NAA 2013 Award Winner Profile: Business Excellence Large Company Of The Year Award
Sponsored by Electron Technical Solutions and presented by Steven Schofield, Managing Director
How the award winner was assessed
The assessment process for Business Excellence Award winners was based on the linkage of the project to the company objectives, project detail, achievements and future opportunities. The achievements were considered from two perspectives of ‘actual achieved to-date’ and ‘future potential’ and consisted of the return of investment, the number of jobs created and safeguarded, skills assists and any other benefits (social, environmental etc).
Winner – Bentley Motors Ltd
Located in Crewe and owned by Volkswagen AG since 1998, Bentley Motors remains the definitive British luxury car company, crafting the world’s most desirable high performance grand tourers.
Bentley’s Business Excellence project engaged Lyndon Williams Consulting (LWC) to undertake a focus group process across a sample of all levels within the manufacturing function. As a result of the analysis of the focus group feedback, LWC was asked to design and deliver a two-day development workshop that was targeted at the Zone Manager level. The first workshop was delivered to the head of Manufacturing and his leadership team to ‘road test’ it, and in total five workshops were held with 109 participants. To enable the Zone Managers to focus on the workshop, high performing team leaders were given the experience and exposure of managing operations. There were many positive outcomes from the project, in particular:
- A focus on leadership development.
- Communication improvements to team briefings, intranet and corporate internal communications.
- This project led to a process which is engaging all employees in shaping the future culture of Bentley.
Leonie Williams, Head of Personnel Operations, Bentley Motors said “Bentley is delighted to have won the 2013 Large Business of the Year Award and to have our leadership development across manufacturing recognised by the automotive industry. This has been a great year for Bentley with the new SUV investment in our Crewe plant, so achieving this award is an excellent way to end the year.”
