Advantage West Midlands is celebrating a double awards success,
as the regional development agency was recognised as highly
commended at the prestigious Midlands Excellence Awards 2009/10,
and also achieved the award for most improved organisation.
Winning a Midlands Excellence Award represents success in one of
the toughest, most rigorous assessments of organisational
performance there is. As the largest event of its kind in Europe,
success at the Midlands Excellence Awards is a formidable
achievement.
Mick Laverty, Chief Executive of Advantage West Midlands, said:
"As an organisation that is working constantly to meet the needs of
the region's economy, it is important that we set ourselves the
very highest professional standards.
"Working towards maintaining our Investors in Excellence status
and competing in the Midlands Excellence Awards has been an
excellent way of driving continuous improvement in our performance
as an organisation.
"This is the third year we have entered the awards and we were
very pleased to have been shortlisted once again as a finalist.
Receiving the 'highly commended' acknowledgement is even better and
recognises the hard work of our staff - our most important asset -
as well as demonstrating that our commitment to continuous
improvement is having a real impact on our performance."
Pictured above: The team receiving their award for most
improved organisation from awards host James Cracknell
The Midlands Excellence award for most improved organisation
recognises the business or public sector organisation which has
achieved the highest increase in its score since the previous
year's awards and acknowledges the continuous improvement journey
undertaken by Advantage West Midlands over the last few years.
Mick added: "The most improved organisation award was completely
unexpected, but it was definitely the icing on the cake for us at
the Awards. We know that every year we are getting better and
raising the bar on what we can achieve as an organisation, but to
have this recognised externally is excellent.
"Advantage West Midlands knows it is making a difference.
Independent National evaluation has shown that every £1
invested by the Agency generates an average £7.45 return back
into the Region's economy.
"This is an impressive result, particularly as any return over
£5 is regarded as being at the very top end of returns for
public sector investment.
"We are proud supporters of the Midlands Excellence Awards and
the Midlands Excellence team, they deliver our aim of helping
organisations from across the region improve their performance."
Investors in Excellence is a national quality standard which is
designed to recognise and promote continuous improvement within
businesses and public sector organisations. In order to achieve
Investors in Excellence, an organisation must demonstrate strong
performance in all areas of its work including leadership,
strategy, management and results.