The European Business Awards
·
The European Business Awards is an independent award programme which aims to obtain positive publicity for organisations from the European Union.
The first series of awards were held in the Conrad in Brussels on 31 January 2007. Recipients then were:
The CMS Business of the Year Award - ARM Holdings plc (United Kingdom) The Business Leader of the Year Award - Jean-Paul Votron CEO, Fortis (Belgium) The Entrepreneur of the Year Award - Hans-Martin Rueter of Conergy AG (Germany) The Grey EMEA Growth Strategy of the Year Award - innocent drinks (UK) The AXA Award for Corporate Sustainability - HP Corporation EMEA (Germany) The Société Générale Award for Customer Focus - TNT Express (The Netherlands) The Siemens Business Innovation of the Year Award - CoreMedia AG (Germany)
History
The European Business Awards is based upon the UK National Business Awards, sponsored by Orange, a programme which was started in 2001. The UK programme was developed to project the profile of UK companies in a positive and successful light with the central tenets of business excellence, innovation and ethics. The UK National Business Awards and The European Business Awards encompass businesses from all sectors irrespective of size, age or turnover. In 2005 in the UK programme entrants represented 31.6% of UK GDP.
The European Business Awards 2008 will be held on 11 March 2008 in the InterContinental Le Grand Paris in Paris.
Key Differentiators
The awards have no barriers to entry. Entrant businesses do not have to fit into any prescribed group - a small company growing exponentially will not be penalised for its size.
The geographic spread of the competition encompasses all 27 member countries of the EU.
There is a Strategic Advisory Panel which sits two or three times a year to discuss socio-political situations that might affect the effectiveness of the programme across various territories. The 2007/2008 panel is made of business leaders, political figures, academics and thought leaders.
2006/07 Panelists
These include:
- José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain
- Wim Kok, former Prime Minister of The Netherlands
- Ged Davis - Former Managing Director, the World Economic Forum
- Jean-Paul Votron - CEO of Fortis
- Jon Housman, former Managing Director The Wall Street Journal Europe
- Viscount Etienne Davignon, Chairman of Societe Generale - Belgique
- Professor Ulrich Steger, Deputy Dean of IMD
- Jose Luis Rodriguez from Foro de la Nueva Economia
- Lykke Friis, Former head of the Danish DTI
- Professor David Migley, from INSEAD
- Claire Dorland-Clauzel, Senior Executive Vice-President Communications, Brand and Sustainable Development AXA Group
- Professor Niels Bjørn-Andersen, Chair of Information Services and Director of Enterprise Management at Copenhagen Business School
- Fientje Moerman, Vice Minister-President of the Flemish Government and Flemish Minister for Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade.