The number and historical context of national quality and excellence awards are indicative of a country's maturity and level of excellence, highlighting the importance of adopting models of quality and organizational excellence. This significance is further emphasized by the widespread adoption of such awards across over 90 countries globally.
The King Abdulaziz Quality Award aims to become the leading national benchmark for organizational excellence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It serves as a pivotal force driving excellence and tangible outcomes in the following domains:
- Supporting and enhancing the national economy through the promotion of quality and excellence.
- Encouraging competition across various sectors to stimulate economic growth and innovation.
- Consolidating national efforts to improve organizational excellence by documenting processes and outcomes.
- Encouraging the use of scientific approaches and national standards as the general framework and primary reference for organizational excellence.
- Promoting awareness of quality and excellence among employees to ensure a culture of continuous improvement.
- Increasing stakeholder satisfaction, fostering employee loyalty, and cultivating strong stakeholder engagement by continuously improving the quality of products and services.
The King Abdulaziz Quality Award was established by Royal Decree no. 7/B/18670 dated 4 March 2000 (equivalent to 27 Dhu al-Qi’dah 1420 AH), with two purposes:
- Encouraging all sectors to embrace principles of excellence to enhance quality that drives continuous internal improvement and fosters a sense of achievement and pride.
- Recognizing top-performing organizations for their exceptional achievements in meeting high-quality standards and highlighting these on a national scale.
The award encourages excellence by offering a comprehensive framework for harmonizing and managing any initiative aimed at improving quality. It enables organizations to assess their current performance levels, compare these with their international counterparts, and address any potential gaps.
The award sets specific criteria for embracing quality and excellence principles through a standard national model for organizational excellence. Applicants for the award are objectively assessed by accredited and experienced assessors. Applicants can then benefit from the resulting report to identify and address opportunities for improvement, encouraging growth, competitiveness, overall performance, and sustainability.