Compared to last year’s SCORE+ Programme (SCORE+) findings, the results for this year have gone up marginally with most MSC Malaysia companies having advanced from the early stages of being a start-up. With a total of 418 MSC Companies taking part, the number of companies profiled for SCORE+ 2010 practically doubled from last year. In fact, the average rating for the 2010 SCORE+ has increased to 2.19 with around 28% of the 418 organisations having been rated with 3 stars and above.

Having more companies take part in the SCORE+ programme does bode well for this study that Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) plans to carry out and implement into its on-going and upcoming support programmes for MSC Malaysia. In terms of performance for individual clusters, the result is skewed somewhat with one of the clusters in the SCORE+ Programme, Creative Multimedia Cluster (CMC), producing the highest overall SCORE+ rating. With just 46 companies, CMC has generated an average overall rating of 2.37 for SCORE+ 2010.

The other clusters were not far off from the average rating with Information Technology (InfoTech) at 2.16, E-Business (E-Biz) producing 2.22, and Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) managing a 2.25 rating. Interestingly, InfoTech contributed the most in terms of participants for this year’s SCORE+ Programme as well as being a major generator for total and export revenues in 2010.

New Scores
Besides the overall performance rating, it was found that MSC Malaysia Companies were generally strong in the Operational Management Petal, with a mean rating of 2.73 among all four clusters. In this particular Petal, MSC Malaysia Companies in all four clusters generally have good ratings, with as much as 48% being in the 2.5 to 3.5 Star rating range and 19% having an above 4 Star rating.

For this year’s survey the results of SCORE+ 2010 demonstrate greater consistency across all clusters, clearly indicating stronger focus on the measured elements of the seven Petals within SCORE+. According to the latest findings of SCORE+ Programme, all 418 organisations have decent management capabilities as it is revealed that the median petal happened to be the Management Capabilities Petal.

Even so, there are bound to be gaps in certain areas. For 2009, Innovation was a critical gap area and the same can be seen of 2010’s SCORE+ findings. In fact, most companies in each cluster were rated with 2 Stars or lower, which can be correlated to the how little companies are investing in their total expenditure for research and development activities – an estimated average of less than 15%.

Strategic Aspirations
While the improvements have been marginal, more can be done to reduce the current gaps that have been detected via the findings of SCORE+ 2010. MDeC, via its programmes and initiatives, aspires to increase the overall competitiveness of all MSC Malaysia Companies. By doing so, it aims to improve the average rating of MSC Malaysia Companies from the current average of 2 Star rating to at least 3 Stars. In ensuring this is reflected across the board for all industries, MDeC has set itself the goal of improving the Star ratings Bell curve moving into 2011 and beyond.

In improving SCORE+ further and the ensuing results, MSC Malaysia Companies can use the results generated to identify present gaps and strengths in their operations, allowing them to address these areas with the necessary focus and leverage. This will generally cultivate their overall competitiveness even further.

Additionally, MDeC will also be able to make full use of the information gathered through SCORE+ to further improve and enhanced programme matching for MSC Malaysia Companies and the support services that are currently being offered. This will essentially provide all MSC Malaysia Companies with opportunities to apply operational improvements in the areas they are lacking in. This is how it intends to address the present gaps that many MSC Malaysia Companies currently have.

MDeC intends to make the SCORE+ Programme a biennial service for MSC Malaysia Companies. After studying the indicators used for assessment in more detail, a two year re-assessment period was decided to be the most appropriate window, giving MSC Malaysia companies the necessary time to incorporate changes to improve their SCORE+ rating.

Complementing the findings of the SCORE+ Programme will be the SCORE+ Benchmarking Programme, both of which are used to generate additional information in how MSC Malaysia Companies perform in greater detail than SCORE+.