Auckland’s Central Business District is experiencing massive shifts and changes in infrastructure, transport, cultural diversity, technology innovation, and construction.
Central Auckland accounts for half of Auckland's total GDP, with many large businesses based in the city. Forty-three central businesses competed across seven award categories.
One in five jobs in Central Auckland are in the professional, scientific and technical services industries. Representing this, Central award winners included data warehouse automation software company, WhereScape Software Limited, Fraedom, providing web based solutions for business payments and expenses to over 155,000 businesses in 178 countries, Optimal Clinical Trials Limited and Animation College New Zealand Limited.
Optimal Clinical Trials are the winners of Excellence in Strategy & Planning for North.
"Our aim is to help improve people's lives and we want to do it on a large scale by improving medical treatment through research for our client pharmaceutical companies," explains Dr. Barney Montgomery, managing director of Optimal Clinical Trials.
"At the other end, we have amazing relationships with customers who are participating in research treatment trials - so we plan for both and have a number of internal drivers and internal matrices for business development, recruitment, and performance," he says.
In two quite different sectors, Wild on Waiheke and Eat My Lunch are all about creating a fantastic service for everyday people. Excellence in Customer Service Delivery winner, Wild on Waiheke invites customers to 'roam wild for the day' enjoying outdoor games, vineyard and brewery tasting tours and dining at the restaurant-garden bar.
Based in Newton, Eat My Lunch took away awards for winner of Excellence in Marketing, Excellence in Innovation and Supreme Business Excellence.
"Between the two of us we've got 35 years of corporate skills - and we wanted to do something which is meaningful and has got value.
We looked at the growth in online food delivery, issues around poor eating habits and obesity, joined the dots and turned that into Eat My Lunch where for every lunch ordered around the city and in workplaces, we give a free, healthy lunch to a hungry school child," explains Iaan Buchanan, Eat My Lunch co-founder with Lisa King.
Animation College New Zealand Limited, winner of Best Emerging Business, are educating the future workers that businesses are going to need to stay ahead with technologies and software development. They are 'changing the game by getting our user experience (UX) designers to work with animators and animators to work with programmers because these two parties traditionally don't communicate with each other.' It's this kind of change that helps Auckland businesses have an edge in who they employ.
Category winners and Supreme winner for Central.
Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) works closely with Albert - Eden, Puketapapa, Orakei, Maungakiekie - Tamaki, Waitemata, Great Barrier and Waiheke local boards to stimulate economic growth in Central Auckland.
Through the Regional Business Partner (RBP) programme - ATEED has delivered a 79 per cent increase in Central Auckland business referrals for the 2015/16 financial year compared with the year prior.
ATEED has assisted Eat My Lunch and Optimal Clinical Trials Limited with business capacity support.
Partnering with ATEED to deliver the Westpac Auckland Business Awards, Auckland Chamber of Commerce provides business support services, networking opportunities and access to industry experts for central businesses.
EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION Sponsored by Victoria University of Wellington Eat My Lunch
EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY Sponsored by Mercury Wild on Waiheke
EXCELLENCE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE Sponsored by Ports of Auckland WhereScape Software Limited
EXCELLENCE IN MARKETING Sponsored by Soar Printing Eat My Lunch
