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AUT Business School Vero award finalist

15 Jun 2009

The AUT Business School is an education provider finalist in the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards. Last year it won the category.

The finalists are described as being “innovative, of significant benefit to customers and demonstrating a high level of business support”.

Other finalists in the education provider category are Leadership New Zealand, Palmerston North’s New Zealand School of Export, the University of Auckland Business School’s The ICEHOUSE and Dunedin-based Upstart Incubation Trustee Company Limited.



PRESS RELEASE FROM BIZZONE:
Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards 2009 finalists announced

Finalists for the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards are upbeat about the economy and innovative in services they are providing to support New Zealand companies, according to the evaluation panel.

Organisers received a record number of entries for the 2009 awards and the evaluation panel say the quality of finalists was higher than previous years.

Entries for 2009 were stronger than ever says Bizzone managing director Sarah Trotman.

“New Zealand businesses are being well supported by companies that are not buying into the doom and gloom mentality,” she says.

“The evaluators were thoroughly impressed by the quality and number of entries; choosing winners this year will be extremely difficult.”

The award finalists were from large, small, private, government sector and not-for-profit organisations, all with an interest in supporting business in New Zealand Sarah Trotman says.

“They included business advisers, educators, government departments, councils, product suppliers, information technology businesses and service industry companies; altogether the support services being offered by these companies are truly inspirational.”

Finalists were spread throughout New Zealand with government and Chamber of Commerce sectors having particularly strong entries; finalists from these categories included The Otago Chamber of Commerce, Rotorua Chamber of Commerce, Southland Enterprises Incorporated, Manukau City Council, Dunedin Economic Development (Dunedin City Council) and South Waikato District Council, Department of Labour - Immigration New Zealand, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Ministry of Economic Development, Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development.

Some of the country’s largest companies are also finalists: Telecom, Kiwibank, Converga, Zeacom and Working In Limited will all compete in the Large business $10 million+ category.

Individual finalists for 2009 are Andrew Hamilton, CEO, The ICEHOUSE (Auckland) and Mike Tournier, Business Development Manager, carboNZero programme Landcare Research (Christchurch).

2009 marks Vero's fifth year as Foundation Sponsor of the Excellence in Business Support' Awards. Vero was awarded a Gold Medal by the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation in 2008 for its own business excellence programme, one of only two organisations currently at this level.

Roger Bell, Chief Executive of Vero Insurance, the Foundation Sponsor of the awards, congratulated all entrants to the awards.

“Having won gold for business excellence we recognise the great value of providing excellence in business support,” he says.

“We congratulate all of those who entered this year’s awards and this year's finalists who are providing business support in so many innovative ways to businesses throughout New Zealand. This support is invaluable to so many companies, and now even more so, as we all face a more challenging world economy.

“It is inspiring to see the increasing numbers of entrants who demonstrate international levels of best practice in their businesses and quality support as a key part of their business.”

The 49 finalists were selected by The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation to provide an independent and robust evaluation process for the awards’ 12 categories.

Chief executive of the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation Mike Watson says good business support assists New Zealand businesses to build capability and capacity and in doing so they become more competitive and sustainable.

“Companies offering excellent business support demonstrate a clear understanding of their customers and markets, have an understanding of customer requirements and knowledge of whether or not they are meeting customer requirements,” he says.

“This is backed up by business results demonstrating that they are successful, for example in the areas of customer satisfaction, customer retention, referrals and repeat orders.

“In finalists we look for organisations that demonstrate they have robust processes in place to address key business and stakeholder/customer requirements. The delivery of products and services should be based on sound processes and the business should demonstrate clear direction and specific objectives to achieve success. Most importantly we look for evidence of success via the outputs and outcomes from business processes.”

The winners will be announced on May 28 in Auckland at a gala black-tie dinner.


Notes for editors:
The annual Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards are sponsored by Vero, BDO Spicers and The National Business Review and founded by business sector specialist, Sarah Trotman of Bizzone. The awards are a key event during the annual Bizzone Business Expo, New Zealand's largest event for business.

Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards Finalists for 2009

Education provider
  • Leadership New Zealand
  • The AUT Business School
  • New Zealand School of Export
  • The ICEHOUSE
  • Upstart Incubation Trustee Company Ltd
Business < $5m T/O One on one Offering
  • Mobile Mentor Ltd
  • Kerridge & Partners
  • RimuHosting
  • Datum Connect Ltd
  • Franchize Consultants
  • WHK Business Growth
Business < $5m T/O One to many Offering
  • The Bottom Line
  • VIVA-LITE
  • Jericho
  • Rotorua Chamber of Commerce
  • Doubledot Media Ltd
  • GeoSmart
  • Xero
Business $5-10M T/O
  • Results.com
  • MedRecruit
Large Business > $10m T/O
  • Telecom
  • Kiwibank
  • Converga
  • Zeacom
  • Working In Limited
Not-for-Profit
  • AUT Business Innovation Centre
  • The Otago Chamber of Commerce
  • Southland Enterprises Incorporated
  • New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants
Local Government body
  • Manukau City Council
  • Dunedin Economic Development (Dunedin City Council)
  • South Waikato District Council
Government Department
  • The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
  • Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
  • Department of Labour - Immigration New Zealand
  • Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
Public-private sector partnership
  • Ministry of Economic Development
  • Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
  • Ministry of Social Development
  • Dunedin City Council / Chamber of Commerce
High growth sector
  • Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
  • The Interface Financial Group
  • AUT Business Innovation Centre
  • Movac
Individual
  • Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
  • The ICEHOUSE
Sustainable Development in Business
  • Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
  • Southland Enterprises Incorporated
  • exception interiors ltd

For more information, please contact:

Belinda Nash | Communications Manager | AUT University
Phone | +64 9 921 9911 | Mobile | +64 21 303 480
Email | belinda.nash@aut.ac.nz  Web | www.aut.ac.nz
Last updated: 15 Jun 2009 9:56am

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