And the winner is. . .

By Bj?rn Gülsdorff, Head of Business Development

. . . Commercial Bank of Dubai & Creative Virtual for the Virtual Assistant Sara in the category “E-Commerce and Digital Experience” as well as “Overall Discipline and People Specific Winner”!

Not everyone cares about awards, and I understand why. There are so many of them and often they sport so many categories it is hard not to win in at least one. The Grammys come to mind, but you’d find this kind among business awards, too. I do think however, that most awards are well earned. You don’t get one if you don’t have something to show. (The opposite is not true, though!)

Now, when our client CBD decided to apply for the International Business Excellence (IBX) Awards in two categories, one of which focused on our Virtual Assistant Sara, I was very happy to learn that this award stood out. It was about delivering “exceptional change”. Evaluating questions like what drove the change initiative, efficiency of implementation and outcome in terms of actual business value. A cool idea did not hurt, but it was doing the right things right which counted. On top of it, since “paper is patient”, a written application was not enough. You had to go to the finals to present your case and withstand the direct interrogation by a panel of judges. Talk about thorough judgement here! It wasn’t the easiest award application, but the effort felt worthwhile.

The finals added to this. Being held in Dubai, the panel and the finalists were truly international. In our own category, we were up against (among others) an entry from Australia, and the judges came from Europe, UAE and USA. The organisation was impressive. The judges ploughed through nearly 2 entire days of 20-minute presentations from all of the finalists in some 25 categories. Then their votes were added to the result from the application reviews. And they had the results right there at the end of Day 2! Really well done and well prepared, as were the judges in our presentation – we could tell from their questions.

The Gala Lunch and the awards ceremony made a worthy climax. Well organised, nice food and a range of winners who all deserved it. We are still amazed that we were among them. I know what you think, singing the praise of the IBX Awards is easy when you’re a winner- but here is proof that I liked the IBX Awards before the winners were announced.

Lastly, I’d like to thank my mom and dad and the producers and the director. . . oops. . .wrong award! Seriously, there are quite a few who contributed to bringing Sara online and this award goes to them! Congratulations! And congratulations to the IBX Awards team for hosting a great two days of competition and celebration in Dubai.