A: James Bellini, Business Futures Analyst

B: Martin Stiven, Vice president of business for Orange

C: Alex Evans, Editorial Director NBA
H: Today were going to be looking back 10 years of business and looking
ahead to the next 10 years, and using the National Business Awards to help us track what
business success looks like
Titles
H: Hello and welcome to the program, Im Jayne Constantinis. The National Business Awards
in partnership with Orange are now in their 10th year. As we celebrate this notable
anniversary well be looking back at the importance of these awards to the business
community and discussing how business has changed in the past 10 years. Well also be
a look to some of the possibilities for the next 10 years. Im joined
here in the studio by Martin Stiven, Vice President of Business for Orange and James Bellini,
a notable business futures analyst. Thank you for joining me today. Now some research was
conducted just last week .. previous winners of the awards. It takes a look at
business trends and asks what changes to these trends we might expect over the next 10 years.
James, let me start with you, you spend your working life looking at the future and
anticipating what might happen. What did you the research and the responses in it?
A: First thing is that we are obviously now looking over the next 5-10 years for a big
recovery in the UK economy, UK PLC, if you like and one of the findings in the report which
looked at past winners of this award was actually theyre remarkably optimistic over 75%
said theyre going to see some strong or whatever. Quite a large proportion of
them say they expect those companies to be 100% bigger by 2020 / 21 so theyre pretty
optimistic bunch. I found that a bit surprising. The . was a lot of them, more
than half said its going to be a environment to start up a business in the next few
years. Not difficult to see why, moneys pretty , banks for various reasons we all
know about are going to be . lend to small start-ups and start-ups need to
.. finances, its the lifeblood of a new business so its going to be tough. The good
news is the technologies are going to be there so they can seize the advantage.
H: And Martin as vice-president for business with Orange what do you find most interesting
in the research findings?

B: There are a couple of things for me that were particularly interesting and certainly mirrors
the trends that were seeing as a business, and that is that more and more businesses, in fact I
think it was of businesses said that they could see that remote working would become the
way that they would be doing business more and more, allowing employees to work from
home or work more flexibly and of course the technology that all of that is now
more and more available, so were taking advantages of those trends.
H: Youve both mentioned the word technology at the beginning of your answers. Is
technology the key to the future of business, and how is more technology compatible with a
healthy work / life balance?
A: Thats exactly the point, as the research showed a large number of those polled did say that
they expected business to be more remote, more virtual . . .., but when they
were asked what the reason for that would be a large number of them, particularly women
actually said that its because it would create a better work / life balance, but a more efficient
and cost effective business, a better work / life balance, so its very strong up there and thats
not technology, thats an attitude.
H: But does technology make us more efficient?
B: Well I think technology has the capability of making us more efficient and I think what
you know the trick to making it successful, absolutely is to get the cultural piece that fits
around the technology to work more effectively so that actually were thinking about people,
were thinking about their working environment, and were really leveraging the abilities of
modern IT and networks to deliver those sorts of solutions
H: But presumably only certain types of businesses can .. with this remote working or
the virtual office that youre talking about?
A: Yes and no I mean the important thing about the awards that people should know is that
its not for companies putting rocket ships up into space and mining helium 3 on the moon
and all the rest of it, its about any company, and as past winners demonstrate quite clearly
you can be a toy company, you can be making umbrellas, if you can .these
modern technologies to become more efficient, to get to market more effectively, .. ..
your customers more engagingly, then its going to be successful, so really awards like this
should say look, its for all businesses as long as youre living in the modern era.

H: Just elaborate a bit for us, could you about the start-ups. We said earlier its a tougher
environment
B: Yes
H: For startups
B: Yes I think that .. a lot of existing businesses see that they can of this
recession and can really, you know really make some steps forward, I think that James made
the point about finance; finance is becoming incredibly difficult to . .. since
the bank crisis, so I think many people who want to start a business can see there are some
bigger barriers now than there were before. I still think theyll find a way through that, lots of
people coming out of university, lots of people looking at this as an option to university, who I
think with the . of technology can probably start to have a business more easily than
at any time in history if they can get the finance.
H: Is it cheaper to start up a business now? You know we keep coming back to technology;
some of it can be quite expensive
A: Much cheaper and as you say Martin people think to start a business you have to get an
office and get 20 people and pay the tax man and all the rest of it
H: Well you do have to do that; you actually do have to pay A: With modern technologies you can start with one, you know you can start out of a
bedroom. There was a famous case a couple of years ago, a guy called Alex Chew wanted to
pay for his tuition fees and he invented something called the Million Dollar Home Page here
in the UK .. .., the Million Dollar Home Page he sold the pixels on a website
page for a dollar a time, he made a million dollars it cost him nothing. He invented it in his
bedroom. He said it came to me one night when I was sleeping and thinking about life in
general, it came to him so it doesnt have to cost anything
H: Certainly it is possible to appear to be a much bigger operation than you are from using
technology
B: Yes I think thats a great point and certainly the sort of technologies that are available
today, and you know you can think of something that we call Pocket Landline where you
know very very small businesses can publish a number of fixed telephone numbers that
simply forward to their mobile phone while theyre . .., so they can make

