Leadership

World-class managers needed for global success - Cowen

08.03.2010
World-class management teams have a key role to play in Irish firms achieving business success in international markets, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD has said.

The Taoiseach made his comments at an awards dinner in Dublin on Friday which celebrated the 20 winners of the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards.

The winning companies are located throughout the island of Ireland. Of the 20 winners, 10 companies are based in Leinster, four are based in Munster, five in Ulster and one in Connaught.

The award winners came from a variety of different industries including the tourism, hospitality, technology, food and beverage, medical, automotive, wholesale, distribution and logistics sectors.

Holiday company Tour America was chosen from among the winners as having demonstrated exceptional performance in business strategy. The firm was awarded a place on the Irish Management Institute’s Masters of Business programme.

The independent judging panel for the Deloitte awards, chaired by Denis Brosnan, considered a broad range of criteria including strategy, capability, commitment, financials and growth potential.

Given the turbulent economic environment, the judging panel also decided that business and management success can no longer simply be measured by increased sales, profit or turnover. Therefore, a holistic view of the companies - their performance in relation to their peers, and the industries that they are operating - was taken into consideration to determine management success.

“In today's challenging business environment, Irish companies and their management teams need to be more entrepreneurial, ambitious, creative and skilled than ever before. Indeed, for our companies competing in global markets, world-class management teams are absolutely critical to achieving success,” the Taoiseach said at the awards ceremony.

Deloitte’s 20 Best Managed Companies 2010:

Abbey Tours Limited (Dublin)

Barry Group (Cork)

CASTLECOOL (Monaghan)

Designer Group Engineering Contractors (Dublin)

FreeFlow (Kerry)

Hodson Bay Group (Galway)

Jacob Fruitfield Food Group (Dublin)

Java Republic Roasting Company (Dublin)

Killarney Telecom Ltd (KTL) (Kildare)

MW Fuels Co. Ltd (Limerick)

National Plastic Packaging Group Limited (Dublin)