Category: Best Medium Business

CCD Architects take top honours

Local architects CCD received the top accolade at last night’s Guernsey Awards for Achievement when they were crowned the Commerce & Employment Guernsey Business of the Year.  The other main business winners of the night were Two Degrees North who took home the NatWest Best Small Business award and BDO who lifted the Healthspan Best Large Business trophy.  RBS International won the NP Silver Salver for Excellence in Training.

CCD Architects were in the running for the main award when they first took to the stage to collect the BWCI Best Medium Business Award in front of a 780 strong audience made up of local dignitaries and business men and women. They saw off weighty competition from Aztec Group and Clydesdale Bank International.

At the end of the Awards gala evening they were named as  overall winners of the night when they were presented with the Commerce & Employment Guernsey Business of the Year Award by the Lieutenant Governor, Air Marshal Peter Walker, who was attending his first Guernsey Awards for Achievement evening.

Chairman of the judging panel, Deputy Robert Sillars, said CCD Architects were outstanding and extremely worthy of the title, Guernsey Business of the Year.

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And the winners are….

The winners of the 2011 Awards for Achievement are:

Commerce and Employment Business of the Year….CCD Architects

NatWest Best Small Business…..Two Degrees North

BWCI Best Medium Business…..CCD Architects

Healthspan Best Large Business…..BDO

NP Group – IOD – GTA University Centre Excellence in Training…..RBS International

Specsavers Unsung Hero…..Kim Marquis

Guiton Group Ambassador of the Year…..Roger Allsopp

CCD Architects shortlisted for BWCI Best Medium Business

A typical day in the life of CCD….

Andrew, managing director, has rushed off to a meeting with some prospective clients.  No doubt he’ll WOW them with his creative brilliance.  Meanwhile Colin, our 75 year old draughtsman, is painting a beautiful water colour picture from one of Andrew’s scribbled designs – this process normally requires substantial reminiscing about the good old days…!

John, technical director, is working out how one of Andrew’s designs could possibly be built.  Stuart, our conservation surveyor, is out on his Vespa dashing between one historic building and another, resembling Sherlock Holmes as he investigates causes of damp.

Oliver and Esther, project architects, are vigorously debating various matters from building contracts to the best coffee.  Matt, senior technologist, is up at Les Bourg Hospice at a site meeting (that means Antoinette, junior technologist, who’s producing a 3D computer model, can listen to Radio 1 without Matt moaning!).  Viki, our model-making guru, is constructing a scaled down version of one of Andrew’s cliff top designs, completely absorbed in sticking on tiny people.

Trudy, our finance manager, is looking after the financial wellbeing of the company.  In reception Wendy, Andrew’s PA, is typing whilst acting as a living Wikipedia resource for CCD.  Gilly, John’s PA, is frowning because she’s trying to decipher John’s writing.

Lastly Ben, senior technologist, and Rob, apprentice technologist, are out surveying some old ruinous dwelling.  Both are happy – Rob’s wearing jeans to work and Ben can send him into the dirty corners!

 That’s a pretty typical day at CCD.  Lots of different characters and skills making up a great business!

Aztec Group short-listed for BWCI Medium Business Award 2011

Rob Jones, Guernsey Managing Director, Aztec Group

Having received a reasonably generic email from C and E, saying “thank you for your application; the attachment confirms your status”, I was instantly transported back 20 (something) years back in time to that very moment when, as an excitable 16 year old, I held that dreaded O-level envelope in my shaking hands.

Would I get 9, 5, 0? All the hard work, all turning on the outcome of one three hour exam- none of that course-led work in my day!

Fast-forward 20 years and there I am, sitting at my desk with a finger poised to click on the PDF, experiencing the same puerile emotions.  Had we put enough in?  Had I answered the judges’ questions properly?  I knew I’d gone over the 200 words on some sections, but would they really be counting?

Click..

Yes!  We’d done it, goal scored, exam passed, vigorous Bruce Forsythesque gesticulating and then, down to earth.  To be short-listed for the awards is an incredible feeling and our entry was down to a lot of teamwork and top to bottom analysis of what our business is about.

Now the hard work starts; no point in resting on the laurels. All three short-listed companies will be keen to come out on top on 9 February and I’m sure we’ll all be concentrating now on the final presentations which bring everyone back on to the same playing field.

I wandered up to the OGH for the information morning a couple of months ago, not really understanding or appreciating what the Awards were about, but I was truly inspired by the former winners, the presenters and the judges.

We look forward to that final test!

And then there were nine…Best Business Awards shortlists announced


Nine local companies now have a chance of being crowned Guernsey Business of the Year after making it through the first round of the Guernsey Awards for Achievement’s judging process.

The NatWest Best Small Business Award will be contested by surveying practice Jones Watts Limited, jewellers Ray & Scott and design studio Two Degrees North Limited.

Two companies from the finance industry, Aztec Group, and Clydesdale Bank International, will compete against CCD Architects for the honour of lifting the BWCI Best Medium Award trophy.

And the Healthspan Best Large Business Award will be won by either BDO Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications or Islands Insurance.

One of the winners of the above three awards will then be the proud recipient of the overall Commerce & Employment Business of the Year Award.

Chairman of the judging panel, Deputy Robert Sillars, said the nominations were once again of a strong calibre and demonstrated the strength of Guernsey’s business environment.  ‘Judging the nominations for the business awards is always a challenge, not least because every company demonstrates strengths in very different areas. We work independently to an agreed set of criteria and the combined scores of all the judges give us our final three in each business category.’

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You have to be in it to win it!

Great to see such a good turn out at the Workshop! Thanks to all the panelists who had some really interesting tips about how they went about the process of applying, and also from the judges about what they are looking for. We learnt that it wasn’t the fact that the OGH brought food with them that persuaded the judges – honest!

The Awards have obviously been a huge success story for those who were talking this morning and the positive vibe was so apparent listening to the winners recount their experiences.

So go for it – the message was clear, you have to be in it to win it – download the entry form and DO IT!!

Kathy Tracey
The Learning Company