At the end of 2009 the Royal New Zealand Navy became the first public sector organisation in New Zealand to win the internationally recognised Baldrige Gold Award from the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation (NZBEF).
In late 1998, then Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Wilson decided to adopt an international business standard — the Baldrige Criteria — as a tool to drive productivity and organisational improvement within the Navy. RA Wilson recognised that to achieve operational excellence during tight financial times the Navy needed to become world-class in the way it operated.
In accepting the Gold Award from His Excellency the Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, current Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Tony Parr said the Navy’s determination to achieve excellence is testament to a shared commitment of successive Chiefs of Navy to Navy leadership, and Defence Force values: “It took courage to start this process in the first place, it took commitment from successive Chiefs of Navy to confront the changes needed and maintain the momentum over ten years; and it took comradeship among Navy leadership and personnel to make it happen.”