themselves look like theyre a much bigger business, and when you think of the web
presence, they can use technology to really maximise you know their presence in the market
H: Interesting. A lot of food . . there and well be back with more on the value
of the awards in the second half of our program when James sadly will be leaving us but well
be joined by Alex Evans who is the editorial director of the National Business Awards. First
of all .. lets take a look at a short video to see how leading business figures view
the National Business Awards
Video Footage
Julie Meyer, CEO Ariadne Capital and NBA Judge: The National Business Awards are really
the granddaddy of award schemes, theres lots of award programs but because these are the
National Business Awards these are the ones that people really look to and say well you know
who has won and who has been nominated and whats going on with the National Business
Awards. As a judge in the National Business Awards Ill be looking for really exceptional
leadership, management teams and CEOs and companies which are executing their strategies
extremely well, leadership qualities but also an understanding of how markets are developing
and how theyre seizing those opportunities. It always comes down to execution combined
with leadership
Prof. Dominic Swords, Economist and Co-Chair NBA Judging: I think the National Business
Awards give us a real sense of where growth is coming in the market, it gives us an early sign
of new businesses, new ventures, new innovations that businesses are devising in the
marketplace, and therefore it gives us a hint of what is coming round the corner. Looking at
businesses over the last 12 months, I actually expect to find a few surprises in the awards in
terms of the kind of sectors that businesses have been devising, ways of finding growth in, but
clearly export markets are going to feature I think, green technology, clean technology, wind
energy, all areas that were actually quite strong in terms of manufacturing and technology in
the UK. I think they may well come out as quite strong this year. Over the next 10 years were
going to see quite a different relationship between private and public sector organisations,
and a very much more dynamic and innovative relationship and I think that the sense that in
the past innovation has gone from the private to the public will be reversed, although I think
it makes it all the more important to celebrate, spotlight and really reflect on success in those
two sectors
Richard North, CEO Wow! Stuff, 2010 winner and NBA Judge: Winning the award for
innovation at the National Business Awards has really put us on a pedestal and said yes what

these guys do is fabulous, it is very innovative, and thats opened up lots of doors for us, both
here in the UK but also internationally. Only a few months ago we were with a major retail
customer in America and making a presentation right at the very forefront was this look
what weve won today, a few months later we have a listing of 14, 15 products with that
retailer which is multiple millions of dollars in sales for us. So yes Id advise anybody who is
thinking of entering the awards, just go for it. If you get anything like the response that weve
had youll be onto a winner
Alex Evans, Editorial Director and Co-Chair of Judges, National Business Awards: The
National Business Awards in partnership with Orange has always been an opportunity to
shout about your success. Over the last 2 or 3 years its been a very, very tough environment
for business and its been in many ways the perfect storm for business, its been the perfect
circumstances for businesses to go one step beyond because theyve had to, because theyve
had to save here and there, theyve had to be more innovative to make up for fewer staff. So
now more than ever, regardless of how big you are as a business or how small you are as a
business, its the perfect opportunity to prove that youve gone one step beyond
Caroline Jackson Levy, MD, UBM Awards: The National Business Awards have really
evolved in the past 10 years since we launched them. The gravitas and prestige of winning an
award for organisations has really increased over that time, and also the number of
organisations who have entered the National Business Awards has grown, even during the
recession the National Business Awards saw an increase in the number of entrants from
businesses around the country, and I think the reason for that is that there have been difficult
times, businesses want to be recognised, theyre digging deeper, theyre becoming more
innovative and entrepreneurial and they see the National Business Awards as a real platform
to show off their success. Id encourage all businesses, all sizes wherever you are in the
country, go to NationalBusinessAwards.co.uk
H: Welcome back. As you can see while the video was running weve had a little bit of a
reshuffle here in the studio, Martins now been joined by Alex Evans, welcome. And we were
meant to be joined by previous winner Richard North who you saw in that VT just now but
unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances Im afraid he cant be with us. This part of the
program were going to be talking about the awards themselves and remember you can put
your questions to our guests here in the studio via the box underneath the screen and well be
dealing with those a little bit later. So Alex lets begin if you would by just talk to us about
the awards, how you enter, and what they mean to the businesses that win them?

