One of the things that entrants in the Westpac Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce Business Awards tell you every year is that it is not just about the winning.
And, after last night's awards ceremony, MC'd by Paul Holmes at the Hawke's Bay Opera House, I believe them.
Almost all of them enter these prestigious awards with an aim of improving.
Improving their enterprise, their staff and customer relations, their networks, their products and service and their profitability.
The awards process is rigorous, demands time and attention and is judged very seriously indeed.
It forces businesses to honestly evaluate where they are heading and how they plan to get there.
This year's supreme winner of the Hawke's Bay Today Business of the Year was Hastings-based school furniture specialist Furnware Ltd. A great win by an outstanding international business (which, by the way, had eight containers of export school chairs on the stricken ship Rena.)
The Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year was Jenny Yule, founder of the nationally successful PORSE in-home childcare business.
Furnware and Jenny Yule are deserved supreme winners, real inspirations to other Bay businesses on what it takes to succeed.
Talking to entrants after the ceremony, however, it was clear that most felt like winners from going through the process of entering and being judged. They have all had to seriously evaluate their business - what they are doing well and, more importantly, what they are not doing so well. Do they have a serious and sustainable strategy for growth and success?
Hats off to the judging team, once again ably led by Rick Cranswick. They did a tremendous job and the inside word is they had a devil of a task selecting the overall winner of at least one of the major awards. That's the kind of hot competition we like to hear about.
A union delegate claims it took an eight-year 'fight' to get the $15 million payout.