The transformation of society into a culture of excellence is a process and not an event. This means that in order to expect results from the process we should, of necessity, adopt a resilient posture and work harder and smarter for the results to be realized, said the Executive Director of the Botswana National Productivity Center (BNPC), Thembo Lebang.
Speaking at the handing over of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001:2000 certificate, Lebang said Botswana joined the ISO family through the Botswana Bureau of Standards. He stated that the role of the ISO is to set international standards whose objective is to protect consumers in their transactions with producers of goods and services.
“This also helps in removing barriers or logjams in trade among nations. This certificate indeed indicates BNPC’s first step in its journey towards excellence,” said Lebang.
Furthermore, he said the BNPC Vision is to be a leading catalyst in the transformation of Botswana into a prosperous, productive and innovative nation.
Leading organizations and nations, he said, have been in the lead position because they followed the route of excellence.
“We therefore feel that organizations in Botswana and the region should also follow the same route if they are to at least survive the on-going intense global competition,” he said.
According to Lebang, when the Southern African Development Community (SADC) adopted SADC Business Excellence Model a few years ago, the BNPC, together with local strategic partners, were quite excited.
“We quickly mobilized industry and some government departments to establish what is now a duly registered non-profit making organization dubbed the Botswana Excellence Foundation.” He revealed that the main role of this organization is to promote the adoption of excellence models as a way of enabling organizations to achieve their goals.
Lebang said that the ISO certificate points out that the BNPC has finally joined the national, regional and international quality community.
“What remains is for us to cordially advise the whole BNPC Team to persevere and be resilient in the sustenance and improvement of the quality management system which is in place for the betterment of the quality of life of BNPC customers,” said Lebang
Congratulating the BNPC, Regional Chief Executive Bureau Veritas, Vincent d’ Arifat, said this achievement happened due to hard work and good management.
“Without good management there can not be any good leadership. This project was made a success by the goodwill and efforts of everybody at BNPC, and you should all be proud of yourselves,” said d’Arifat.
