The Financial Times/ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards will take place at the Tate Modern gallery, London, on March 19 2009. The categories, which will be nominated by a panel of judges, are: Drivers for Change; Corporate Responsibility; Environment; Emerging Markets; Entrepeneurship and Lifetime Achievement. A couple of things caught my eye besides the title which in of itself is quite catchy.
The definition of the first category is particularly interesting: Drivers of Change
Bold drivers of change see opportunity where others see only danger and are not afraid to transform their company and even their industry. They are not afraid of change and they are decisive. A bold mergers and acquisitions transaction, for example, is one that has the potential to transform the company that undertakes it – allowing it to dominate its own sector or to move into new ones.
I suspect that the example of a bold M&A is in part in response to one of the sponsor, ArcelorMittal. At 1-Focus, we have been following ArcelorMittal. We have written before about how impressed we have been in their approach and integration strategy. It follow the process that we have developed and it took into account (either by plan or default) the five critical factors. I was amused by the first part of the definition. For the past 20 years, all I have heard about is that change is always with us. ”Not afraid of change.” Interesting. . . ”Decisive” . . . Interesting. Draw your own observations.
There will also be a special Readers’ Award, which will be voted for by readers of the Financial Times and FT.com. A shortlist of five companies that have shown boldness, leadership and embraced innovation in the last twelve months have been selected. They are:
- Nintendo
- American Apparel
- HCL Technologies
- Santander
Read about the reason for their selection. Alternatively, you can vote for your own company by emailingboldness@ft.com
Popularity: unranked [?]
