Editor’s Letter

Every leader understands the extraordinary things that can be accomplished through team effort. We are reminded of the fact every year when, for about three months, Management’s Top 200 team springs into action. Pulling together the wealth of detail that is required first to build the lists and second to identify finalists for the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards, is no mean feat. We have been compiling the list for almost 20 years and promoting the awards for 12.
The task doesn’t get any easier. The changes that now take place each year are significant. This year, for instance, 24 enterprises exited the list and 26 entered. Some returned after losing place, others have changed names inherited through mergers and acquisitions. Some were reclassified for one reason or another. Team members like Top 200 editor Gill Prentice, have been involved in compiling the list for 14 years. For others, like Deloitte partner Bruce Elliott and analyst Jenny Paterson, assisting Management’s database editor Kevin Lawrence, and list researcher, Robert Burgess, with professional advice and quality control, was first-time experience.
Writers Denise McNabb and Mark Story put the editorial flesh on the bones of the statistical skeleton. Their stories breathe life into the figures, providing analysis and perspective of overall and individual commercial performance. And, like the professionals they are, they write it in double quick time. Compiling the Top 200 list ends on October 31. Within week the writers must complete their analysis and their interviews. Award judges meanwhile chose their finalists and winners.
Stories written and edited, the production team takes over. Designer Tracy Woodward and production manager Fran Marshall, working with ad manager Diana Graham assisted by Nicola Talbot, create 132 page issue of Management magazine for release on November 29 at the Deloitte/Management Top 200 Awards dinner – an event Susan Peach has managed and orchestrated since the inaugural awards night back in 1990.
There are unmentioned others behind the scenes who ensure the process runs smoothly, the errors are minimal and the standard of content and presentation is high. It is team effort committed to ensuring that once year Management magazine, Deloitte and other key sponsors identify, recognise and applaud outstanding individual management and team performances amongst New Zealand’s largest companies and trading organisations.
I want to applaud the team at Management and Deloitte who, year after year, make the Top 200 happen.