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Conferences
14th GBN Conference
The first benchmarking conference
14th GBN Conference
On September 16-17, 2005 the annual conference of Global Benchmarking Network (GBN) national partners was held in Prague. Following the tradition established at the conference, GBN partners summarized their annual work and interchanged future plans. For the first time in the conference history the report was made by Yuri Samoilov, Executive Director of Business Excellence department of the Russian Organization for Quality (ROQ).
For the short term of Russia's membership in this international organization, the department achieved tangible results in promoting experience exchange in Russia. The national network for interchanging of best practices started from the first Russian Benchmarking Conference held in Cheboksary, Chuvashiya, where the establishment of Business Excellence Benchmarking Club was officially announced. At the club presentation the memorandum, code of ethics, and a detailed program of club activities was presented. The club was established to allow enterprises and organizations join their efforts sharing main principles and provisions of the presented documents based on the code of ethics and rules of benchmarking procedures elaborated by GBN. President of the club was elected Natalia Tomson, General Director of RIA Standards and Quality, and ROQ Board Member; Vice President - Yuri Samoilov, Executive Director of Business Excellence ROQ department.
RIA Standards and Quality became the first member of Business Excellence Benchmarking Club. It is worth mentioning that for several years the readers of Door to Success column of Standards and Quality journal have been learning about best practices of Russian enterprises and organizations in different manufacturing and services sectors. The activity of the newly established club will also be highlighted in Business Excellence journal, former European Quality. Among the Benchmarking Club members are Business Excellence LLC and the Russian Register Certification Association. Since its establishment the Club has been implementing a proactive policy of Business Excellence regional centers deployment ready to carry out benchmarking activities on-site. Among the organizations which have expressed their wish to join the club are the Volga Region Club of Quality, Technokomplex Kachestvo OJSC (Chuvashia), Azhur Ltd Consulting Agency (Kazan), Register Consulting Yug Consulting Company (Krasnodar) and some other Russian organizations and companies.
One of the club lines of activity is the organization of industry benchmarking to study the experience of best Russian and foreign companies in different industrial sectors and spheres of activity. The first enterprise subject to the benchmarking was Volvo-Gent visited by a representative delegation of Russian automotive manufacturers. In 2006 visits to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and USA are scheduled.
In the report at the 14th GBN partners conference Yuri Samoilov also spoke of the need to render practical methodological assistance to the enterprises in their benchmarking researches in order to improve their operating activities. This high-performance activity of Russian partners was highly appreciated by Prague Conference participants, and not surprisingly they made the decision to appoint Yuri Samoilov Vice Chairman of GBN. They agreed to hold the next conference of GBN partners in September 2006 in Moscow. Russian delegation proposed to organize the event at the same time with the Second Russian Benchmarking Conference and the First International Benchmarking Conference which Russia could host.
Among other issues discussed at the Conference was the planning of experience exchange between GBN national partners. All participants unanimously agreed that theoretical knowledge accumulation, basic documents and benchmarking fundamentals development should be integrated in actual practice. An efficient tool for putting these methods into practice is creation, compiling, and use of the existing international benchmarking databases as a basic instrument of experience communication among GBN members’ enterprises. Among other important factors they mentioned information support of these campaigns and research activities.
One of the steps towards putting theory into practice at GBN conferences was the meeting of GBN members with high-level Czech official for the first time in the GBN conference history. Over 15 delegates representing various departments of the Czech government told how they used
benchmarking in their day-to-day activity. As a reference standard the UK government policy was used. The benchmarking integration into their own activity should give answers to three questions: what was achieved, how and why? GBN members told about the models and ways of benchmarking in their countries. for instance, a competition between different UAE governmental departments is often discussed not only in the lobbies but in local press in a frank and open manner. Such competitions are organized to support, maintain and encourage government officials to take leadership in their work. A special school named Leadership Program for officials training is organized for that purpose.
The participants of the joint meeting of GBN members and Czech government officials tried to find answers to the following questions: how they can meet both State and private sector interests; which indicators and criteria should be used for efficiency assessment of governmental departments and the officials themselves. At the end of the meeting the parties acknowledged the importance of this opinion exchange, the necessity and practicability of these meetings oriented to study and dissemination of practical experience in various fields, including public administration. At the closure of the 14th conference GBN traditionally approved its new members, UAE and Estonia this time.
The first benchmarking conference
G. Watson, ex-President of American Society for Quality, addressed the audience with a report Benchmarking and competitiveness. Towards business excellence. In his report Watson told about the fundamentals of benchmarking and demonstrated its effectiveness for competitiveness improvement with examples of Xerox, Mazda and Ford.
A special attention was paid to the Japanese experience of business improvement. Y. Benadi, an official representative of Iwao Kobayashi School and Executive Director of Organization Development International, South Africa, addressed the conference with a report "20 keys to revolutionary business improvement". He pointed out that during recent 15 years several hundreds of major enterprises have successfully implemented 20 Keys methods. Among them are well-known companies such as Siemens, Gillette, BMW, and Cadbury.
Within the framework of the conference Striving for Improvement thematic ring was organized. The TV-show involving over 80 participants was shot by Channel 5+, Cheboksary. Two teams from Saint-Petersburg and Moscow were competing at the ring.
The leader of the first team was S.V. Vasilevskaya, General Director of Quality and Business consulting center. The leader of the second team was S.V. Yefimov - the Head of the Southern branch of the Russian Register Certification Association. The participants of the ring arrived at conclusion that they needed to use benchmarking methods to improve efficiency at their companies.
Among the participants of the conference were representatives of Russian enterprises, consulting firms, universities, standardization and metrology centers, and cross-sectional scientific centers. The speakers at the conference covered the following issues: the role of benchmarking in defense industry reforms and integration and certification of quality management systems; practical use of benchmarking methods by Russian enterprises; civilized business ethics, and the global role of benchmarking processes.
Within the framework of the Best Experience for Better Life! program, ROQ took charge of the creation of benchmarking centers network in Russia integrated into Business Excellence Benchmarking Club. This network will become a part of the international professional benchmarking organization (Global Benchmarking Network). ROQ has been its national partne
in Russia since 2004.
Yu.N. Samoilov, Executive Director of the Russian Organization for Quality, made the presentation of the club. The conference became the starting point for the club practical activity in the field of dissemination of best practices and knowledge to assist companies and organizations in improving their business performance.
Among the honorary members of the club were S.A. Gaplikov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Chuvashia Republic; Yu.P. Voloshin, the republican Minister of Industry and Energy; S.E. Litovchenko, Executive Director of Managers' Association; G. Watson, ex-President of American Society for Quality; Y. Benadi, Director of Organization Development International, South Africa; and I.S. Berezin, President of the Guild of Marketologists.
Summarizing the conference results, Minister of Industry and Energy of Chuvashia Voloshin pointed out that the organization of the first Russian conference in Cheboksary was the acknowledgement of the republican efforts towards the implementation of modern business practices. The government of Chuvashia will continue working towards achieving this goal to considerably improve life quality of Chuvashian people and create an efficient, competitive and innovative economy in the region.
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