Vero is delighted to announce that its mission to achieve world-class performance has been recognised with an Achievement Award – Silver Level in the 2004 New Zealand Business Excellence Awards – the highest award level made this year.

Vero Chief Executive, Roger Bell describes this achievement as a key milestone in the company’s journey to excellence. Mr Bell says, “One of the most satisfying benefits of this process is the need for a relentless focus on continuous improvement. Vero has had a long involvement with the Business Excellence Foundation, so looking for ways to continuously improve is now an important part of our company culture. This will enable us to deliver sustained performance, attract and retain the best employees and achieve a significant competitive edge.”

“Vero’s long-term commitment to Business Excellence goes well beyond applying for awards. For Vero it’s about pursuing an internationally competitive level of business performance and measuring it on many levels.”

Vero, formerly the general insurance arm of Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance, is one of New Zealand’s leading insurers. Vero is an integral part of the Promina group that was formed in 2003 following a dual listing on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges. Vero pursues a specialist focused business model offering general insurance for businesses and individuals predominantly through intermediaries. Vero has been voted ‘Insurer of the Year’ by New Zealand brokers for the last 3 consecutive years and was awarded ‘Promina Group Business of the Year’ for 2003 as best performing business.

Vero’s journey to excellence began in 1994 when a company-wide business improvement programme was initiated. Since then, it has progressed towards the Business Excellence Foundation’s awards process, based on the Baldridge criteria - an internationally recognised best practice framework. Vero received a Commendation Award (Bronze) in 1998 and has built on that foundation to develop and deploy a number of world-class initiatives.

The Business Excellence Foundation’s exhaustive evaluation assessed Vero’s performance in key areas such as strategic planning, knowledge management, customer-focus, human resources practices and process management. Some specific strategies include corporate social responsibility programmes, customer-oriented process reengineering, strategic decision databases and a company-wide performance management framework that tracks organisation, business unit and individual progress against strategic goals.

Mr Bell says, “A world-class company is future-looking and links the successes of the past with a strong vision for the future. We are already planning to reach the next stage of excellence and ensuring that our employees are included in the process of change required to get us there. The cornerstone of this is our clearly articulated company mission and set of values that were defined in consultation with staff. This engages our people in the vision, guides decision-making and ensures a consistent and unified approach on our path to world-class success.”