A world leading learning centre for owner managers and entrepreneurs, The ICEHOUSE, has won the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support education provider award. Its CEO Andy Hamilton also won in the individual category this year.
The Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards were founded by business support specialist, Sarah Trotman of Fast50 company Bizzone, and sponsored by Vero, the National Business Review and BDO Spicers. The awards are a key event of the Bizzone Business Expo – New Zealand’s largest event for business - with the Supreme Award presented to Ministry of Economic Development - Insolvency & Trustee Service by Prime Minister Hon John Key at a Black Tie Gala Dinner held on 28 May in Auckland.
Our small and medium businesses play a critical part in our economy, “he said. “They provide Kiwis with the essential goods and services they need. They help drive innovation across our economy. And they can become – with good leadership and support – our large businesses of tomorrow.”
The ICEHOUSE is a business growth centre that includes business growth programmes for SMEs, a business incubator for start-ups and New Zealand’s largest group of angel investors. It is a collaborative partnership between The University of Auckland Business School, The Boston Consulting Group, Telecom and Gen-i, BNZ , Ernst & Young, HP, Microsoft and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts lawyers.
A dynamic learning environment for entrepreneurs it is a research initiative focused on the growth challenges faced by owner-managed businesses in New Zealand. It was established in 2001 in recognition of the importance of SMEs to the New Zealand economy with its main purpose to take responsibility for delivering 350 of the 3000 firms needed to get New Zealand into the top half of the OECD by 2013.
To achieve this it has brought together thousands of useful contacts including customers, speakers, partners and alumni. It runs ICE Bridge, a 17-day programme for owner-managers and ICE Accelerator, which incorporates a number of educational and growth initiatives. These include a world leading business plan competition - Spark, an ideas-based competition - The ICEHOUSE FAST Pitch, Demystifying the Accelerator events, a partnership with media company Start-Up to produce a TV show on start-ups, a magazine and the number one business web community in New Zealand.
In 2003 funding for start-up companies started with ICE Angels and was followed by the launch of the ICEHOUSE Start-Up Fund in 2008. The ICEHOUSE has forged strong relationships with leading incubation practitioners and angel investors from Silicon Valley which have been instrumental in assisting New Zealand’s emerging high tech companies to enter foreign markets.
Since its formation The ICEHOUSE has delivered 55 internationally capable owner managers/entrepreneurs and their organisations, 65 start-ups, put 500 owner managers through growth training programmes and raised $35 million capital to grow New Zealand businesses.
Excellence in business is more important than anything else Roger Bell, Chief Executive of Vero Insurance, the Foundation Sponsor of the awards, says. “The point of these awards is that our winners don’t end up just being excellent on one aspect of business – it goes right across the business – across leadership , strategy, people, processes and the results from all of those things. So it’s not just narrowly defined.”
BDO Spicers’ National Chair Judith Stanway says the Vero awards recognise businesses that are striving, and succeeding. “In doing so they give businesses great role models to aspire to follow,” she says. “In the current environment, when so many aspects of our working lives are uncertain, it’s important to do a good job and to do it right first time,” she says. “No one has the capacity or time to have to go back and re-do things at present: striving for excellence is therefore beneficial to the bottom line, not just the top one.”
“Excellence delivered to a well targeted audience equals guaranteed success!” says NBR’s Todd Scott, sponsor. “Whether it’s excellence in editorial content and commentary or excellence in advertising creative, in today’s economic environment nothing short of excellence is acceptable when so many people have a stake in the outcome.”
The Supreme winner of the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards was Ministry of Economic Development - Insolvency & Trustee Service.
Awards‘ organiser Bizzone has grown to become one of New Zealand’s Fast50 high growth companies and global franchise plans are currently being implemented in Australia. Bizzone has recently created an Online Business Expo and Community being populated from its database of over 35,000 business owners which will go live in mid-August 2009.
Click here for photos of The ICEHOUSE team.
ENDS
For information on winners and photos please see www.excellenceinbusinesssupport.co.nz
Please contact Jane Parlane for more information or for interview opportunities with Sarah Trotman. Tel 09 5201148 or Mobile: 021 912 631. Email: janeparlane@xtra.co.nz