Businesses thrive on sense of community

31 May 2005

North Shore businesses thrive on sense of community

Entries into the Westpac Enterprise North Shore Business Excellence Awards close on June 23 and Awards Facilitators are full of praise for the businesses they are helping with entries.

North Shore businesses are smart and creative, enthusiastically involved in their community, and keen to give the Shore exposure as a thriving economic centre.

This strong sense of community identity and creative outlook characterises successful North Shore business and inspires significant respect from the seven facilitators who are helping local businesses with their entries for the Westpac Enterprise North Shore Business Excellence Awards 2005.

Awards Facilitator Gillian Taylor, a business consultant employed by Enterprise North Shore to help businesses with their Awards entries, has high praise for the way local businesses support their own community.

They have an innate loyalty to other North Shore businesses, she says, forming alliances and buy goods and services from them. This extends to professional services such as lawyers and accountants.

In her third year as an Awards Facilitator, Gillian is also constantly amazed and impressed by the high degree of original thinking she encounters.

“Their commitment and passion is exciting. Not only are they innovative and smart, North Shore businesses are incredibly creative in the way they run their businesses and what they produce. They don’t see themselves as doing clever things, they see it as normal,” says Gillian.

This innovation and loyalty to the Shore is also impressing new Awards Facilitator Alex Patterson, chief executive of the non-profit education organisation Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at Auckland University of Technology.

“There is an enthusiasm to become involved in the community by those committed to entering the Awards … they are particularly keen to return something to the community and give exposure to the North Shore.

“It certainly came as a surprise to me. There is a strong North Shore identity which is generated by a real sense of community,” says Alex.

ENDS

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