Global Quality Leadership Awards

GQCO Individual and Organization Leadership Awards

Attaining Quality-Leadership means much more than achieving a low level of product defects.
Global Quality Leadership means achieving the highest levels of excellence in all areas of organizational operations and performance.

Over the past few decades, many quality award programs have evolved to recognize quality leaders and organizations. One of these is the Global Quality Leadership Awards (GQCO-Awards).

Award Categories

• Global Quality Leadership Award for an Individual

• Emerging Global Quality Leadership Award for an Individual

• Leadership Award for an Organization

• Emerging Global Quality Leadership Award for an Organization

Individual Nomination

Submission Requirements for Emerging or Established Individual Awards:

1. Nomination letter highlighting the nominee’s impact on quality of product, project and/or service that describes the six key areas listed below (maximum two pages):
   • Length of time contributing to quality advancement in product, project and service.
   • Formal role related to quality advancement, if any (e.g., dean, chair, CEO, directors).
   • Impact on quality in academic and/or professional fields and what the nominee uses to measure success.
   • Most significant accomplishment related to advancing quality of products, projects and/or services.
   • Barriers/Challenges to the work and how the nominee overcame them.
   • Resources available to conduct the work (e.g., time, funding, administrative support).
2. Nominee’s bio (300-word limit) with scanned passport /national ID.
3. Nominee’s abridged curriculum vitae relevant to the nomination (maximum five pages).
4. Letters of support (up to two letters, maximum two pages each).

A successful nomination will demonstrate the impact of the nominee’s work in:

• Mentoring and sponsoring people to become leaders in specific academic and/or professional fields.
• Influencing other leaders in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of people in specific academic and/or professional fields.
• Improving the educational and professional environment for sustaining people in specific academic and/or professional fields.
• Contributing to the body of knowledge in advancing people’s careers in in specific academic and/or professional fields. (e.g., presenting talks or webinars, publishing papers, academic education, professional programs, acquiring grants, job promotion, new jobs).

Organization Nomination

Submission Requirements for Emerging or Established Organization Awards:

1. Nomination letter highlighting an overview of the organization, including the context and outcomes of achievements as well as important milestones and collaborations or partnerships with internal/external groups or departments (maximum two pages).
   • Include a brief history of the organization (maximum one paragraph).
   • Does the organization have a formal role (e.g., University, School, Company, NGO)?
2. Description of activities and outcomes that provides a summary of the efforts to advance quality of product, project and/or service. The summary should clearly define demonstrated outcomes that have an impact on advancing Quality-Leadership (maximum five pages). It should address:
   • The organizational data and outcomes to support the impact of the organization.
   • Resources available to conduct the work (e.g., time, funding, administrative support).
3. Letters of support from deans, CEOs, GM and/or other institutional leaders (maximum two pages each).

A successful nomination will demonstrate the impact of the nominee’s work in:

• Creating an institutional culture that supports the advancement of quality and Quality-Leadership
• Systematically developing quality leaders in academic and/or professional fields.
• Improving the quality of product, project and/or service towards achieving the global sustainable development goals.

Use of the GQCO-Awards have proven so successful, that some companies have adopted it for internal assessments and in-house awards programs. Similar programs have been implemented in other regions and countries around the world. Use of quality award programs has helped businesses and other organizations improve their ability to compete and fulfill their organization’s missions.

Yet, surprisingly few organizations participate in quality award programs. Some have participated for a short period, only to abandon the effort before any improvements are recognized. Most never make an attempt.

There are many stated reasons for not participating:

• “It’s too time consuming”
• “It distracts from other important matters”
• “It doesn’t work for us”
• “There is no benefit from winning”
• … and the list goes on

By failing to participate in a quality awards program, organizations may not be getting a true picture of how the organization is actually performing and what it can do to improve. Most organizations lack a methodology for getting a holistic evaluation of their business performance.
They may get feedback in very narrow areas of focus such as financial ratings in business journals, customer satisfaction comparisons from industry surveys, or market share from market research reports. However, they rarely get a broad based evaluation of performance, considering all the important metrics that would be represented in a balanced scorecard for example.

More importantly, evaluations may be based upon results only, without consideration for the organization’s approaches and processes. Evaluation of performance by looking at results only will not provide an understanding of why the organization is performing the way it is.

Evidence shows that award winning organizations achieve higher levels of broad based success. This has been proven by multiple studies of long term business results of award winning organizations. Participation in quality awards programs have enabled these organizations to better understand what to do and how to do it.
They compare company approaches to proven models for organizational success.
They take advantage of expert third party feedback to implement performance improvement plans.
They know where to focus process improvements to achieve the desired organizational results.

The GQCO-Awards has expanded its reach from the three original award sector groups to six; including manufacturing, service, healthcare, education, small business, and not-for-profit.

Most quality award programs include the following components:

• Application Criteria – The application process consists of questions which seek information on the approaches used and the results achieved by the organization. The GQCO-Awards Criteria for example, contain over 100 questions which are categorized into 7 sections or categories. Many organizations have found tremendous benefit in conducting self assessments using the award criteria without even submitting the application into the awards process
• Scoring System – The scoring system provides a means for determining the level of quality leadership attained by an organization. Some scoring systems provide component scores to aid organizations in determining some of their greatest areas, as well as areas of strength or weakness
• Examination/Judging Process – This defines how organizations are evaluated and how award winners are selected. Many awards processes have several stages of evaluation whereby advancement in the process can be an indicator of the level of quality leadership. In the GQCO-Awards process for example, the organizations that receive a site visit are sometimes referred to as the “semi-finalists”, representing the final group of organizations from which the award winners are selected

If your leaders and organization is seeking Quality-Leadership, then GQCO-Awards can play a significant part in helping you along the journey. GQCO-Awards provide an excellent source for monitoring progress and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Award Presentation

The winners of the 2022 Global Quality Leadership Awards will be recognized during a summit in November.