9 minute read
Business Voice
by HCOC
Hampshire Chamber of Commerce is delighted to announce Lakbir Singh as ‘Ambassador for South Asian Business Community Engagement’
Lakbir is currently Head of Group Operations at Planet Education & Head of Special Projects for the India Business Group.
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He has over 20 years’ experience of working across multiple industry sectors and with people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds; he is an established Operations/ Management Leader working as part of a senior management team, accountable for ensuring excellent outcomes in business performance metrics in an international and domestic context.
He works with a range of organisations here in the UK and India, providing expertise and intelligence to help link the education and sports sectors with businesses and BAME communities. He is passionate about supporting our local business communities, promoting cross community cohesion, facilitating new collaborations and partnerships and supporting local industrial growth, resilience, and prosperity.
He has facilitated collaborations and projects involving a variety of stakeholders, including business leaders, policy makers, academics, celebrities, and other partner organisations in the UK and internationally. He is a firm believer in delivering results with a healthy dose of honesty and integrity thrown into the process.
Lakbir was recently awarded the ‘Special Recognition Award’ for promoting sports and education ties between India-UK by the British Asian Awards, BAM2020.
Lakbir will be working closely with Hampshire Chamber on the promotion and delivery of an upcoming Ethnic Minority Peer Networks programme. This programme will focus around engaging the community, allowing businesses to refresh strategies for a changing and challenging landscape. Following the UK’s exit from the EU and rebuilding our business prospects as we recover from the impact of the pandemic, grasping new opportunities is a must to help your business build back stronger. There has never been a more important time to invest in your business.
Our Peer Network programme will help you to tackle your most important challenges by: ¾ Learning with your peers ¾ Focusing on delivering results ¾ Addressing real-life business challenges ¾ Shaping the programme around your needs ¾ Supporting your goals with 1-2-1 mentoring
The Ethnic Minority Peer Networking programme is due to launch in September 2021, through a series of action learning sessions. Spaces are limited, so please express your interest by contacting Tom Colbeck at tom.colbeck@hampshirechamber.co.uk.
BUSINESS NEWS | JUNE / JULY / AUGUST 2021
Business Voice Queen’s Awards for Enterprise
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK. The awards were first established in 1965 and since then over 7,000 companies have achieved a Queen’s Award.
The awards celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes or showing their commitment to excellent sustainable development practices.
This year 220 UK businesses have been recognised for their contribution to international trade, innovation, sustainable development and promoting opportunity (through social mobility).
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2020 included
¾ 128 awards for international trade ¾ 66 awards for innovation ¾ 19 awards for sustainable development ¾ 7 awards for promoting opportunity The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2022 will be open to applications from 1st May to 8th September. Almost all UK businesses (including non profit) can apply, and the application process is free. All applications must be made online, and you may apply for more than one category. All entry forms, eligibility criteria and information on how to apply is available below.
During these challenging times, it is important that we still take the time to reflect and celebrate the success of outstanding British businesses.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK businesses and an award is a globally recognised royal seal of approval for UK companies. We want to ensure that businesses can still apply for a Queen’s Award, despite factors which could have prevented them from doing as well
2021 Winners’ Facts
¾ 205 winners ¾ 122 international trade winners ¾ 48 innovation winners ¾ 17 sustainable development winners ¾ 18 promoting opportunity winners as they had originally predicted for 2020. We appreciate that businesses may have been affected in many shapes and forms by uncontrollable circumstances in recent months, such as flooding and COVID-19, but we want to encourage businesses to still apply and we will do what we can to support applications.
That is why for the 2022 round, we have not changed the eligibility criteria and have instead made some changes to the application system to enable you to manually input your financial years. This means that you could wind back a year if your last financial year has been affected by COVID-19, storms, or flooding. For example, if you are applying for International Trade and your overseas sales growth was affected in 2020, you can now wind back a year and provide your figures for 2017, 2018 and 2019, rather than up to 2020. Alternatively, you may prefer to submit figures over a shorter period of time. For example, for Innovation, you can select a two or five year period to demonstrate your commercial success. Similarly, with International Trade, you can opt to demonstrate overseas sales growth over a six or three year period. We assess applications on a case by case basis and will evaluate commercial success and challenges by uncontrollable external factors. It is important for us to see the trends and patterns of each business’ commercial success, to see how well they performed before these challenging times.
How to apply:
¾ Almost all UK businesses (including non profit) can apply. ¾ The application process is free. ¾ All applications must be made online. ¾ You may apply for more than one category. ¾ The application process for the 2022 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise opened on 1 May and will close on 8 September 2021. ¾ Eligibility criteria and information on how to apply is available at https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-forenterprise/how-to-apply.