C: Ok the National Business Awards were created in 2002 and the fundamental idea was to
recognise excellence in business across the private and the public sector, from organisations
ranging from start-ups, SMEs all the way to the FTSE 100. Its very easy to enter, all you
have to do is to have been trading for 18 months, accountable for the last 18 months, you just
visit the website National Business Awards.co.uk or call 020 72348755 and its literally 10 or
11 questions about your business. Dissecting it in terms of how you deal with customers, how
you market your business, how you nurture innovation, how you led a strategy its a really
good review of what youve done over the last year and its a good way of finding out
whether its better than other businesses
H: So youve used the word excellence, thats a fairly generic term. What sort of qualities are
the judges looking for?
B: Well the interesting thing about the awards is there are 17 categories so everything that you
can think about in the way that you normally run your business, how do you go to market,
whats your marketing strategy, you know whats your sustainability strategy, so what have
you done to innovate, you know theres the Orange Innovation Award that recognises that. I
think the really critical thing about this is that there is you know a very level playing field, so
whether youre the smallest business or the largest business, actually you can enter the same
category of award and you can try and win that award to show what youve done against the,
against the other guys, and weve had some great examples and you saw Richard North of
Wow! Stuff, they actually won the Orange Innovation Award last year ahead of a FTSE 100
company, in the same category, so its about real excellence across a number of categories
,and everybody can join in, thats the great news really
H: So what was it that you recognised in Richards company?
C: I mean excellence is fundamentally going one step beyond and I think over the last couple
of years, certainly in the recession, with less resource than people had, whether thats people
or money or whatever, its been a lot harder to go one step beyond but people have had to, so
in the excellence as in defined over the last year for example was making up for that lack of
resource, having the ideas, having the creativity, innovating across process or coming up with
good ideas and making them happen in a better way than their competitors, I think Wow!
Stuff was a fantastic example of not just a business re-designing an industry, I mean its a toy
designer and a marketer and its innovative in those two ways, but its created a culture of
innovation within the business which spans every part of it, so its constantly nurturing ideas
and supporting ideas and investing in them

H: I mean its nice to have awards but it can sometimes be quite onerous and you say its only
a 10 question form but I bet it takes more than 10 minutes to fill in. Why should businesses,
especially small businesses consider applying?
B: I think there are a number of reasons really and I think if you talk to the businesses that
have applied, what you discover is that just the process of applying in itself is quite a
rewarding one because what it actually does, the process forces you to write down all the big,
great things youre doing which in its own way works to sort of reinforce those things back to
your employees. I think then when you enter the awards and you get shortlisted, you come to
the final in London, you can network with lots of business leaders, lots of other businesses
who are the same sort of size of you, you know that you are, its a great evening and you
know if youre the winner then of course you can use that award to market yourself and to
build your reputation in the market. So yes there is some effort to put in, we kept it as simple
as possible but if you do apply I mean youve got to be in it to win it as they say, but if you do
apply then absolutely there are benefits all the way through I think
H: Ray Thomas in fact has touched on that; he says will entering the National Business
Awards really make a difference to my business? So youve mentioned marketing
opportunities, and obviously networking at the event. Are there any other sort of more
tangible benefits?
C: I mean Richard North, he said that in the VT earlier on I mean he presented to a retail
partner, or potential one in the States, and at the time of his presentation he mentioned the fact
that he was a winner of a National Business Award and he won that contract, you know that
was 14 products in a retailer, thats worth millions to his business. I think its like anything,
its what you do with it that counts and I think some winners and even finalists have used
their recognition to impress new clients, impress new partners, even find investment, and you
know even talking about funding from banks, its not going to persuade a bank but its
certainly going to make the bank
H: Look more favourably
C: Look more favourably because youve got a business plan and youve made it work
H: Yes
B: I think Id just add to that to say that the National Business Awards is seen as the Oscars of
the business world, and so this isnt something thats given lightly. I mean Alex and I were

