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Shortlist for the East of England Business Awards unveiled

Written by Business Weekly

Friday, 16 December 2005

Biblical king Solomon and the jury in the crackling ’50s courtroom movie, 12 Angry Men, had a picnic in their decision making compared to the judges of this year’s East of England Business Awards. Biblical king Solomon and the jury in the crackling ’50s courtroom movie, 12 Angry Men, had a picnic in their decision making compared to the judges of this year’s East of England Business Awards.

Every organiser of a business awards event claims higher quality than ever. But you only have to look at the shortlist for Business Weekly’s competition to understand the headaches our judges are already experiencing.

Our highest ever entry from the broadest geographical base has been trimmed to an initial shortlist from which the eventual winners will be chosen. The judging process is so rigorous that it will take several more weeks to benchmark the entries in the different categories.

The winners will not be revealed until the presentation dinner – at Girton College on March 1, 2006.

Winners will receive glittering crystal obelisks, all the way from New York, in five categories – Innovation; Growth & Expansion; Private Company of the Year; Quoted Company of the Year and International Trade. There will also be a Business of the Year award.

The shortlist reflects everything that makes the East of England economy a deeper and more powerful pool in global trade terms these days.

There is a wonderful mix of start-ups – a record number this year – demonstrating raw but exciting innovation. And among the more mature companies, more than ever before are acknowledged to be genuine world-class.

The cross-section of industries reflected throughout the shortlist also gives the lie to accusations that this region is technology obsessed.

Judges are seeing candidates from oil & gas, materials, broader industry in a number of sectors – such as noise cancellation – ink jet printing, displays, recruitment, technology transfer, technology consultancy, brewing, space and defence, medical devices, general healthcare, nanotechnology, internet security, Life Sciences, construction, data management, intercoms, digital radio, queue management, energy & power, antennas, sports enhancement, rail & aerospace.

The vast majority of shortlisted companies – even the relative tyros – are proving successful in global markets, spicing up the competition for the International Trade title, jointly sponsored by UK Trade & Investment and BAA Stansted.

Peter Brotherhood in Peterborough won the inaugural International Trade title earlier this year and the competition is even more intense this time round as East of England companies become increasingly sophisticated exporters.

Business Weekly managing director Tony Quested, who chairs the judging process, said: "The judging from here on in takes a number of forms. We have gathered information not just from the companies involved but also from relevant independent sources.

"With a leading law firm, bank and business advisory firm among our sponsors, you can imagine the expertise brought to bear in the forensic process. With all of the awards categories we are more interested in broader metrics of performance and potential, strength of management structure, strategy and focus than pure financials.

"This is even more applicable in the Innovation category, where we are looking for cutting edge technologies likely to make a difference.

"Some of the contenders are pre-revenue but, again, it is potential we are looking for – the disruptive technologies that will make a difference – not the bottom line.

"All our past category and Business of the Year winners down the 16 years of the competition have been outstanding in their own right but I have never known a single year when so many world-leading businesses have been in the running for every obelisk.

"It shows how rapidly the region has matured, even within the last 12 months and our belief is that there is a lot more to come."

Awards 2005

Initial Shortlist

3GA

Abcam

Acteon

Advance Performance

Anglia Business Solutions

Antenova

Artimi

Autonomy systems

AVEVA Group