Singapore is known as the Lion City, but the maned animal also has a positive connotation in the corporate world - that of business excellence.
Companies and organisations that have robust management systems and practices, among other factors, can receive the Business Excellence recognition, which comes in the form of a lion head.
Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said yesterday that he wished every company would have the "lion logo" as a sign that companies are delivering trustworthy and quality goods and services.
"We need to help each and every company in Singapore to achieve this brand of quality, brand of trust... If we walk down any shopping aisle and see this lion logo, it speaks to everyone in the world. This is a brand of trust and this brand commands a premium."
The certification, which has been in place since 1994, is given by Enterprise Singapore. More than 2,000 companies and organisations have been given the mark of excellence.
Speaking at the 24th Business Excellence Awards ceremony at Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre, Mr Chan said Singapore may be small but the country can compete on trust and quality.
"I've always said, in many different forums, that Singapore cannot compete on the basis of price or size of our population, but we can always compete on the quality of our ideas, creativity of our people, innovation of our teams and the brand of trust that we can inspire in others."
Mr Chan added: "It takes each and every one of us tremendous effort to uphold this brand of trust, brand of quality for Singapore products to shine on the world stage. But it takes only one of us, a black sheep among us, to destroy that brand."
Four organisations received Business Excellence Awards at this year's ceremony.
They were the Housing Board, Institute of Technical Education, National Library Board (NLB) and engineering consultancy Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (South-east Asia).
NLB chief executive officer Elaine Ng said: "Business excellence is part of the National Library Board's DNA because we are always thinking of creative ways to bring the joy of reading and learning to those who use our libraries and archives."
