31 Jan 2014

A review of this year’s entrants from the Chairman of the Judges, Phil Forrest

As the European Business awards reaches its third and most exciting stage it creates the opportunity to review the background and highlights of this year’s programme. Once again the entries reflected the fact that even in an economic environment that is still showing an uneven pattern of recovery the most successful businesses still continue to thrive and grow.

This year over 17,000 organisations were in contact with the European Business Awards to explore participating. The best of these were selected to represent their country as National Champions. These were again judged by international panels of judges to select the top ten in each award category to produce the final 100 Ruban d’Honneur recipients. To them go the congratulations of all the judges on their achievement of this status as they showcase the very best of Europe’s creative and dynamic success strategies.

The data which emerges from the entry produces some interesting insights into the European Business community. It should be borne in mind in that this sample, while being robust, is atypical and not a truly representative cross section of the EU Business Community as a whole in that all the entries come from self-selected successful business.

All EU member markets are represented plus Turkey, Norway and Macedonia and their combined revenue exceeds €1 trillion, generates profits of over €50 billion and employs over 2million people. What is also rewarding to see is that the top six markets in terms of entry included Greece and Spain perhaps showing that confidence and optimism is growing in two markets that have been particularly tough. One interesting observation indicates that the “New EU” countries, which are mostly from the former Eastern Bloc, showed a higher level of profitability as a percentage of revenue but conversely a lower level of productivity as indicated by revenue and profit per employee which possibly indicates that they are benefitting from the freedom of the EU in terms of profit but may come under pressure in future from potential wage inflation. However they are to be congratulated for the energy and optimism which they demonstrate in entering new markets.

In recent years the category attracting the highest entry has been Customer Focus, this year the highest entry comes from Innovation (20% of entries). This is potentially significant in that when the economic recession arrived an EBA research white paper at the time identified that successful business leaders nominated innovation as the key recovery strategy and perhaps this year’s entry reflects the fact that the innovations introduced over the past 3 years are now bearing fruit.  Customer Focus was the second category indicating that organisations continue to recognise customer retention as a vital part of any growth strategy. RSM International the lead sponsor of the European Business Awards also sponsor the Entrepreneur category which with 14% of the entries shows that at the entrepreneurial level confidence continues to grow and the very diverse range of businesses represented is an indicator that EU business is healthy and building success at the grass roots level.

There is no doubt that this sample paints a healthy economic picture and promotes cautious optimism that economic recovery has a chance of taking hold across a wider European base.

As this year’s European Business Awards moves into its final phase the Ruban d’Honneur organisations in each category make their face to face presentations to independent panels of expert judges who will have the difficult task of selecting one to be the category winner. The judges are seeking exceptional performance, perhaps in very testing market conditions, by organisations that have moved outside their comfort zone to innovate not only in terms of product or service creation but perhaps by entry into new markets or by process innovation throughout any part of their supply chain to achieve sustainable success within a highly ethical framework.

All the judges join in wishing them well in this key stage and for the continuing success of their organisations.

 


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