¾ 5 double winners (4 in innovation and trade, 1 in PO and SD) ¾ 139 winners with under 50 employees ¾ 44 winners with under 10 employees ¾ 189 winners with under 250 employees (smes), 92% are smes
Innovation International Trade Promoting Opportunity Sustainable Development Totals
East Midlands
6
East Greater London North East North West Northern Ireland Scotland
10 7 3 6 1 1
South East South West
7 1
Wales
0
West Midlands
2 Yorkshire & The Humber 4 8 15 22 5 9 4 8 12 14 5 13 7 0 0 6 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 2 4 1 0 3 2 2 0 2 2 2 1 1 1 15 25 38 11 17 5 13 22 19 6 18 16
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2020 BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2021
Winchester Business Excellence Awards 2021
The Winchester Business Excellence Awards are organised in partnership by The Hampshire Chronicle, Winchester BID and Hampshire Chamber of commerce and are open to businesses within the Winchester District. Nominations are welcomed for businesses or businesses are able to nominate themselves. Once received the nominations will be considered by our judging panel and maybe subject to a ‘Mystery Shopper’ visit by the category sponsor. The judges will be looking to announce the three finalists in each category on Thursday 22nd July in the Hampshire Chronicle and on hampshirechronicle. co.uk and then a celebratory awards event, will conclude the awards on Thursday 2nd September.
Sponsored by:
The winners of each category will receive £250 of advertising in the Hampshire Chronicle or on hampshirechronicle.co.uk and will also be featured in the category winners’ coverage in the Hampshire Chronicle or on hampshirechronicle.co.uk For more information, please visit
winchesterbusinessawards.co.uk
Millenium Egg will continue to be awarded by the WCC to the organisation or individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Winchester area. The Business of the Year Award will be presented to the overall winner that will be chosen by the judging panel from all the category winners.
Categories
• Business Leader Award • Charity Award • Social Enterprise Award • Large Business Award • SME/Independent Business Award • New Business Award • Digital Innovation Award • Sustainable Business Award • Service Excellence Award
How to enter
ONLINE - Enter online at winchesterbusinessawards.co.uk
Closing date for nominations Thursday 1st July 2021
Usual Newsquest competition terms and conditions will apply please visit: www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules www.newsquest.co.uk/ privacy-policy for full details. £250 multi-media advertising prize valid for use until 31st December 2021. localiq.co.uk
Celebrating 19 years of the Winchester Business Excellence Awards which recognise the achievements of local businesses and reward them for their commitment to excellence.
The 2021 Winchester Business Excellence Awards are organised in partnership with the Hampshire Chronicle, Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Winchester BID and give Winchester businesses the opportunity to promote major achievements and celebrate success.
The judges will be looking to announce the three finalists in each category on Thursday 22nd July in the Hampshire Chronicle and on hampshirechronicle. co.uk and a celebratory awards event will conclude the awards on Thursday 2nd September.
At Hampshire Chamber of Commerce we provide support for all types of local organisations. We are owned and led by our membership and as a private sector, not for profit company we are independent and can therefore lobby effectively to make Hampshire the place to do business.
We are privileged to be an organiser for the Winchester Business Excellence Awards; the awards boost the awareness of local businesses in Winchester.
The 2020 winners were:
Business Leader Steven Northam, IncuHive --------------
Digital Innovation Ridge and Partners LLP
Large Business Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists Ltd --------------
New Business OMU (Orthodontic Mobile Unit)
Service Excellence
Pretty Woman Beauty Salon
SME Independent Business
Open House Deli
Social Enterprise Blue Apple Theatre
Sustainable Business Alfred’s Brewery
Young Business Person Will Harrigan – River Coffee Roasters
Overall Winner Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists Ltd
The Film Office has been established to maximise the benefits the film industry can bring to the Solent Economy.
FILM EXPO SOUTH has been extremely successful since it was established in 2016, inspiring new film festivals and our networking events have helped many professionals and students connect, develop and work within the industry. Having personally worked in the film industry for over 25 years, I understand the shortfalls of the business and have therefore taken the next logical step and become a professional ‘Fixer’ for film production companies, enabling them to take advantage of everything the South Coast has to offer.
The film office teams assist productions seeking locations, making them as appealing, practical and film friendly as possible. We also assist throughout the production servicing their additional requirements to source local services and take advantage of the talent and industry skills available on the South Coast, thus keeping it local and at the same time, reducing their carbon footprint. The retention and development of talent is essential if the film industry is to continue to thrive on the South Coast. If you would like to be part of our Film Community Hub, there are numerous ways to get involved and support the Hampshire and Dorset Film Offices for the benefit of all. What services and skills can you offer?
CONTACT US:
E: team@filmexposouth.com T: 0844 272 0016
