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Abu Dhabi honours private sector

Abu Dhabi: About 17 companies which won the Shaikh Khalifa Excellence Awards (SKEA) were honoured during a ceremony at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, on Monday night .

Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region, presented the awards.

The awards, held under the patronage of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, were launched in 1999.

Since then they have been recognising the achievements of organisations in the health, oil and gas, finance, tourism, education, manufacturing and services sector, providing them with "a road map to help them improve their performance".

While the awards have no monetary value, their value lies in what the organisations do in terms of self-assessment. The model put in place by the committee enables organisations to focus on priorities and actions for improvement.

Organisations adopting this model will find it a powerful means of motivating people while also helping them to focus efforts on continuous improvement. It is generally accepted that the benefits of this approach far outweigh any cost incurred.

Finalists

This year as many as 500 companies applied for the award, said Saeed Al Fahim, Chairman of the SKEA Higher Committee, which led up to 120 finalists. "Participants are increasing year on year because they have found that the criteria for the award are actually beneficial for their companies," he said.

"In the beginning, many of them were cautious about sharing the inner workings of their business with our assessment team," he explained. "But when they realised that the rules apply to all participants they became more accepting of the process."

"There is a genuine interest from the leadership in the country to support this initiative because it's encouraging the company to improve their standards," he added.

It was announced during the ceremony that two new categories would be added next year — one for innovation and creativity and the other for human development and customer service.

Al Mafraq Hospital and Abu Dhabi Industries (Gasco) won the two diamond awards this year. It was also the first time Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) was nominated.

Expectation

The gold winner has already got its eyes set for the diamond prize next year. "Yes, we were expecting to win," said Ali Rashid Al Jarwan, Chief Executive Officer of Adma-Opco, told Gulf News.

"It's a great honour for us," he said. "We've been working for this for about a year to organize our work and get it approved with the requirements of the award."

"The requirements are not alien to us, but they need articulation. It has a specific criteria when it comes to documentation, etc," he said. "We benefited a lot actually."

"You have to have a system. You have to be organised. You have to have a procedure. You have to be prepared to compete with a world class international company," said Mohammad Al Refaey of Excellent Pipes Company, which won a silver SKEA, its second award since 2005. "We should have won a gold," said Al Refaey, expressing his disappointment for winning a silver award twice so far.

"Most of the winners for the gold and diamond were a government or semi-government institute," he added.

Speaking of its added value, "I think it's a reference in Abu Dhabi that you can measure yourself," he said. "It's more prestige."

Diamond Winners:

Mafraq Hospital

Sector: Health

Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco)

Sector: Oil

Gold Winners:

Abu Dhabi Distribution Company

Sector: Service

Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company

Sector: Oil & Gas

Abu Dhabi Health Servcies Seha

Sector: Health

Commercial Bank of Dubai

Sector: Finance

Silver Winners:

Excellent Pipes Company

Sector: Manufacturing

Abu Dhabi University

Sector: Education

Al Mansoori Specialized Engineering

Sector: Services

Lifeline Hospital

Sector: Health

Certificates of Appreciation granted to:

Al Hilal Bank

Sector: Finance

Gulf Diagnostic Hospital

Sector: Health

Al Ansari Exchange

Sector: Finance

Fast Rent a Car

Sector: Service

Aloft Abu Dhabi Hotel

Sector: Tourism

Joseph Group

Sector: Manufacturing

Al Ghadeer Pure Water Factory

Sector: Manufacturing


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