Excellence in Business Support Awards winners announced

Kiwibank Business Markets beat 41 finalists to the Supreme Award at the AUT Business School’s 2013 Excellence in Business Support Awards, the only national performance measure available to the business support sector. 

The award was presented by the Hon Steven Joyce, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, at a gala dinner in Auckland attended by 700 people, including key figures from business, government and not-for-profit sectors.

Winners were announced in 11 categories, with the Supreme winner chosen from amongst them.  

Dean of the AUT Business School Dr Geoff Perry says: “We congratulate all our winners and finalists who are doing a tremendous job delivering quality products and services to help New Zealand businesses maximise their potential. As a business school it’s important for us to celebrate the organisations that contribute to the economic development of our country.”

A key factor in Kiwibank Business Markets’ win was its recent campaign to treat small to medium sized businesses the same way that some banks treat large corporates.

Dr Mark Le Fevre, Head of AUT Business School’s Management Department, who led the evaluation process, says: “The quality of entries was extremely high, but there was one stand-out winner and that was Kiwibank Business Markets. If you apply management theory as it’s meant to be applied, it’ll increase your chance of success. When we evaluated Kiwibank it was very obvious that they were applying theory to practice and doing it well. They were also doing some things beyond what you’d find in academic literature – they had taken the tools and said, ‘we can do more’.”

The Individual Leadership award went to the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce CEO Peter Townsend, who helped set up Recover Canterbury immediately after the 2010 earthquake. The organisation has supported 7000 local businesses and kept an estimated $39 million in Canterbury post-earthquake.

A new award Export Support went to intellectual property firm AJ Park for helping Australasian companies identify, develop, protect and exploit their IP rights throughout the world.

The Awards, which are in their eighth year, were founded by Sarah Trotman, now Director of Business Relations at the AUT Business School. 

The Awards dinner was recognised with a silver award for accessibility by social change initiative Be.Accessible.

 

 

Image Print Business under $5m turnover: Management services 

Stellar Consulting Group

 

Plato Design Agency

 

Aura RedEye Security Ltd

 

Key Research Group

 

Kiwibank Business Markets

Highly commended: Advanced Security Group

 

Joint winners: ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd, DHL Express 

 

Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce

 

The Marketing Association

Highly commended: KEA New Zealand

 

ATEED

Highly commended: CarboNZero Holdings

 

AJ Park

 

Peter Townsend (Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce)