Article by RealWire
Britain’s most resilient firms celebrated
01st March 2011 – Businesses from across the UK had been named “Business Heroes” as Cisco right now announced the outcomes of its hunt to uncover Britain’s intelligent companies. In its inaugural year, the Enterprise Heroes Awards were created up of six categories, every celebrating shining examples of the UK’s most enterprising small businesses.
The contest to locate the UK’s most resilient businesses, in association with Management Nowadays, saw Cisco award the title of “Enterprise Hero” to six firms across the UK and in a variety of sectors, which includes recruitment, sustainability, technologies and manufacturing. Six other organizations had been also named as extremely commended in each category.
David Critchley, Cisco UKI director of Modest and Medium Enterprises, stated: “The winners of the Organization Heroes Awards are testament to the fact the UK is full of thriving and innovative SMEs of all shapes and sizes. From technology to sustainability, international expansion to productive commence-ups, the quality of this year’s entries has been outstanding, and it’s excellent to see these businesses not only rise to their own individual challenges but also thrive in the wider context of a genuinely testing marketplace. We want to extend our congratulations to them all!”
The competition was judged by a panel of organization professionals, including Doug Richard, Dragons’ Den investor and serial entrepreneur Michelle Dewberry, Apprentice winner and founder of The Everyday Chic David Hathiramani, founder of bespoke tailor A Suit That Fits Management today’s Hannah Prevett and Cisco’s own David Critchley.
“We had been impressed by the high regular of entries across the board, but particularly in the Mumpreneur and New Kid on the Block categories,” commented Dough Richards. “UK entrepreneurs are frequently compared with their US counterparts, but I think the high calibre of submissions shows that we can compete on a level playing field with our peers across the globe.’”
This year’s Company Heroes are:
WikiJob – The winner in the New Kid on the Block category, which recognises the most impressive start-ups that are under two years old, is the UK’s first graduate-focused careers site, developed and run by recent graduates.Rated Men and women – The UK’s largest online trade recommendation service, which helps to connect over 15,000 people with professional tradespeople, was honoured with the Technovator award, which celebrates organizations making use of technology to transform their businesses.Females Like Us – The winners in the Mumpreneur category, which honours women who combine running a profitable begin-up with raising young youngsters, is a specialist recruitment agency that helps thousands of skilled women uncover component-time work with hours to suit family members life.Richard Edward Limited – The Accurate Grit category sought out a corporation that demonstrated resiliencein the face of adversity, and this year’s winner surely did that. Richard Edward Limited has navigated its way by means of the changing landscape of manufacturing in the UK, diversifying into the niche market of manufacturing game cards, playing cards and trading cards.Closed Loop Recycling – The UK’s initial food-grade plastics recycler, were named the winner in this year’s Green King category. Its state-of-the-art recycling plant in Dagenham processes 35,000 tonnes of waste per year that would otherwise be exported for recycling or sent to a landfill.P2i – The Borderless Company winner is the world leader in liquid repellent nano-coating technology. Headed up by an American CEO and a British scientist, it has steadily built a global revenue base, with over 75% of consumers situated outside the UK.Hannah Prevett, section editor, Management Today, commented, “What was distinctive about this competition is that we really saw the breadth of UK companies. Going to check out our winners on their home turf provided us a exclusive perspective into the inner workings of UK SMEs. It also showed that, contrary to popular opinion, UK manufacturing is really significantly alive and kicking there is some thing magical about visiting a factory where things are in fact created from scratch. Visiting the plant of our Green King winner, Closed Loop Recycling, was like being at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.”
For much more info on the winners of the Business Heroes awards, you can view the full supplement here.
About the Author
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Info about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.
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