Success! What next?

With this year’s Red Rose Awards still fresh in everyone’s minds, we gathered a panel of finalists, winners, judges and sponsors at Mitton Hall, near Clitheroe to discuss success – and what comes next.

Richard Slater (Chair) ~ Lancashire Business View • Jessica Balmer ~ Trilanco • Keeley Beaumont ~ The Fence Gate • Gordon Cassie ~ BCW Engineering • Helen McVey ~ Pendleside Hospice • James Morris ~ RSM • Shakira Musarat ~ Barclays • Gwam Rajiah ~ Bespoke Healthcare • Peter Slater ~ CMAC Group • Emma Swan ~ Forbes • Stephen Scurlock ~ S & H Group • Andrew Wood ~ UPS Building and Maintenance

What impact can winning an award have on a business?

Andrew Wood: Within the business it has been amazing. The team has worked exceptionally hard to do what we do day in, day out, and to get some recognition for it is great, it is the icing on the cake. Externally it has raised our profile, which has been nice to see and which could lead to work.

I’ll be using the fact we are an awardwinning business when it comes to recruiting and it will help with staff retention.

Stephen Scurlock: As a new business it is massive for us. It has helped us meet other businesses. It does lead to other things. It is also gives us a massive confidence boost.

Gwam Rajiah: It gives the business a real buzz. We run clinics right across the country and when we won the Red Rose Award we sent a flyer to everyone right across our patch and the feedback was unbelievable. Winning an award makes a big difference to an organisation like ours. It’s the recognition.

The award sits on our reception desk so patients can see it when they walk in. When a patient walks in and sees that we are winning awards, they think ‘they must be good at what they are doing’.

Peter Slater: We are extremely proud of the team we have in Accrington. It is all about recognition for them; they are the key to any of the successes we get.

Helen McVey: The award gives us credibility in the business world. Often people just associate us with the clinical care that we deliver but this shows we have a good business background. We are also working on partnership opportunities with local businesses and we’ve had people approaching us as a result of the award.

We got the information about winning out on social media, it is a fantastic marketing opportunity. The comments and support we have had have been brilliant.

Jessica Balmer: Winning the Red Rose family business award is really a massive thing for our staff. They are our family. It has been really good for motivation and for the morale of the company. We’ve also had companies contacting us and wanting to work with us, which has been great.

We are already doing business with a new company in Lancashire, a website builder, that is going to help us grow internationally and it has been great.

This debate, hosted in association with RSM, can be found in full in the latest edition of Lancashire Business view.