Sharing Success: 661 Companies to Participate in 2017 Business Awards
Participants of the 2017 Business Awards, a project launched by TBC and Geocell, gathered at the National Museum in Tbilisi this week to hear the intermediary results.
The Business Awards aim to promote the idea of doing business in Georgia, with its main slogan being #გააზიარეწარმატება (share the success). The companies enrolled in the project share their success stories through social and other media with the above hashtag.
661 companies are registered as participants of the Business Awards 2017, the winners in seven categories to be selected by a jury and announced in December. The finalists are to be short-listed in the coming days.
233 companies are registered in the Startuper of the Year category, 230 companies are listed in the Small Business of the Year category, 142 in Innovative Business of the Year, 132 in Georgian Product of the Year, 95 in the Tourist Business of the Year and 42 as the Agro Business of the Year.
Each category is to have three finalists selected by an independent jury, with the PR and marketing campaigns for the finalists to be run by project organizers TBC and Geocell. While all the winners will be selected and announced at the TBC Business Awards Ceremony in December 2017, the Startuper of the Year winner will be chosen through the online voting which is to start in November.
“The fact that we’re continuing the Business Awards for a second consecutive year is already hugely important, and the number of participants is growing, which means we can rightfully say the Business Awards project is extremely successful,” Nika Kurdiani, Deputy CEO, TBC Bank said.
“The goal of the Business Awards is to share the success of the companies, and create even more motivation and stimulus for them,” he added, noting that 80% of the companies that are registered to the Business Awards this year are participating for the first time, which amounts to 1200 companies having registered as participants for the two years of the project, a number which, as Kurdiani pointed out, is pretty impressive.
“The benefits are the same for us as organizers and for the companies enrolled in the Business Awards,” he said. “We want to stimulate and motivate them more through sharing their success: we’re using all our resources to promote the idea of doing business successfully.”
He went on to underline that, like last year, the Business Awards 2017 will have no monetary prizes, as the format of the Business Awards is solely focused on popularizing successful business stories within the country.
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success,” said the Deputy CEO, quoting Henry Ford to illustrate the idea behind the Business Awards project, focusing on supporting as many business initiatives in the country as possible.
“It is critically important that most of the companies registered to participate in Business Awards are startups, and it shows how increasingly active startupers are,” Kurdiani said, going on to confirm that the Business Awards will continue as an annual event and thanking Geocell for partnership in making the project possible.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to work with such professionals as those in TBC,” Pavel Smalinski, Geocell’s CEO said.
Geocell is supporting the Innovation Award, and Social Entrepreneurship nominations.
“Even participating is a success: that’s your victory, your effort, your struggle to improve your operations, your entities already being noticeable. We see how beautifully and successfully you’re growing and developing your ideas for the better future of your companies and customers,” Smalinski told attendees on Tuesday.
“Whenever you have an idea, and you’re inspired by it, my advice to you would be to never ever give up, no matter how difficult it may seem from the beginning; whether it’s gaining the capital to start, gathering business partners around you, or conducting market research to determine the market segment, because that idea could bring you enormous success,” Mamuka Khzaradze, Chairman of the Board at TBC Holding said.
“You’re the new wave of Georgian business; you’re the new enterpreteurs who are creating more jobs and empowering the development of our country, you, with your ideas, will soon become one of the major players in the region,” Khazaradze added, wishing success to all Business Awards 2017 participants.
“We decided to participate in the Business Awards 2017 to raise awarness about our business, and of course if we happen to win in any nomination, that would be an extremely pleasant surprise. Being a participant also brings you new opportunities for potential business partnerships,” Sopo Balanchivadze, founder and owner of the online shop zanduki.ge told us.
“We want our brand to gain more exposure and we hope the Business Awards will help us with that,” she added.
During the event at the National Museum, was announced that a new working space will open in December, a new project from TBC enabling startupers and other business representatives to meet within a specially organized space where trainings, masterclasses, and consultations organized by TBC will be held.
Nino Gugunishvili