Winners toast awards success

SEVEN Edinburgh companies and a charity were today celebrating after being hailed as champions of business excellence in the ninth Evening News Business Excellence Awards.

Organisations from a range of sectors received their glass accolades before a packed audience at Mansfield Traquair Church - the Capital's own "Sistine Chapel".

The firms to receive gongs in the nine categories were: Shore Design, double award winner Pagan Osborne, Miller Homes, Maximillion, Bloxx, The Manna House, Jump Marketing and homeless charity Streetwork UK.

The winners represented a broad cross-section of the Lothians' strong enterprise culture, including design, housebuilding, event management, catering, legal work, IT, marketing and the charity sector.

They were judged on attributes such as leadership, employee skill levels, financial management, customer satisfaction and supplier relationships.

All nine category winners will now go on to contest the Scottish Enterprise National Business Awards finals in Glasgow in June.

Evening News Editor John McLellan said: "In a competitive world it is only right that there are competitions like this to encourage all business to strive to be the best and not to be afraid of the spotlight of comparison."

He reminded the audience that four of the previous year's Evening News winners went on to score national award titles and expressed confidence the quality of winners this time around could repeat that success.

The serious business of the awards was lightened by Master of Ceremonies Willie Hunter, a partner with property solicitors Hunters, who laced his interludes with amusing quips, like introducing main speaker Phil Anderton as Edinburgh's "best-known unemployed chief executive".

Mr Anderton - the former Scottish Rugby Union and Hearts chief executive - delivered a keynote speech on the lessons business could learn from sport, particularly in areas such as customer service and leadership.

He suggested business was often too obsessed with gaining new customers while neglecting current ones. "Customer service is an investment, not a cost," he said. "It's a long-term investment to drive loyalty. Don't look for the quick buck."

Compared with his extensive experience of sports organisations, customer service from traditional businesses often "fell down". He told how American basketball team the Chicago Bulls employed four field reps solely to meet every season ticket holder to discover the on-the-ground feeling about the Bulls' brand. "If it means buying a keg of beer and some sandwiches and sitting down and speaking to your customers, do it," he said.

"If people complain, normally they're right." Leadership, too, was about having the "right people" in top positions, not just the functionally skilled.

"In business, don't just focus on abilities, look at how people fit in," he said, citing Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson's constant relating of the positive impact of (former captain) Roy Keane on the rest on his Manchester United team.

Benchmarking, teambuilding and motivation were also important, he said. He told the audience that Sir Alex's most uttered words to his players were "well done".

This year's awards, were sponsored by Clydesdale Bank and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian and backed by Quality Scotland and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.

The judging panel was headed by Craig Paterson, founder and chief executive of the Football Aid charity, who said the standard of entry was among the highest to date. Andy Hobbins, a panel judge and head of retail and SME business banking at Clydesdale Bank, said the panel had seen "some truly excellent businesses".

Neil Francis, director of growing business at SE Edinburgh & Lothian, said events such as the awards "provided a platform for our best-performing companies to develop and grow". He said: "Too often businesses see their competition in Scotland but that's not the case. There's still a lot more we have to do to compete with the best in Europe and further afield."

John Strachan, managing director at events management firm Maximillion - winners of the E-Business category - said the award marked a reward for a "progressive process" of three years' work.

Claire Coussmaker, a partner in The Manna House, winner in the Most Entrepreneurial Young Company category, said they "rewrote the rule book" in establishing the company just six months ago. "We did everything everyone told us not to," she said. Partner Andrew Massey said winning the award "set the kind of standard we need to maintain".

Alistair Morris, managing partner at law firm Pagan Osborne - which won awards for Best Performing Business (26-256 employees) and Excellence in Skills and Learning - said: "It says a lot about the firm, all of the people that work in the firm, and of course our clients."

And Philip Hogg, marketing director at Miller Homes, which collected the gong for best Performing Company (more than 250 employees) said: "Our attitude with these type of events is that they have a two-fold benefit. It gives our prospective customers confidence that they are buying from someone they can trust.

"And it has the additional benefit of motivating staff - it makes them believe they are doing the right thing. We're delighted to get this third-party endorsement."

All

the winners in each of the categories
Be

st

Performing Business (under 25 employees)
Wi

nner: Shore Design
Runners-up: McEwan Fraser and Interior Motives

Best

Performing Business (26-250 employees)
Wi

nner: Pagan Osborne
Runners-up: Harper Macleod and Heritage Portfolio

Best

Performing Business (over 250 employees)
Wi

nner: Miller Homes
Runners-up: Balmoral Hotel, Menzies Distribution and Sykes

E-Bu

siness
Wi

nner: Maximillion
Runners-up: Beetroot Blue and Miller Homes

Busi

ness in the Community
Wi

nner: Streetwork UK
Runners-up: Fosterplus and Britannia Spice

Inno

vation and Technology/Creativity
Wi

nner: Bloxx
Runners-up: Mitie and RFX

Most

Entrepreneurial Young Company
Wi

nner: The Manna House
Runners-up: McEwan Fraser and Global Virtual Interviews

Exce

llence in Skills and Learning
Wi

nner: Pagan Osborne
Runners-up: Fountain Court Apartments, Balmoral and Guardall Ltd

Inte

rnational Business
Wi

nner: Jump Marketing
Runners-up: Guardall Ltd and Braidwood Associates