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RED DEER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FEATURE |
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Judges zero in on winning businesses
10/01/08
This spring the board of Directors at the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce enhanced the judging process of their annual business awards. They had learned that preparing the materials for the judging process was an onerous task for many businesses, particularly during when both staff and time is in short supply. The problem was beginning to affect the number of nominees they were seeing, because potential winners were begging off.
Research with other Chambers produced some tried and true methods that addressed some of the challenges and they’ve adapted a few to work in the 2008 event. First of all, they looked at the field of potential businesses of the year and realized that one of the categories, Franchise of the Year, overlapped the other two existing categories and pitted the promotional departments of national chains against some very successful small local businesses.. As a result, this year, for the first time, they’ll confer their awards to a Small Business of the Year (20 or fewer employees), Medium-sized Business of the Year (21-75 employees) and Business of the Year (75 or more employees).
Qualifying businesses are those primarily owned or operated in the Red Deer area, that hasn’t received a Business of the Year Award in the past five years. Businesses don’t have to be part of the 950 member Chamber family to qualify.
What makes a business of the year? When you read the list, you’ll realize we have plenty of businesses that are worthy of the nomination and the title. Exemplary customer service certainly tops the list and the business has to excel at its core function. You have to be good at what you do and deliver that to your customers in a remarkable way.
Judges take that information and start looking at how the business has grown and handled growth. Firms that develop their staff and facilities likely see the benefits in the core functions and customer service and also develop into dominate players in their critical markets. Judges will also look for innovation, consider awards and testimonials, as well as positive media attention.
How the staff of a business participates in the community says a lot about how that business runs and its core values. Building communities is good business and all good communities get where they are from the contributions of a strong business sector. If you look at the organizations that contribute to Red Deer that have a strong volunteer component, you’ll see they’re guided by people working in and running successful businesses.
When the final tallies are made by the judging panel, they’ll also be considering whether the business finalists have been properly acknowledged for their contributions and they’ll consider that as part of the final deliberations.
In an effort to shift the emphasis away from producing a portfolio and instead, trying to see all the entries through the same lens, the Chamber has taken on the task of preparing the materials the judges see. This week, a panel of Chamber representatives are on the streets, visiting the nominated businesses and interviewing, gathering all the pertinent information and organizing it into a matrix for the judges to consider. In some respects this levels the playing field, since all interviewees hear the same questions. They’ve had the questions in advance, so they can be ready and the process can be swift: it has to be – the awards are less than a month away and presentation materials still need to be developed.
By all accounts, the changes have been a success: there are more entries than previous years, the quality of entries hasn’t suffered and the nominees aren’t scrambling to develop a portfolio for the judges.
Now, for the nominees, the waiting begins. Who will be our businesses of the year? You’ll have to wait until October 24 for the answer.
Tickets for the event, held at the Red Deer Lodge Hotel and Convention Centre, are still available. Call 403-347-4491 for information or email lhutton@reddeerchamber.com
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UPCOMING CHAMBER EVENTS |
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Political Forum
October 7, 2008 – 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Location:Marquis Room, Harvest Centre
Mentoring Breakfast
Thursday, October 16, 2008 – 7:00 am
Email - Making It Work Like it Should
Speaker: Rob Gilgan
Location:North Hill Inn
2008 Business of the Year Awards
Saturday, October 24, 2008
Location: - 6:00 pmRed Deer Lodge
$85.00 per person or
$680 per table (8)
Business after Hours
October 28, 2008, 5pm-7pm
Location:Century Centre
Host: MS Society
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PARTICIPATING MERCHANTS |
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