there in the Gherkin last year judging some of the awards, these are incredibly thorough and
serious awards, theyre very highly regarded across the whole of business, so to put that
stamp on your letterhead
H: Yes third party endorsement is important yes
B: Is truly impressive
H: Rebecca Lewis has sent a question in -have you seen a difference in the types of
businesses winning awards over the past 10 years?
C: Certainly I mean we get entries from local authorities, police forces, to schools, healthcare
trusts, but also FTSE 100s, dot coms, manufacturing companies. I think there does seem to be
a reflection of the economy of time, I think 10 years ago there was certainly more dot coms,
there was some construction businesses doing very well, now weve almost come full circle
with that, and we kind of hit recession but what we are seeing is a renaissance in the dot
come, were seeing a burgeon in e-commerce, companies like ASOS coming through, but
were also seeing the Renaissance of manufacturing as well, so again Orange leader of the
year last year was Dyson, which shows again a small business in South West thats taken a
very good idea, or a few good ideas and has delivered on the world stage
H: Very specific question from Jean Simpson if you entered in the past can you enter the
competition again?
C: Yes
H: Yes, simple answer, good. A little bit on the submissions, people are asking some detailed
questions about how much detail you need to put into the submissions, how can you make
your business stand out against the competition
B: Yes it sounds like my son applying for university this does. Yes I think put as much detail
in as you can that you think is going to be relevant, so think about all of those great things that
youve done, think about all of the unique things that youve done and dont underestimate
the power of the things that you have done and think about the questions really carefully. I
dont know Alex, what would you say?
C: I dont know I mean detail is good, but not too much detail. I think sometimes its too easy
to cut and paste the website and stick it in an entry form. I think its reading the question, the
entry form now has more guidance on what the judges are looking for so theres less space to

waste, and I think judges and Martins been a judge as well, they want a story, they want a
picture painted about the business and I think its that process of reviewing what youve done,
things will stand out so present the stand-out pieces
B: Yes what is it that youve done differently since 2 years ago, what was your strategy, what
was the thing that you spotted that you needed to do, what did you do and you know can you
say what the 5 bullet points are and if you can then you can tell a story around that
H: Its interesting that you say the process of filling out the form is quite useful as a business
exercise isnt it, because you should be able to do the whole thing in 5 bullet points or 15
seconds shouldnt you?
B: Indeed, indeed
H: So are those the entries that have really stood out for you in the past few years, can you
tell us about a couple?
C: Yes I mean Wow! Stuff again is a really good example of someone that knew exactly how
hed been successful but presented it in a very dynamic way and again the process of
the National Business Awards is before the short-listing stage its on the entry form but after
that you present live to a panel of judges, Dragons Den style so again its definitely good to
send someone whos going to engage with those judges and know the business inside out, so
the MD, the CEO is always the best representative. But at the other end of the scale, I mean
Co-operative group for example, I mean a huge business, 14 billion turnover, what stands out
about that business is its obviously commercially successful but its embraced sustainability
and ethical practice and it showed how thats worked in the business world and I think thats
an inspiration at the very top end of business in the same way that an SME that innovates is
an expression of that business
H: As you say its a story isnt it?
C: Yes
H: James London Is there a fee for entry?
C: Yes, 190
H: 190. So its a fee, entry form and then live presentation
C: Yes

H: Thats basically the process is it?

B: Yes if youre short-listed then its live presentation, yes
H: I hear people cringing all over the country at the prospect of doing that
B: Its a great opportunity, you know because you know come to that environment and bring
what youve got, bring some things that youre making, bring some visual aids you know
weve seen all sorts of different
C: Naked Wines was very good because they bought wine so that was
H: Thats called bribery isnt it thats different
B: Well Naked Wine were very good last year in the Innovation Award because what they
actually did was they brought a wine producer all the way from Peru, who could tell the story
so there was some really innovative ways that we saw people present. At the end of the day it
was a very strong feel but the Wow! Stuff actually stood out on that one for us
H: And just to answer finally, Im afraid were out of time, Peter Wilson from Beckenham
is there a minimum or maximum size of business eligible to enter?
C: Not at all, no I mean in our SME category its up to 25 million turnover but we have 5
million, 4 million, 3 million entering that category
B: I think I really want to emphasise these awards are for everybody, any category of business
of any size, you can apply and you should apply and theres lots of great examples of smaller
businesses who have used that to win the awards and to move on
H: Excellent. Sadly were out of time, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us about
the Awards and if youre thinking of entering then you can, go to the website which
isNationalBusinessAwards.co.uk. Good luck, thank you for watching. Bye bye

H: Jayne Constantinis, host

A: James Bellini, Business Futures Analyst
B: Martin Stiven, Vice president of business for Orange
C: Alex Evans, Editorial Director NBA
H: Today were going to be looking back over the last 10 years of business and looking ahead
to the next 10 years, and using the National Business Awards to help us track what business
success looks like
Titles
H: Hello and welcome to the program, Im Jayne Constantinis. The National Business Awards
in partnership with Orange are now in their 10th year. As we celebrate this notable
anniversary well be looking back at the importance of these awards to the business
community and discussing how business has changed in the past 10 years. Well also be
taking a look forward to some of the possibilities for the next 10 years. Im joined here in the
studio by Martin Stiven, Vice President of Business for Orange and James Bellini, a notable
business futures analyst. Thank you for joining me today. Now some research was conducted
just last week among previous winners of the awards. It takes a look at business trends and
asks what changes to these trends we might expect over the next 10 years. James, let me start
with you, you spend your working life looking at the future and anticipating what might
happen. What did you make of the research and the responses in it?
A: First thing is that we are obviously now looking over the next 5-10 years for a big
recovery in the UK economy, UK PLC, if you like and one of the findings in the report which
looked at past winners of this award was actually theyre remarkably optimistic over 75%
said theyre going to see some strong growth or whatever. Quite a large proportion of them
say they expect those companies to be 100% bigger by 2020 / 21 so theyre pretty optimistic
bunch. I found that a bit surprising. The downside was a lot of them, more than half said its
going to be a tough environment to start up a business in the next few years. Not difficult to
see why, moneys pretty tight, banks for various reasons we all know about are going to be
reluctant to lend to small start-ups and start-ups need to seek finances, its the lifeblood of a

new business so its going to be tough. The good news is the technologies are going to be
there so they can seize the advantage
H: And Martin as vice-president for business with Orange what do you find most interesting
in the research findings?
B: There are a couple of things for me that were particularly interesting and certainly mirrors
the trends that were seeing as a business, and that is that more and more businesses, in fact I
think it was of businesses said that they could see that remote working would become the
way that they would be doing business more and more, allowing employees to work from
home or work more flexibly and of course the technology that underpins all of that is now
more and more available, so were taking advantages of those trends.
H: Youve both mentioned the word technology at the beginning of your answers. Is
technology the key to the future of business, and how is more technology compatible with a
healthy work / life balance?
A: Thats exactly the point, as the research showed a large number of those polled did say that
they expected business to be more remote, more virtual in years to come, but when they were
asked what the reason for that would be a large number of them, particularly women actually
said that its because it would create a better work / life balance, but a more efficient and cost
effective business, a better work / life balance, so its very strong up there and thats not
technology, thats an attitude
H: But does technology make us more efficient?
B: Well I think technology has the capability of making us more efficient and I think what
you know the trick to making it successful, absolutely is to get the cultural piece that fits
around the technology to work more effectively so that actually were thinking about people,
were thinking about their working environment, and were really leveraging the abilities of
modern IT and networks to deliver those sorts of solutions
H: But presumably only certain types of businesses can thrive with this remote working or
the virtual office that youre talking about?
A: Yes and no I mean the important thing about the awards that people should know is that
its not for companies putting rocket ships up into space and mining helium 3 on the moon
and all the rest of it, its about any company, and as past winners demonstrate quite clearly
you can be a toy company, you can be making umbrellas, if you can harness these modern

technologies to become more efficient, to get to market more effectively, deal with your
customers more engagingly, then its going to be successful, so really awards like this should
say look, its for all businesses as long as youre living in the modern era
H: Just elaborate a bit for us, could you about the start-ups. We said earlier its a tougher
environment
B: Yes
H: For startups
B: Yes I think that whilst a lot of existing businesses see that they can grow out of this
recession and can really, you know really make some steps forward, I think that James made
the point about finance; finance is becoming incredibly difficult to get hold of since the bank
crisis, so I think many people who want to start a business can see there are some bigger
barriers now than there were before. I still think theyll find a way through that, lots of people
coming out of university, lots of people looking at this as an option to university, who I think
with the advent of technology can probably start to have a business more easily than at any
time in history if they can get the finance
H: Is it cheaper to start up a business now? You know we keep coming back to technology;
some of it can be quite expensive
A: Much cheaper and as you say Martin people think to start a business you have to get an
office and get 20 people and pay the tax man and all the rest of it
H: Well you do have to do that; you actually do have to pay A: With modern technologies you can start with one, you know you can start out of a
bedroom. There was a famous case a couple of years ago, a guy called Alex Chew wanted to
pay for his tuition fees and he invented something called the Million Dollar Home Page here
in the UK by the way, the Million Dollar Home Page he sold the pixels on a website page
for a dollar a time, he made a million dollars it cost him nothing. He invented it in his
bedroom. He said it came to me one night when I was sleeping and thinking about life in
general, it came to him so it doesnt have to cost anything
H: Certainly it is possible to appear to be a much bigger operation than you are from using
technology

