We’ve reached another year end battling, adapting to, or in some cases riding high on the winds of change in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. Those organisations and individuals that are casualties of the turmoil will question whether there is any silver lining to the GFC cloud.
Having completed the lengthy process once again of data-gathering and auditing to produce this year’s Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Companies list, and the judging process to determine the award winners, we can state unequivocally that, yes, New Zealand’s best performing companies have created opportunity out of adversity.
For the corporate sector the opportunity was not around revenue growth but cost control and efficiencies and building the bottom line. The successful companies have become leaner and smarter as our Top 200 overview for the year (pg 21) and the award winners that follow show.
As uncomfortable in this new environment as many of us may be though, we only have to look to Europe to remind ourselves that we don’t have it so bad. And take look at the musings of some of our thought leaders on page 24; for those still waiting for return to some kind of ‘normal’ – welcome to the new world where constant change and accelerated market shifts are the
new norm.
The organisations that are thriving are those that have embraced the new culture of openness and transparency engendered by this age of instant online communication. There is no better example of this than our company of the year, Beca Group (page 39). It is the first time that private company has won the title and that was made possible by Beca opening its books for scrutiny by our auditors and judges.
And while we are on the subject of auditing I’d like to acknowledge the sterling efforts of our data gathering and proofing team, especially Gill Prentice and Kevin Lawrence and our auditing team partners from Deloitte. Under the watchful eye and direction of Kim Fisher who has been managing this process for several years now, Daniel Karlsson and Maria Vorobieva did thorough and efficient job of auditing the figures. The ranked list of Top 200 Companies, together with the learned deliberations of our judging panel, produce set of results with integrity.
I am sure you will enjoy reading the background to the success of this year’s Top 200 winners and finalists. Such success is no mean feat in our ‘new world’. My congratulations to all of the top performers. And to our readers and partners, thank you for your support through another challenging year. May you have pleasant and welcome break over summer and we look forward to working with you in 2011.
And don’t forget to visit www.management.co.nz for coverage of the Top 200 Awards event and video interviews.
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