Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Traditionally, organisational performance and efficiency measurements have been focused on cost containment. Today, however, performance measurement systems of world-class organisations are tailored to drive manufacturing and service business excellence. Quality is crucial for gaining a competitive advantage internationally. Quality award programmes promote quality awareness, recognise the quality achievements of companies and provide a platform for sharing successful quality management initiatives. Quality award frameworks form the foundation for developing business excellence models. Business excellence models are based on the premise that customer satisfaction, people (employee) satisfaction and impact on society are all achieved through leadership driving the policy and strategy, the people management, resources and processes, leading ultimately to excellence in business results. In this paper five of the most prominent international business excellence models are discussed. The success stories of companies that have implemented these models are looked at and the South African Excellence Model is compared with these five international models. The aim of the study is to analyse the South African Business Excellence Model as compared to international models such as the Deming Prize, the MBNQA, the EFQM, the AQA and the SQA. Case studies of two companies, Combine Cargo and Daimler Chrysler, are analysed with the aim of determining the shortcomings of the SAEM and the effects of the SAEM on business practices. Conclusions are drawn based on the experiences of these businesses, in order to verify the shortcomings and the effects of the SAEM. Lastly, the reasons for the failure of the SAEF and the SAEM are investigated and recommendations and guidelines are given for the revival of the SAEM and the promotion of quality in South Africa.

Technology is accepted as one of the key aspects that influence society and business in an unmistakable manner. Current literature is however not singular in its views and methods of technology strategy, its interface with business strategy, and how technology strategy is executed and assessed internally. The text adopts a 3-tiered domain approach at the outset, focusing on the integration of (i) strategy, (ii) measurement and (iii) architecture. The literature assessment was carried out on the hand of the three domains and ultimately resulted in the proposed internal technology strategy assessment framework for the services sector. At the heart of the framework is the merging of the disciplines and current models of (i) technology management (MOT), (ii) business architecture, (iii) strategic performance measurement and (iv) total quality management. The model aims to indicate that specific modelling techniques coupled with an excellence scorecard, can facilitate the mathematical assessment of strategic contribution of individual technology artefacts to a specific business strategy. The proposed model is represented in the text in flowchart form and is supplemented by the derivation of the required research approach, namely case study protocol. Three case studies were conducted, each of which is resident in the services sector, and the tabulated results are presented in the text and its appendixes. The results obtained indicate that strategic artefact differentiation on a procedural level can indeed be obtained. These results are consistent throughout the three case studies and valuable future benefit could be extrapolated for (i) continuing investigation on the hand of the model, as well as (ii) cross-pollination to the disciplines of (a) enterprise modelling and design and (b) project management. / Dissertation (MEng (Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted