Best of European Business: The jury has already selected Portugal's best companies

Journal de Negócios

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Financial Times, Jornal de Negócios and the Department of Economics at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa are organizing the pan-European Best of European Business award. The competition aims to award prizes for the best entrepreneurial practices in seven EU member states and to help Europe get back on track with the Lisbon Agenda. In each of the participating countries (Portugal, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom) the most successful companies in the categories business volume growth, value creation, innovation and strategies for the new Europe will be awarded a prize. There will be two award winners in each of the categories: one medium-sized and one large company. In addition to the prize, the results of the competition will be discussed with a panel of managers, politicians and academics and with the award winners themselves to spur the debate on best practices and the companies of reference in Europe. The best of the best will be selected at an international summit event to take place on December 1 in Brussels. By awarding these prizes, the organizers hope to focus attention on entrepreneurial success stories in Portugal and Europe at a crucial moment for the future of project Europe.

The seven members of the Portuguese jury for the Best of European Business award came together yesterday in Lisbon and selected the award winners in each of the four categories growth, value creation, innovation and new Europe. The eight award winners (four medium-sized companies and four large corporations) will be announced on October 18 at the award ceremony held at the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon. The ceremony will be attended by key personalities from the Portuguese business world.

The award winners were selected from a short list of three medium-sized companies and three large corporations per category. By comparing the companies analyzed from the seven participating countries, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants gained valuable insights. The first is that apart from Germany, the best performing companies grew by 21-27% between 2000 and 2004. The companies included among the finalists in Portugal were those with the best performance overall, followed by companies from Poland and the UK.

Another piece of good news for Portugal is that despite its negative impact on global growth, bureaucracy does not bear down on the success of the best companies. Equally interesting is the finding that corporations partly held by the government are growing 50% less than the average.

In most sectors analyzed in the seven countries, medium-sized companies grow at a faster pace than large corporations. Exceptions are the gas and oil, automotive, transport/tourism and logistics sectors. In the other sectors, particularly in financial services, the manufacturing industry and pharmaceuticals/chemicals smaller European companies (based on the European average for each sector) have been the growth champions over the last four years. The growth rate differential between SMEs and large companies is less pronounced in telecommunications and media, wholesale and retail and even more accentuated in the utilities sector.

There are substantial differences in global growth among the European countries. The 50 best-performing companies in Poland and the United Kingdom show higher and more sustained growth rates than the companies in the other participating countries. Financial services and pharmaceuticals/chemicals were the sectors with the highest numbers of companies growing above the European average.

According to the report, most European companies opt for organic growth. This strategy is followed mainly in Portugal, France and Germany, whereas British companies are much more active in mergers and acquisitions.

As the data gathered by Roland Berger shows, the message the best European companies have for the remaining companies in Europe is that their growth is clearly linked to creating value in the different sectors analyzed.