The Best Prax Club’s Conclave 2010 on ‘Benchmarking aspects of Business Excellence’ held at the Taj President on 28 and 29 April drew an enthusiastic response from professionals engaged in promoting business excellence across a wide spectrum of Indian manufacturing and service industry.The conclave focused on leadership and strategic planning covering the theoretical underpinnings of the benchmarking practice as also the ‘hands on’ field experience and expertise gained by various organisations through the best practices. These included diverse groups representing the academia, healthcare, mining, manufacturing, consumer products, insurance, banking and other domains.

Setting the context for the conclave, Suresh Lulla, founder and director, BestPrax Club India, dwelt on the evolution of the concept of quality over time, starting with the consumer’s expectation of better quality of the goods/services he purchased to better quality at less cost to better and cheaper plus faster delivery to the current quality paradigm of better, cheaper, faster and different offerings. Emphasising that consumers were no longer looking for clones of established product and service offerings but rather offerings that incorporated the wow factor, which innovation alone could best deliver, he said, this called for integrating the key core value of ‘managing for innovation’ in fostering performance excellence. Innovation itself would involve ideation which would come from ‘Cross industry benchmarking’ involving knowledge mining and bench marking survey.

Robin Mann, chairman, Global Benchmarking Network, offered an overview of the global benchmarking network and its activities and projects across 22 member countries. He said the current use of improvement techniques involved Informal benchmarking (68 per cent of organisations), Performance benchmarking (49 per cent) and Best practice benchmarking (39 per cent), according to a study conducted in 2008 by the Global Benchmarking Network (GBN). The study also showed an average financial return of $100,000 to $125,000 per best practice benchmarking project with over 20 per cent reaping benefits of more than $250,000 per project.

Elaborating on the theme, Bruce Searles, director- business development, GBN and managing partner, Benchmarking Partnerships, Australia, explained what constituted business excellence and how implementing a benchmarking framework could help organisations deliver improved and sustainable business results.

Following the proceedings on the opening day, the second day of the conclave saw 16 teams from organisations across manufacturing and service sectors, including banks, health care providers, heavy industry, utilities etc share 10 best practices they developed and implemented in their organisations to successfully drive excellence in their operations.

Hindalco Industries, Mumbai with the vision to emerge as a premium metals major, global in size and reach with a passion for excellence outlined the 10 best practices implemented in the organisation, including fostering a culture of transparency and integrity with external and internal customers, unleashing employee potential, nurturing a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Yes Bank, which pursues a brand strategy to build one of the finest financial brands in the India, has set its vision of being recongised as the Best Quality Bank of the World in India. The bank nurtures values of growth, trust, technology, knowledge driven human capital, transparency and responsible banking and aims to champion the “Responsible Banking” in India where the concepts of corporate social responsibility and sustainability are integrated in the DNA of the organisation. The 10 best practices the bank has implemented include leveraging technology for workforce empowerment, innovative recruitment and onboarding practices, total outsourcing and co-creation of value and mobile banking.

Grasim Industries’ white cement division manufactures white cement, wall care putty, and a range of surface preparation products. The company’s vision is to emerge as the most preferred supplier of quality products in the category and to achieve sales revenues in excess of RS1,000 crore. The company has instituted various best practices, including a knowledge integration programme, vision formulation, creativity index, benchmarking 100 companies and a leadership driven innovation culture. The company seeks to inculcate values of integrity, commitment, passion, seamlessness and speed through the organisation.

Tata Power is engaged in power generation, transmission, distribution and trading in power, fuel and fuel logistics with transmission lines and distribution network being the delivery mechanisms. The company envision’s emerging as the most admired integrated power and energy company delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders, with a strategic intent of generation 25,000 MW by 2017. The company has adopted creation of sustainability mindset, organisational excellence through TBEM, multirater process and Tata Power Energy Club as some of the best practices for driving excellence.

ACC- Gagal Cement Works produces Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) 43 Grade and Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) with 98% of its output being blended cement, ie, PPC, which is an eco-friendly and durable cement. The company’s vision is to be one of the most respected companies in India recognised for challenging conventions and delivering on its promises. The company has implemented a slew of best practices, including sharing of best practices among sister works, promoting cost consciousness among employees, afforestation, and ACC Ashwamedh among others.

Sterlite Industries (SIL) manufactures copper cathodes of LME grade ‘A’ and copper rods as its main products. The company’s vision is to be the worlds’ leading copper producer delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders by leveraging technology and best practices. Among the best practices implemented at SIL are SPIDER, Management Assurance Services, Project Parivartan and Total Quality Management.

