-00
Singapore 159835
Email : be@spring.gov.sg
Tel : (65) 6279 3921 / 6279 3157
- SQA recipients can apply for the SQA with Special Commendation at least 5 years after winning the Award.
- How do I use the logos? Please refer to the communication guide.