Board members and top management have a responsibility to undertake their duties efficiently and effectively. Their ability to fulfil their accountabilities has a direct impact on how successful a business is in meeting its business objectives. RFBE, through a Business Excellence approach, can assist board members and top management to fulfil their respective accountabilities.

As a Chairman of Board, Mayor, Director, Councillor or one with similar accountabilities, you would be in the minority, if you were not concerned about fulfilling the heavy weight of increasing obligations and expectations that you carry in your roles. Yet, this concern can be significantly alleviated. Company Boards, Directors, Councillors and others with similar responsibilities are entitled to expect and receive support to proactively address their accountabilities for business performance.

A Business Excellence approach offers Company Boards, Directors, Councillors and others with similar responsibilities a basis for proactively engaging with Executive Management to influence the establishment of an internationally acknowledged holistic management system that supports the systematic and structured pursuit of superior and sustainable business outcomes, expected by shareholders or constituent communities. Business Excellence can be a Governance and Risk Management tool or mechanism that both demonstrates a recognised approach to meeting Board accountabilities for business performance and enables assessment of organisational systems to provide ongoing assurance.

A Board delegates operational accountability for executing agreed strategy to the MD, CEO or equivalent who is then faced with the significant challenge of leading the business on a day to day basis to achieve shareholders expectations of holistic business performance whilst complying with all its legal obligations.

Today most medium sized and all large businesses have well articulated corporate strategies. The larger businesses also have almost unlimited access to internal and external resources to help in running a consistently successful business. A myriad of management strategies and approaches are invested in and applied and may deliver short-term benefits. There is no shortage of academic or expert guidance available on customer service, organisational culture, business intelligence or emerging business challenges like globalisation and climate change, yet these businesses experience ongoing challenges in achieving and maintaining sustainable desired levels of holistic business performance.

The primary issue or common theme, though, that an MD, CEO or equivalent must address as a first priority is ‘Organisational Disconnect’. This phenomenon occurs right through the business and at all levels, manifesting in disconnect among board, between board and executive management, between Divisions, between strategy and process, between strategy and structure, between strategy and data, between product or service and customer, between management and employees and so on.

Business Excellence offers MD’s, CEO’s and others with similar responsibilities a basis for the establishment of a nationally, if not internationally, acknowledged system that supports the systematic and structured pursuit of superior and sustainable business outcomes, expected by shareholders. Business Excellence can be a Governance and Risk Management tool or mechanism that both demonstrates a recognised approach to meeting Executive’s delegated accountabilities for business performance and enables assessment of organisational systems to provide ongoing assurance.