Encourage excellence
<h>Together with</h> media partners and universities, we are preparing the "Best of European Business" competition in seven European countries. View here what is going on in Portugal. The following text is the abstract of an article published in "Journal de Negócios" on July 27th. At their meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, the heads of government of the then 15 EU member states set an ambitious goal for themselves: By 2010 the European Union was to develop into the world's most competitive and dynamic economic region. As Europe is encountering difficulties meeting the criteria defined in the Lisbon Agenda 2010, it is necessary to focus on the companies who set themselves apart through their competitiveness and excellence, especially in the context of the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. To promote the excellence of European companies, underlining the importance of leadership in global markets, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and the Financial Times are organizing the "Best of European Business awards," a pan-European competition aimed at recognizing the best European business practices. In the course of the competition, the most successful companies in seven European countries will be identified and awarded a prize in the following categories: growth of business volume, value creation, innovation and strategies for the new Europe. As in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland and Spain, experts in Portugal are now selecting their best practice companies. | ||
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The members of the Portuguese jury are: Francisco Murteira Nabo, Chairman of Galp Energia, José da Silva Lopes, President of Montepio Geral, Rui Vilar, President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Esmeralda Dourado, CEO of the SAG Group, Luis Almeida e Costa, Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Sérgio Figueiredo, Director of the Jornal de Negócios and Peter Wise, Financial Times correspondent in Portugal. The business weekly Jornal de Negócios and Universidade Nova de Lisboa will also be co-hosting the award ceremony in Portugal. This coming October 18, the Portuguese winners in each category will be awarded their prizes in a ceremony attended by leading Portuguese business personalities. Following the national awards, a "European summit" will be held in Brussels in November. At this event, an international jury will select the "Best European Company". In addition to granting the awards, the results of Best of European Business will be discussed by a panel of renowned decision makers from the political, economic and academic arenas, and of course by the winners of the national awards. The award ceremony will serve as a forum to heat up the debate on best practices and the benchmark companies. This way, the key challenges that European companies who strive to be successful at a global level face will be identified. The organizers of the competition hope to mobilize the European business stakeholders, giving some well-deserved visibility to those who can contribute most to achieving the objectives set out in the Lisbon Agenda: "We wish to reward the role-model strategies of European companies and thus encourage excellence. Europe must be determined to get back on the path toward growth," explains António Bernardo, Deputy CEO of Roland Berger. |
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