B: Yes I think thats a great point and certainly the sort of technologies that are available
today, and you know you can think of something that we call Pocket Landline where you
know very very small businesses can publish a number of fixed telephone numbers that
simply forward to their mobile phone while theyre out and about, so they can make
themselves look like theyre a much bigger business, and when you think of the web
presence, they can use technology to really maximise you know their presence in the market
H: Interesting. A lot of food for thought there and well be back with more on the value of the
awards in the second half of our program when James sadly will be leaving us but well be
joined by Alex Evans whose the editorial director of the National Business Awards. First of all
though lets take a look at a short video to see how leading business figures view the National
Business Awards
Video Footage
Julie Meyer, CEO Ariadne Capital and NBA Judge: The National Business Awards are really
the granddaddy of award schemes, theres lots of award programs but because these are the
National Business Awards these are the ones that people really look to and say well you know
who has won and who has been nominated and whats going on with the National Business
Awards. As a judge in the National Business Awards Ill be looking for really exceptional
leadership, management teams and CEOs and companies which are executing their strategies
extremely well, leadership qualities but also an understanding of how markets are developing
and how theyre seizing those opportunities. It always comes down to execution combined
with leadership
Prof. Dominic Swords, Economist and Co-Chair NBA Judging: I think the National Business
Awards give us a real sense of where growth is coming in the market, it gives us an early sign
of new businesses, new ventures, new innovations that businesses are devising in the
marketplace, and therefore it gives us a hint of what is coming round the corner. Looking at
businesses over the last 12 months, I actually expect to find a few surprises in the awards in
terms of the kind of sectors that businesses have been devising, ways of finding growth in, but
clearly export markets are going to feature I think, green technology, clean technology, wind
energy, all areas that were actually quite strong in terms of manufacturing and technology in
the UK. I think they may well come out as quite strong this year. Over the next 10 years were
going to see quite a different relationship between private and public sector organisations,
and a very much more dynamic and innovative relationship and I think that the sense that in
the past innovation has gone from the private to the public will be reversed, although I think

it makes it all the more important to celebrate, spotlight and really reflect on success in those
two sectors
Richard North, CEO Wow! Stuff, 2010 winner and NBA Judge: Winning the award for
innovation at the National Business Awards has really put us on a pedestal and said yes what
these guys do is fabulous, it is very innovative, and thats opened up lots of doors for us, both
here in the UK but also internationally. Only a few months ago we were with a major retail
customer in America and making a presentation right at the very forefront was this look
what weve won today, a few months later we have a listing of 14, 15 products with that
retailer which is multiple millions of dollars in sales for us. So yes Id advise anybody who is
thinking of entering the awards, just go for it. If you get anything like the response that weve
had youll be onto a winner
Alex Evans, Editorial Director and Co-Chair of Judges, National Business Awards: The
National Business Awards in partnership with Orange has always been an opportunity to
shout about your success. Over the last 2 or 3 years its been a very, very tough environment
for business and its been in many ways the perfect storm for business, its been the perfect
circumstances for businesses to go one step beyond because theyve had to, because theyve
had to save here and there, theyve had to be more innovative to make up for fewer staff. So
now more than ever, regardless of how big you are as a business or how small you are as a
business, its the perfect opportunity to prove that youve gone one step beyond
Caroline Jackson Levy, MD, UBM Awards: The National Business Awards have really
evolved in the past 10 years since we launched them. The gravitas and prestige of winning an
award for organisations has really increased over that time, and also the number of
organisations who have entered the National Business Awards has grown, even during the
recession the National Business Awards saw an increase in the number of entrants from
businesses around the country, and I think the reason for that is that there have been difficult
times, businesses want to be recognised, theyre digging deeper, theyre becoming more
innovative and entrepreneurial and they see the National Business Awards as a real platform
to show off their success. Id encourage all businesses, all sizes wherever you are in the
country, go to NationalBusinessAwards.co.uk
H: Welcome back. As you can see while the video was running weve had a little bit of a
reshuffle here in the studio, Martins now been joined by Alex Evans, welcome. And we were
meant to be joined by previous winner Richard North who you saw in that VT just now but
unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances Im afraid he cant be with us. This part of the
program were going to be talking about the awards themselves and remember you can put

