Mission to make Be Inspired Business Awards the best

The North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce has commissioned Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) to carry out a major research project into its Be Inspired Business Awards, the BIBAs.

It will see a team of researchers look at business awards across the globe to assess the judging processes, examples of best practice and how the awards are marketed.

The work gets underway this week and the team expects to announce its findings when the 2014 awards opens for entries on Tuesday, January 15 with the 18 prizes up for grabs.

Chamber chief executive Babs Murphy said a significant five-figure sum had been invested preparing the research.

She said: “The BIBAs has been known as ‘the one they all want to win’ since it started, but we recognise we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We are now renowned as the best awards in Lancashire and among the leading contenders in the North West, but we want the BIBAs to be a national blueprint for how you run a business awards.

“This research project will allow us to scour the globe for best practice and build this into the BIBAs experience people have come to expect from us.”

Dr Ellie Hamilton, associate dean for enterprise at LUMS, said her team would be benchmarking the awards against the world’s leading business awards.

It will also look at individual categories for the top awards and produce questions which will be used by BIBAs judges to ensure they ask the questions necessary to select the elite businesses in each category.

Dr Hamilton said: “We will be drilling down into the world’s elite business awards to find out the key ingredients which make them the best.

“This will ensure this becomes the DNA of the BIBAs’ judging process and continues to raise its status as one of the region’s leading business awards. In the current economic climate, celebrating the success of our local businesses is crucial and LUMS is delighted to be working alongside the Chamber on this important project.”