The Scotland plc Awards, organised by Scottish Business Insider and PricewaterhouseCoopers in collaboration with Strathclyde Business School, took place last night at the Glasgow Hilton.
The awards, launched in 1999 to celebrate and publicise outstanding achievements by the Scottish plc community, recognise not only strong performance but a wide range of other attributes with categories which continue to evolve to reflect the changing business landscape.
Strathclyde has been involved from the beginning in providing the essential research needed to judge the award categories. Strathclyde's independent research provides impartial data for the judges to make their decisions, with site visits carried out for the global reach and sustainability awards.
Co-ordinated by SBS' learning resources manager Christine Reid, the process is a complex exercise involving six academics interviewing key staff from around ten companies. Ms Reid explains, "Our role as research sponsor is to carry out a rigorous process of independent research. A wide range of evidence is studied and the detailed research and analysis of all Scottish plcs which is carried out enhances the overall credibility of the awards process."
This year, the categories are:
The Awards are presented at a Dinner attended by not only the quoted companies but also by the key players in the Scottish corporate market, comprising lawyers, accountants, bankers and corporate financiers, making up an audience of around 500 people.
Adrienne Lawler is hosting this year's ceremony. A very talented conference facilitator and awards host, she is also a successful business woman, journalist, BBC Radio presenter, and newsroom anchor at the BBC, Sky & Carlton TV.
The after dinner speaker is John Simpson, the BBC's World Affairs Editor, the senior member of a team of London-based foreign and specialist correspondents and has recently been in Northern Iraq reporting on the recent conflict.
In a BBC career spanning more than 40 years - he joined as a trainee journalist in 1966 - John has earned a reputation as one of the World's most experienced and authoritative journalists. John has reported from more than 100 countries across the globe, from 30 war zones and has interviewed numerous controversial world leaders including Sadam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gadhaffi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Robert Mugabe and the Emperor Bokassa.