your questions to our guests here in the studio via the box underneath the screen and well be
dealing with those a little bit later. So Alex lets begin if you would by just talk to us about
the awards, how you enter, and what they mean to the businesses that win them?
C: Ok the National Business Awards were created in 2002 and the fundamental idea was to
recognise excellence in business across the private and the public sector, from organisations
ranging from start-ups, SMEs all the way to the FTSE 100. Its very easy to enter, all you
have to do is to have been trading for 18 months, accountable for the last 18 months, you just
visit the website National Business Awards.co.uk or call 020 72348755 and its literally 10 or
11 questions about your business. Dissecting it in terms of how you deal with customers, how
you market your business, how you nurture innovation, how you led a strategy its a really
good review of what youve done over the last year and its a good way of finding out
whether its better than other businesses
H: So youve used the word excellence, thats a fairly generic term. What sort of qualities are
the judges looking for?
B: Well the interesting thing about the awards is there are 17 categories so everything that you
can think about in the way that you normally run your business, how do you go to market,
whats your marketing strategy, you know whats your sustainability strategy, so what have
you done to innovate, you know theres the Orange Innovation Award that recognises that. I
think the really critical thing about this is that there is you know a very level playing field, so
whether youre the smallest business or the largest business, actually you can enter the same
category of award and you can try and win that award to show what youve done against the,
against the other guys, and weve had some great examples and you saw Richard North of
Wow! Stuff, they actually won the Orange Innovation Award last year ahead of a FTSE 100
company, in the same category, so its about real excellence across a number of categories
,and everybody can join in, thats the great news really
H: So what was it that you recognised in Richards company?
C: I mean excellence is fundamentally going one step beyond and I think over the last couple
of years, certainly in the recession, with less resource than people had, whether thats people
or money or whatever, its been a lot harder to go one step beyond but people have had to, so
in the excellence as in defined over the last year for example was making up for that lack of
resource, having the ideas, having the creativity, innovating across process or coming up with
good ideas and making them happen in a better way than their competitors, I think Wow!
Stuff was a fantastic example of not just a business re-designing an industry, I mean its a toy

designer and a marketer and its innovative in those two ways, but its created a culture of
innovation within the business which spans every part of it, so its constantly nurturing ideas
and supporting ideas and investing in them
H: I mean its nice to have awards but it can sometimes be quite onerous and you say its only
a 10 question form but I bet it takes more than 10 minutes to fill in. Why should businesses,
especially small businesses consider applying?
B: I think there are a number of reasons really and I think if you talk to the businesses that
have applied, what you discover is that just the process of applying in itself is quite a
rewarding one because what it actually does, the process forces you to write down all the big,
great things youre doing which in its own way works to sort of reinforce those things back to
your employees. I think then when you enter the awards and you get shortlisted, you come to
the final in London, you can network with lots of business leaders, lots of other businesses
who are the same sort of size of you, you know that you are, its a great evening and you
know if youre the winner then of course you can use that award to market yourself and to
build your reputation in the market. So yes there is some effort to put in, we kept it as simple
as possible but if you do apply I mean youve got to be in it to win it as they say, but if you do
apply then absolutely there are benefits all the way through I think
H: Ray Thomas in fact has touched on that; he says will entering the National Business
Awards really make a difference to my business? So youve mentioned marketing
opportunities, and obviously networking at the event. Are there any other sort of more
tangible benefits?
C: I mean Richard North, he said that in the VT earlier on I mean he presented to a retail
partner, or potential one in the States, and at the time of his presentation he mentioned the fact
that he was a winner of a National Business Award and he won that contract, you know that
was 14 products in a retailer, thats worth millions to his business. I think its like anything,
its what you do with it that counts and I think some winners and even finalists have used
their recognition to impress new clients, impress new partners, even find investment, and you
know even talking about funding from banks, its not going to persuade a bank but its
certainly going to make the bank
H: Look more favourably
C: Look more favourably because youve got a business plan and youve made it work

