The Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone (Tecom) and Dubai Airport Free Zone (Dafz) recently signed an agreement to collaborate on promoting excellence among companies in their zones.

A ‘Benchmarking Partnership Team,’ set up by the two organisations aims to create the Dubai Learning Nucleus, a forum that will drive excellence among companies in Dafz and Tecom by sharing best practices and learning opportunities.
The establishment of this partnership is the culmination of discussions between Ahmad bin Byat, director general of the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone, and Dr Mohammed Al Zarouni, director general of the Dafz Authority (Dafza).
“This initiative is strategically aligned with both our organisations’ commitment to leadership,” said Yousuf Behzad, director of HR and strategy at Dafza.
“The idea is to get people together to share knowledge and ideas on ‘best practices’. As two of the leading free zones in Dubai initiated by the government, we care about each other’s success,” said Asim Ghabra, strategy and excellence consultant with Dafza. “We will work together to identify ‘practices of excellence’ to benchmark our processes, following which, we can select and implement practices that will work in each of our organisations. Our working operations and structure will be in alignment with the Dubai Government Excellence Programme (DGEP) model,” said Ahmed Baghoum, director of customer operations at Tecom.
Christopher Wentzel, strategy and business development consultant with Tecom, emphasised the importance of setting objectives and milestones, as well as adhering to schedules and response times.
Abdelatif Hegazy, director of quality at Tecom, pointed out: “This is not a one-time activity. As the initiative evolves, specific areas of the Business Excellence Model will receive more emphasis.”
Hussain Ali, quality management specialist, will act as the facilitator of this initiative on behalf of Tecom.
From Dafza, Raja Al Suwaidi, strategy and excellence manager, said:  “All the groundwork has been finalised and we will start translating all our knowledge into quality practices.”
A joint meeting in June will put in place a mechanism to assess both organisations’ methods, and outline all criteria for measuring excellence.