The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation is kicking off its 2002 drive to promote world-class performance with its Quest for Excellence conference in Auckland on the 21st of this month. Keynote speaker is former Honeywell Australia CEO John Wolfraad, who took the company to “world class” ranking in the 2000 Australian Business Excellence Awards.
Business Excellence Foundation interim CEO Kevin Riley says the focus of the conference this year is leadership and how it can be integrated into the Business Excellence programme.
The Quest for Excellence conference, being held at Auckland’s Greenlane Novotel, is run-up to the Foundation’s awards programme. It is designed to expose managers to understanding world-class performance in practical way and to identify best practice in New Zealand. Successful entrants from last year’s awards programme will discuss their approach and reasons for taking part.
The number of organisations applying to take part in the Business Excellence Awards programme is up on last year, according to Riley. “That’s positive sign that the message on the importance of striving for world-class performance is getting through,” he says. The list of organisations that have had their applications approved to take part in this year’s evaluation will be finalised later this month.
Beyond survival
Management Commercial
July 21, 2026
After a punishing economic cycle Kiwi businesses are emerging into something of a stabilisation period. Cautiously optimistic, past the worst, but with operating costs still biting and reinvestment held back. Why the next six months will define the recovery, and what business owners need to be doing in that period.
