As over three hundred guests gathered last week at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Awards, you could sense the growing anticipation of those shortlisted as well an overall feeling of pride about the strength and depth of business talent in our capital city.
The richness and the diversity of businesses and organisations there on the evening could have been repeated across the country where awards included excellence in creative marketing, innovation and international trade.
Whilst a great evening of celebration, we were reminded that even more effort could be invested to inspire and support each other across the ever widening range of businesses we have in Edinburgh.
Examples include those with a proven track record trading internationally, coaching and guiding those businesses embarking on new foreign markets.
Peer to peer mentoring is already delivering great results and with a growing number of senior managers amongst our membership volunteering to participate, this is expected to grow strongly in 2015.
A valuable source of support is sharing non competitive market insight and data. If information is power then sharing information is the most powerful way to use it.
Within the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce we have already established several inspiring groups focussing on the key business enablers.
These groups are already providing a catalyst for greater sharing of knowledge, challenging traditional ways of working as well as sparking new ideas encouraging innovative solutions and new routes to market.
This same principal applies equally to the whole of Scotland where there are already great examples of working together with the focus on growing the overall sizes of our markets.
On the evening of our Business Awards, we were also reminded of our wider responsibilities as individuals and businesses to support the communities in which we operate.
Success and pride can be measured in many different ways and it is equally important to celebrate the contribution a business makes to others as well as their own shareholders.
As we witnessed with our Awards entries, greater involvement in the community not only inspires employees but also helps in establishing the values of the business and the brand.
As our evening of celebrations continued, there was every reason to be proud and as the audience left there was an overwhelming feeling that we should not only celebrate more often but to do that bit more each day to support and encourage each other.
With so many opportunities ahead, I am sure that the competition next year will be even tougher and there will be even more reasons to feel a great sense of pride in being part of a great Capital City business community.
- David Birrell is chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
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