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Solent Business Awards
2015
Incorporating Hampshire Business Awards Celebrating their 25th Anniversary
Both Mike Gawthorne, CEO of Havant-based specialist technical recruitment consultancy ARM, and Mark Aitchison, CEO and group finance director of family-owned care home chain Colten Care, have previously won top honours at the Hampshire Business Awards, which have now been incorporated into the wider Solent awards programme.
For Gawthorne, whose business has a turnover of around £100 million and employs 200 staff, it was obtaining the external seal of approval which made a real difference.
“When we won, the economy was still in recession, so winning gave our internal management team a real boost in terms of recognition for the things we had done to drive the business through a very challenging period and into profitability,“ he said. “It‘s easy to become insular, so to be benchmarked against businesses from all walks of life outside our industry was really good for us and a great morale booster for everyone.“
In addition, he said, it gave ARM the opportunity to demonstrate to the local business community that it “practised what it preached“ in terms of the company‘s values and, since then, he has gone on to found a peer group mentoring programme which gives like- minded companies the chance to network and share ideas.
Aitchison, says that for Colten Care, which operates care homes across the Solent region and has its headquarters in Lymington, the biggest benefit was the “feelgood“ factor that staff enjoyed after the win.
“Knowing that the work you do is being held in high regard by an external panel which has recognised the efforts of everyone involved takes it to another level,“ he said. “It became very much a team award and I found a lot of people took immense pride in their achievement. We all strive to do a good job and it showed we must be doing something right, it wasn‘t just winning the award, it was a pat on
SPONSORS
Award-winners share the benefits of success
With just over two weeks to go before the July 31 closing date for the Solent Business Awards, business bosses across the region have been talking about the prestige that being a past winner has given their company
the back and the feeling of doing something really worthwhile.“
Externally, said Aitchison, it also demonstrated to the company‘s bankers that they were, in his words, “backing a strong horse“ and proving that the management team was doing a good job.
Also a previous winner was leading roofing, cladding & facade specialist contractor Lakesmere, whose CEO Mark Davey, said: “This has raised our profile considerably in the region this past year and has presented a number of opportunities to forge good relationships with other local businesses.
“It was a very proud moment for me receiving our awards, but without doubt though the greatest benefit was the reward and recognition this gave our staff, who have all helped to make the company so successful.“
Dan Salanson, regional director, Solent Region, Corporate and Commercial Banking RBS & NatWest, which is sponsoring the Management Team of the Year category, said: “Successful management teams typically (and sensibly) spend their time looking forwards and the consistent feedback we have had with this award category is that management teams really appreciated the opportunity to both reflect on their achievements and to have these achievements overseen by a credible external panel.
“The featured comments are pretty typical of those we have had from a number of other winners and finalists over the years, and it‘s great to hear of the positive commercial benefits that previous entrants felt their business achieved from winning the Management Team of the Year Award.
“We have had some fantastic previous entrants into this category in the Hampshire Business Awards and the judging panel is looking
forward to receiving entries from a wider geographical patch this year. I‘d strongly encourage those businesses considering entering any of the awards to do so.“
Overall, there are five impressive titles up for grabs:
CONFIRMED CATEGORIES
Company of the Year sponsored by KPMG
Management Team of the Year sponsored by NatWest
Dynamic Growth of the Year sponsored by Pitmans
SME of the Year sponsored by James Cowper Kreston
Technical Innovation of the Year sponsored by University of Southampton
The awards are open to businesses based throughout Hampshire, as far as Weymouth in Dorset, Salisbury in Wiltshire and east to Chichester in West Sussex, and the winners will be announced on October 22, with a gala awards dinner at the Hilton Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
For full entry details, visit:
www.solentbusinessawards.co.uk
www.businessmag.co.uk
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2015
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