PT. Elegant Textile Industry & PT Indo Liberty Textiles, Indonesia produce 100% rayon, polyester and rayon/polyester blended spun yarn. The company has a mission to deliver superior value to customers, shareholders and employees and envisions emerging as a leading producer and exporter of premium quality man-made fiber spun yarn globally. Best practices implemented at the company include two-way communications, knowledge management, SAP, re-engineering, quality function deployment

Hindustan Zinc’s Lead Zinc Complex is the largest zinc and lead production facility in the world. It envisions emerging as a world class company creating value, leveraging mineral resources and related core competencies. The company’s mission is to be the lowest cost zinc producer on a global scale and maintaining market leadership. The best practices at the company include integrated water management approach, transparency and reporting on corporate governance, triple bottom line among others.

Aditya Birla Chemicals, Palamu, produces caustic soda lye, liquid chlorine, hydrochloric acid, sodium hypochlorite, anhydrous aluminum chloride. The company’s vision is to emerge as the benchmark in chlor alkali industry with clear focus on each business process. Ancillarisation, CSR activities through Jan Sewa Trust of ABCIL, Group Synergy for strategic are some of the best practices being followed at the company.

ITC- SBU, Packaging & Printing Division, services both domestic and export markets and supplies packaging solutions to various industry segments, including food and beverage, consumer electronics etc. The unit envisions emerging as the most preferred supplier and key marketing partner for all customers and has implemented Triple Bottom Line Approach, Green Packaging, constant innovation and continuous learning among other initiatives as best practices.

Sesa Goa is India’s largest exporter of iron ore in the private sector and is majority owned and controlled by Vedanta Resources Plc, a London listed FTSE 100 diversified metals and mining company. Sesa Goa has three major inter-related business segments – iron ore, met coke and pig iron. With the vision of emerging as one of the top four iron ore mining companies in the world, the company strives to foster values of entrepreneurship, growth, excellence, trust and sustainability. Among the company’s 10 best practices are initiatives such as Energy Recovery Technology, Knowledge Sharing and Management, Nurturing Young Talent and JOSH Improvement Scheme.

Castrol is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of automotive, industrial and marine and energy lubricants and counts Castrol Edge, Castrol Activ, Castrol Tection Globa, Castrol Hyspin, Castrol Cyltech 70 among the brand leaders. The company’s mission is to be a global differentiated player focusing on material and sustainable markets leveraging its brand strength, consumer/customer relationships through a cost disciplined approach and some of the best practices it has implemented to drive operational excellence are Brand Management, Individual Performance Management, Innovation, Road Safety, Self Advocacy and Self Certification.

P D Hinduja National Hospital and MRC is engaged in healthcare delivery in personalised form either in the hospital or at home in an ethical way, respecting the dignity of the patient. The hospital’s vision is to deliver quality healthcare and the organisation strives to foster the values of Work to Give, Work is Bond, Act Local & Think Global, Partnership for Growth, Advance Fearlessly. The hospital has adopted a number of best practices, including Innovation in Healthcare, Six Sigma, Value Enhancement Strategies and Performance Review Mechanism.

Eureka Forbes envisages a happy, healthy, safe and pollution-free world built on lasting relations. Eureka Forbes manufactures and markets products that provide solutions for water purification, cleaning technology, air purification, and security of domestic and commercial establishments. The company’s mission is to build sustainable relationships with customers by satisfying their evolving health, hygiene, safety and lifestyle needs. Among the best practices it has implemented to drive excellence are rewards and recognition, Euro Business Partner, EuroSenate, Product & Service improvements from Customer Insights.

DAV Public School delivers educational services through mechanisms, including classroom instruction, books provided by the school and other learning resources like library and laboratories. The school’s stated vision is to produce academically accomplished students equipped with competencies to enable the country to be counted as the world leader in human, intellectual and financial capital. The Best Practices at DAV Public School are Building Social  Capital,  Internal Audit Process, Legal and Ethical Behaviour and Internal Benchmarking of Icons/Leaders among others.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is engaged in offering life insurance, retirement solutions, health insurance, and group insurance. The company envisages emerging as the leading life, health and pension player building on trust. The values the company strives to foster are Customer First, Ownership, Passion and Integrity and counts Business Case for MIS, Business Case for Sales force Automation, TATVA among its Best Practices initiatives for driving excellence.