Seeking Ireland’s Best Managed Companies

This year’s Best Managed Companies programme will focus on how companies are moving past the pandemic and preparing for future success.

Deloitte, in association with Bank of Ireland, has launched the 2022 Best Managed Companies Awards (BMC) programme and is calling for ambitiously-minded Irish and Northern Irish companies across all sectors to apply.

Now in its fourteenth year, the programme celebrates the hard work, passion and tenacity of indigenous businesses and their management teams. Ireland’s Best Managed Companies network in 2021 comprises of 139 companies across a variety of sectors, representing 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, with a combined turnover of €8.5 billion and employing a total of 40,000 people.

“After an extremely challenging few years, it is important to celebrate the spectacular work being done by Irish businesses every day”

Applicants to the programme can expect to receive dedicated coaching from Deloitte and the programme sponsor, Bank of Ireland. The application process provides participating companies with the opportunity to analyse their entire business, including performance, management practices and goals, which is a vital exercise for any company.

Preparing for future success

“While last year’s programme was all about the resilience of our indigenous companies, this year’s will focus on how they are preparing for future success,” said Anya Cummins, head of Deloitte Private.

“Last year, the winning companies demonstrated how their best-in-class management practices saw them succeed through the pandemic; now, we’re excited to see how these will enable them to embrace new opportunities as we move past the pandemic.”

Last year’s programme saw the addition of two new award categories: the Family Business Award, won by Mayo manufacturing company Portwest; and the Best in Innovation Award, in association with Salesforce, which was awarded to construction company Errigal Contracts.

Other newly-qualified companies in the 2021 Best Managed Companies network include Welltel, Camile Food Group, Clonakilty Food Co and Keltech, to name a few. 17 companies achieved the Gold Standard at last year’s awards, having requalified as a Best Managed Company for their fourth consecutive year and 12 companies were awarded Platinum Standard, requalifying for their seventh consecutive year.

“After an extremely challenging few years, it is important to celebrate the spectacular work being done by Irish businesses every day,” said Nikki Canavan, senior director, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking.

“Ireland’s Best Managed Companies programme is robust and comprehensive: it benchmarks management practices against strategy and identifies areas that may need increased focus and attention. It can play a very constructive role in making sure businesses are ready for the next step in achieving their objectives, and build confidence within the organisation to really deliver on its objectives. We very much look forward to working with the applicant companies and hearing their stories again this year.”

For further information and details on how to enter the awards, visit www.deloitte.ie/bestmanaged. The closing date for Phase 1 entries is Friday 4 March 2022. Companies that progress to Phase 2 of the application process will be notified in March, with the winners to be officially announced at the annual Gala Awards and Symposium in September 2022.

“As we begin to recover and move beyond the challenges posed by the pandemic, the rapid digitisation and pent-up customer demand we have witnessed over the last two years present a whole new set of opportunities,” said Harry Goddard, CEO of Deloitte Ireland.

“We look forward to hearing about how companies plan to take advantage of these, as well as how they plan to apply the lessons learned during the pandemic, in the face of the continuing climate crisis and other future challenges.”

Main image at top: Bank of Ireland’s Nikki Canavan with Welltel CEO Ross Murray and Harry Goddard from Deloitte

John Kennedy
Award-winning ThinkBusiness.ie editor John Kennedy is one of Ireland's most experienced business and technology journalists.

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