Steve Brine has welcomed news of a new city business award, recommended by local entrepreneur Adrienne Marsden, pictured.
For over 10 years, the Winchester Business Excellence Awards have recognised and celebrated the achievements of local businesses and their commitment to achieving excellence. During this time, many areas of business have been awarded: from customer excellence and entrepreneurialism to the carbon impact as business has on the environment.
To date however, an area that has gone unrecognised in an independent category is that of a business's responsibility of the impact it has on the community in which it operates. In its purest sense, 'responsibility' tends to focus on social endeavours such as supporting local charities and voluntary groups but we see it as significantly more than that; responsibility goes to the heart of how a business interacts with the many stakeholders it serves: customers, employees, suppliers as well as, of course, those who share the same communities.
As a membership group that supports and assists Hampshire based organisations to engage in responsible practice, The Business Collective is well placed to assess and champion businesses that are being responsible. It was for this reason that we recommended that a new category within the WBEA be created and we are thrilled to be sponsoring it.
Founder of The Business Collective, Adrienne Marsden said: "The Business Collective was formed with the aspiration of helping Hampshire based SME's make a difference within their local communities – to both charities and fellow businesses. We hope to become the kitemark of Corporate Social Responsibility for small business and so we are delighted to be sponsoring an award that acknowledges and celebrates those who want to do good as well as do business."
Winchester MP Steve Brine said: "I have known Adrienne for some time now, and she is genuinely one of the hardest-working people I have met. I was so pleased to hear about this award and am very much looking to the awards later this year."
More information ...
For more information on the CSR Award, contact Adrienne Marsden at The Business Collective on 01962 840131 or for details of all the Awards contact Lotti Eagles at Winchester Bid on 01962 841000.
