The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in cooperation with Enterprise Singapore organized the APO Development Workshop for Practitioners of Business Excellence (BE), 11–14 March 2019. This workshop was designed to develop practitioners who can assess the need for using the BE framework as a strategic management tool and plan for its adoption in organizations.

APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn (L) and iPlast Principal Anston Tan signing the MOU on digitization in industry in Singapore.

The framework is a dynamic tool for managing organizations to improve competitiveness and productivity. Using the framework, organizations can identify strengths and opportunities and then align management systems and processes to create an environment for sustainable, continuous improvement.

Fifteen participants representing 11 APO member countries from government, public organizations, NPOs, and the private sector attended the workshop facilitated by Harnek Singh, an experienced BE assessor. Singh, who was instrumental in driving BE in his organization ST Engineering Ltd, shared the key challenges and success factors for managing and sustaining the implementation of BE in participants’ organizations in an age of disruption.

At the start of the workshop, Director of Business & Service Excellence Patrick Lim, Enterprise Singapore, highlighted the importance of adopting BE as a developmental framework for organizational performance.

Participants also had the opportunity to attend the Business Excellence Conference 2019, where local and international speakers gave presentations on management best practices and viewpoints from the public- and private-sector perspectives.