REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE DELOITTE BEST MANAGED COMPANIES AWARD CEREMONY, RITZ CARLTON
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE DELOITTE BEST MANAGED COMPANIES AWARD CEREMONY, RITZ CARLTON HOTEL, POWERSCOURT
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Thank you very much for your warm welcome. And for the chance to join you in the beautiful setting of the Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt, to honour the recipients of the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards. My thanks to Pat Cullen, Managing Partner, Deloitte for his kind invitation and to Deloitte for bringing this concept to us from Canada where it has been operating successfully since the early ‘90s. It is welcome and very timely to have a new national awards initiative which recognises and encourages excellence in business management and performance for companies throughout the island of Ireland.
It would be true to say that the country is far from being in a celebratory mood, though hopefully that might change after a certain match this weekend in Croke Park. More generally though the prevailing mood is one of anxiety and uncertainty and the locus of the turmoil is the world of business and commerce, in other words, your world. Was there ever a time that called more urgently for us to insist that we are not defined either at home or abroad by the few who set low standards but rather by the many who pursue the highest values and standards in business management and show courage in facing into a truly hostile business environment without flinching from the determination to stay faithful to the most exacting of standards?
These awards send a loud and clear signal that in the middle of this vale of economic misery the vast majority of companies on this island are well run, well managed and profitable. As these awards showcase - here are companies which set standards and face down the problems that inevitably face them all through the intelligent and ethical maximising of every advantage they can muster – that means being innovative, creative, resourceful, resilient and shepherding and managing resources to the very limit. It means seeking out the niche markets that are best for your company and then serving those markets better than anyone else in the field.
The 25 award winning companies have emerged on top through a testing and challenging process of peer review. They volunteered to have every nook and cranny of their business scrutinised and benchmarked against the best of the best. It says something about their confidence in what they do and now that confidence is vindicated by success in their recognition as best managed companies. We should also spare a thought for the 50 or so other companies who also put themselves forward for this programme and who while they may not have made it to the top twenty-five deserve acknowledgement also for their willingness to submit voluntarily to the rigours of this competition. It says a lot about their ambition for themselves and their determination to make excellence in management their top priority. This is only the first year of many we hope that the awards will run, so their day will surely come and soon.
The all-island nature of this competition reminds us of the massive investment that had been made in building peace. It is a gift that eluded every previous generation and it is worth remarking that the peace process stalled many a time on its journey. Today our prosperity process has stalled, not simply for the island of Ireland but for virtually all of our neighbours and our markets. It is precisely at this moment that we need the kind of sound, wise business leadership that can help us ensure that all the cylinders that drive the engines of growth and opportunity are firing and fully functioning. Your stories remind us that, despite the jeremiads, they are not all shut down, very far from it. Among the advantages we have today that we did not have such a short time ago is the backdrop of growing cross-border good neighbourliness and partnership. There are substantial benefits for companies on both sides of the border in looking to work more closely together, to create the collaborations and economies of scale that we could never achieve alone. Deloitte are to be very specially commended for ensuring that this unique wider dimension and potential has also been recognised in these awards.
Sponsorship is of course vital to a programme such as this and so I thank Deloitte, Bank of Scotland (Ireland), the Irish Management Institute and the Sunday Business Post for their respective roles in giving us this new driver and showcase of business excellence. In some ways inaugurating these awards two or three years ago would not have had the same impact that inaugurating them now has. They are a tonic, a leaven, a statement of intent, a call to a hope that is not a false optimism but a realistic and much-needed hope placed in solid, tried and tested, first class businesses, with first class credentials.
The staff of the twenty-five award winning companies are entitled to take a righteous pride in their work and in their award. They should also know that they make all of us who share this island very proud. If dividends have been in short supply this year, then this peace dividend is paying off handsomely and that is something to be very grateful for. Just as that peace was worked for relentlessly by people who refused to settle for anything less, these awards go to businesses whose leaders infused them with a can-do spirit; infused with an insistence on best practice and a belief that those who do things well, will always succeed.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all every success and good wishes for the future
Gurb fada buan sibh 's go raith míle maith agaibh go léir.