Tata Steel wins the CII - EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence
November 16, 2000

Bangalore: Tata Steel has bagged the coveted CII-Exim Bank award for Business Excellence for the year 2000, announced Mr. N. Srinivasan, Dy, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the inaugural session of the 8th Quality Summit being held in Bangalore. Mr. Venu Srinivasan, Chairman of the Awards Committee, said "I am personally delighted that we have had a winner after one year, and convey my congratulations to Tata Steel, the winning company". The CII award comes close on the heels of another major national laurel won by Tata Steel - the Prime Minister's award for the Best Integrated Steel Plant for the year 1996-99. Commenting on the award, Mr. G. Jagannathan, Head of the Tata Quality Management Service, said "This is a proud moment for Tata Steel, and an affirmation that our quest for excellence has reached an important milestone".

Instituted six years ago in 1994, the CII-Exim Bank Award for Business Excellence is the most prestigious award that an Indian company could receive for overall business excellence. To be an award winner, the company must demonstrate excellence in results with respect to all its stakeholders - employees, customers and shareholders, through excellence in processes and people. The CII-Exim Bank award is modelled on the European Foundation for Quality Management's Award for Business Excellence.

Commenting on the evaluation process, Mr. N. Srinivasan, said "the competing companies were evaluated rigorously against a stringent set of parameters. The benchmarked criteria were the company's achievements againgst the three P's - People, Process and Performance. Over 1000 man-hours were spend by the team of assessors on each of the nine finalists. The CII-Exim award has had only three winners since its institution six years ago -a measure of the high standards set by the judges, and the rigour of the evaluation process. Hewlett Packard in 1997 and Maruti Udyog in 1998 were the previous two. Out of the nine finalists in 2000, two companies bagged the Commendation for 'Significant Achievement' - AT&S Ltd. and Harita Grammer Ltd. Four companies achieved Commendation for 'Commitment to Excel'. These were BHEL (Trichy), HDFC, L&T (ECC Div.) and L&T Komatsu Ltd.