H: Yes
B: I think Id just add to that to say that the National Business Awards is seen as the Oscars of
the business world, and so this isnt something thats given lightly. I mean Alex and I were
there in the Gherkin last year judging some of the awards, these are incredibly thorough and
serious awards, theyre very highly regarded across the whole of business, so to put that
stamp on your letterhead
H: Yes third party endorsement is important yes
B: Is truly impressive
H: Rebecca Lewis has sent a question in -have you seen a difference in the types of
businesses winning awards over the past 10 years?
C: Certainly I mean we get entries from local authorities, police forces, to schools, healthcare
trusts, but also FTSE 100s, dot coms, manufacturing companies. I think there does seem to be
a reflection of the economy of time, I think 10 years ago there was certainly more dot coms,
there was some construction businesses doing very well, now weve almost come full circle
with that, and we kind of hit recession but what we are seeing is a renaissance in the dot
come, were seeing a burgeon in e-commerce, companies like ASOS coming through, but
were also seeing the Renaissance of manufacturing as well, so again Orange leader of the
year last year was Dyson, which shows again a small business in South West thats taken a
very good idea, or a few good ideas and has delivered on the world stage
H: Very specific question from Jean Simpson if you entered in the past can you enter the
competition again?
C: Yes
H: Yes, simple answer, good. A little bit on the submissions, people are asking some detailed
questions about how much detail you need to put into the submissions, how can you make
your business stand out against the competition
B: Yes it sounds like my son applying for university this does. Yes I think put as much detail
in as you can that you think is going to be relevant, so think about all of those great things that
youve done, think about all of the unique things that youve done and dont underestimate
the power of the things that you have done and think about the questions really carefully. I
dont know Alex, what would you say?

C: I dont know I mean detail is good, but not too much detail. I think sometimes its too easy
to cut and paste the website and stick it in an entry form. I think its reading the question, the
entry form now has more guidance on what the judges are looking for so theres less space to
waste, and I think judges and Martins been a judge as well, they want a story, they want a
picture painted about the business and I think its that process of reviewing what youve done,
things will stand out so present the stand-out pieces
B: Yes what is it that youve done differently since 2 years ago, what was your strategy, what
was the thing that you spotted that you needed to do, what did you do and you know can you
say what the 5 bullet points are and if you can then you can tell a story around that
H: Its interesting that you say the process of filling out the form is quite useful as a business
exercise isnt it, because you should be able to do the whole thing in 5 bullet points or 15
seconds shouldnt you?
B: Indeed, indeed
H: So are those the entries that have really stood out for you in the past few years, can you
tell us about a couple?
C: Yes I mean Wow! Stuff again is a really good example of someone that knew exactly how
hed been successful but presented it in a very dynamic way and again the process of
the National Business Awards is before the short-listing stage its on the entry form but after
that you present live to a panel of judges, Dragons Den style so again its definitely good to
send someone whos going to engage with those judges and know the business inside out, so
the MD, the CEO is always the best representative. But at the other end of the scale, I mean
Co-operative group for example, I mean a huge business, 14 billion turnover, what stands out
about that business is its obviously commercially successful but its embraced sustainability
and ethical practice and it showed how thats worked in the business world and I think thats
an inspiration at the very top end of business in the same way that an SME that innovates is
an expression of that business
H: As you say its a story isnt it?
C: Yes
H: James London Is there a fee for entry?
C: Yes, 190

H: 190. So its a fee, entry form and then live presentation

C: Yes
H: Thats basically the process is it?
B: Yes if youre short-listed then its live presentation, yes
H: I hear people cringing all over the country at the prospect of doing that
B: Its a great opportunity, you know because you know come to that environment and bring
what youve got, bring some things that youre making, bring some visual aids you know
weve seen all sorts of different
C: Naked Wines was very good because they bought wine so that was
H: Thats called bribery isnt it thats different
B: Well Naked Wine were very good last year in the Innovation Award because what they
actually did was they brought a wine producer all the way from Peru, who could tell the story
so there was some really innovative ways that we saw people present. At the end of the day it
was a very strong feel but the Wow! Stuff actually stood out on that one for us
H: And just to answer finally, Im afraid were out of time, Peter Wilson from Beckenham
is there a minimum or maximum size of business eligible to enter?
C: Not at all, no I mean in our SME category its up to 25 million turnover but we have 5
million, 4 million, 3 million entering that category
B: I think I really want to emphasise these awards are for everybody, any category of business
of any size, you can apply and you should apply and theres lots of great examples of smaller
businesses who have used that to win the awards and to move on
H: Excellent. Sadly were out of time, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us about
the Awards and if youre thinking of entering then you can, go to the website which
isNationalBusinessAwards.co.uk. Good luck, thank you for watching. Bye bye