The Indian Business Awards for 2011 have been much anticipated by both the Indian Business community and New Zealand business watchers at large.
Over the first three years of the Awards, the wider business community has gradually become aware of the quality and importance of Indian business activities in New Zealand.
The finalists and category winners at the IBA Awards gala dinners have been rightly feted as outstanding businesses, and from all accounts, have seen an upsurge in interest in their products and services.
For 2011, we have again expanded the categories to better reflect the activities of Indian Business in New Zealand by adding Property Development and Agriculture & Horticulture Categories.
On the other hand, we have combined the Small and Medium Sized Business categories into a single, SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise) Category.
Uncomplicated process
IBA 2011 is a New Zealand wide Business Award Programme and as the organiser and principal promoter, Indian Newslink is seeking to increase the number of entries received from all over the country.
It is fair to say that most of the entries in the first three years were from Auckland headquartered businesses, albeit some with operations outside the City.
However, category winners in the past have come from Christchurch and Picton in South Island.
With the addition of Agriculture & Horticulture Category, we look forward to having a wider spread of entries from various parts of New Zealand, including Waikato dairy farmers to Pukekohe market gardeners and orchards and vineyards from Matakana to Marlborough.
Entering the Awards is much simpler than you think. You will have all the basic business information required readily available. Keeping it short and to the point is a virtue which will commend you to the judges.
You should consider forming a Business Awards team to prepare the entry. The judges are usually able to tell where a team has been involved rather than a single author, and by and large the result is a better entry.
It is also useful to get an independent view of the completed entry before sending it to us; get your accountant, bank manager, mentor or a wise friend involved as a sounding board.
Free Workshops
For 2011, there will again be workshops held in May, June and July to assist entrants to submit the best quality entry possible, and to give them the best chance of being a winning entry. In addition, we hope to have independent mentors to assist in entry preparation and review. Details of this programme will be announced soon.
As usual, the judges will be looking for businesses that demonstrate planning for success and hard evidence of year-on-year growth. They will always be impressed when evidence of business growth is compared to targets and benchmarks.
Companies which can demonstrate a balanced emphasis on product and service, market and sales, people and leadership, and systems and results, wrapped up in a business plan for the next few years, are those that do well.
Scoring guidelines
The scoring guidelines used by the judges award low marks where there is little evidence of a systematic approach, where the information is anecdotal, where progress is more reactive than planned, where there is little evidence of a coordinated team involvement, and where key results and trends are not reported.
On the other hand, the judges will award high marks where there is an effective and systematic approach to the business which is deployed without obvious gaps, where there is systematic, fact-based evaluation and learning, where the approach is well integrated throughout the organisation, and where results show that performance is excellent compared to benchmarks, and key customer and plan requirements are addressed.
Indian Newslink and the independent judges panel look forward to another record entry of excellent companies, and to a gala awards night, which has become an excellent platform for recognising and rewarding success and for networking by New Zealand’s business community.
Chad Wilkie is Executive Director of Ignition Partner, a consultancy firm operating in New Zealand and overseas and Chairman of Judges for the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2011. He is an experienced adviser on shaping businesses for growth and structuring deals to achieve business growth.
For entry forms and other information, visit www.inliba.co.nz or www.indiannewslink.co.nz
Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2011
Categories
Business Excellence in Restaurant Trade
Business Excellence in Retail
Business Excellence in Innovation
Business Excellence in Marketing
Business Excellence in Customer Service
Business Excellence in Property Development
Business Excellence in Agriculture and Horticulture
Best SME (Small or Medium Sized Enterprise) Business
Best Large Business
Business Excellence in Export to India (Open to all New Zealand businesses)
Additional Categories
Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Best Businesswoman of the Year
Supreme Business of the Year (All entries will be entered for this category)
