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Award winners spanned the gamut of Dutch industries - from steel, to banking and entertainment – demonstrating that strength lies in diversity. Steel magnate Mittal walked away with top honors in the growth category, along with TomTom who took home the individual award in the SME section of this category. Musical producers Stage Entertainment claimed the SME Innovation prize alongside DSM, producers of fine chemicals and nutritional products. Winners in the "Cross-Border M&A" category included banking giant ABN AMRO and specialist fabrics producer TenCate.

Accepting his award, Feike Sijbesma, Board member of DSM, stressed the importance of a pan-European business competition for the spirit of competitiveness in Europe. "Especially in light of the Lisbon Agenda," he said, "it is of utmost importance to keep pushing ahead European business. It is important to reward strategic acquisitions and the exceptional growth of companies, no matter if small or large."

And the winners are…

Growth

The "world's number one steel company", Mittal, won the award for large enterprises in this category. The jury praised the company's ability to anticipate growing demand in steel and with that the much-discussed acquisition of BEB Europe 2005 winner, Arcelor. Jury members felt that Mittal had succeeded in penetrating high-end steel markets and expected the company to move into Russian and Asian markets shortly. Its 'buy and build' strategy of acquiring underperforming companies and restructuring these from the bottom up created the type of value shareholders were looking for.

In the SME section of this award category, TomTom emerged as the winner. According to the jury, it had "shown true leadership in a niche market of the highly competitive consumer electronics sector. The jury recognized the company's impressive marketing efforts in the EU, US and Australian markets and praised its flexible business model, which made optimal use of outsourcing. The company was also lauded for its innovative use of existing technologies, which excelled in anticipating customer demand.

Innovation

According to the jury, "innovation has been at the core of DSM's corporate identity for a long time." The inclusion of the moniker "Unlimited" in the company logo could not be more apt: DSM has gone from being a mining company to producing bulk and fine chemicals and more recently, nutritional and pharmaceutical ingredients along with performance materials and industrial chemicals today. The jury highlighted DSM's capacity to continuously introduce new products to its line and commercialize these effectively. Its drive to innovate could also be seen in its cooperation agreements with major universities in the Netherlands and its pursuit of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the Dutch government.

On the other side of the spectrum is SME winner in this category, Stage Entertainment. The international entertainment group has produced award-winning musicals across the globe, with a focus on Europe and the US. Members of the jury recognized the company's achievements in devising an innovative strategy consisting of high-quality entertainment through its own licensed productions, the international ticket and marketing organization and the its network of theater locations in different countries. Founder Joop van den Ende received additional praise for the creation of his 'Cross Media Fund' (with Deitmers Venture Capital) to focus on the development of new companies in the telecommunications, TV, media and gaming sectors.