by Fiona Brown, MCIM, MCIPR

According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, they do. It found that 600 companies that had won awards had 37% higher sales growth and a 44% higher share price than their peers. But which came first:  the awards or the sales growth? Is it possible that this form of third-party endorsement really can affect the bottom line?

The company that seeks a business award already has aspirations and is probably successful, so winning an award simply helps to demonstrate these facts to important audiences.  Darrell Zahorsky, however, writing for the websites of The Stevie Awards, contends that, used strategically, business awards can have a definite impact on a company’s business.

His view is that awards actually bolster a company’s overall success.  And to maximize its effect, a company’s choice of award should be as strategic as any other part of its business development.  He claims business awards can be used to address three important areas:

1. Corporate Direction: The first aim is to affirm corporate direction.  He quotes Lynne Marcus, who advises companies on selecting awards, as saying that businesses need to plan a corporate awards strategy with corporate initiatives in mind.  Marcus also says: “If a company is making a push for ethical behaviour or corporate leadership, it can look for awards that recognize these traits.”

A bank trying to get away from a tarnished call centre image could, for example, sensibly pick a category honoring Best Customer Service Organization.

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Descartes is an international provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) logistics solutions based in Waterloo, Ontario, and was an International Stevie Award winner for Best Turnaround in the 2006 International Business Awards.  We follow up on the logistics of the company’s continuing success.

The chief executive officer of Descartes Systems Group since 2004, Arthur Mesher, has been known to use a “corny” analogy to describe his philosophy. Mesher grew up in Prescott, a small rural city on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  "I have had the luxury of watching corn grow," he says. ”After you plant the seed, you need water to grow roots. As the stalk grows, you need more water. But not too much water. If you get too much rain too early in the season, the roots grow but they are too thin. The corn grows tall but when a thunderstorm comes, it blows over.

“You need the right amount of water so the roots grow deep—so when the storm comes, you will be fine."

Weathering the Storm
Like many dot.com companies before 2000, Descartes was a darling of the hi-tech boom but struggled during the stormy conditions of the subsequent market down turn. Commenting on the company’s remarkable turnaround over the past two years, Mesher adds: "Everyone is congratulating us on the turnaround, but there is still a lot of work to do. "

Mesher’s philosophy is clear.  After years of losses that pushed Descartes to the brink, Mesher made sure the company was on a firm footing before continuing to expand.  The vision for the company now focuses on the customer rather than the company’s growth and can be summarized as follows:

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Publishers and advertisers need to get serious. We need to prepare for the time when online ads are the main event, not an afterthought or value-ad says Anna Murray of media blog Content Is Queen, and president of the e*media division of tmg-e*media, Inc.

Headlines are screaming about the decline of print media and that the current level of online advertising puts publishers at risk. What will happen to the publishing business model if more and more content shifts online but advertising CPMs (costs per thousand) don't shift as well?

It seems we have a lot to learn from the truly tacky. Take the dancing cowboys from LowerMyBills.com. According to the New York Times: "Even as online advertisements are becoming less obtrusive, LowerMyBills.com is a stubborn holdout, with its ubiquitous Web banners featuring two-stepping cowboys, frisky rooftop dancers and weird tattoos. Some say the undulating characters in the ads are highly distracting and have so little to do with low-interest loans that they border on the surreal." But these online ads have been hugely successful for the company and led to its $400 million purchase in 2005 by credit agency Experian.

We need to rise above this kind of trash, right? Umm. Not really. These ads tell you the benefit right up front. Better tacky that works than coy that doesn't.

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Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Laughing Squid : Mainly promoting art, culture, and technology, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, the site also connects the art community with the tech community by letting artists know what tools and resources are available to promote their work.
Grammar Girl : Deep within the blog- and podosphere resides a mysterious writer known only as Grammar Girl. Defender of the sacred comma, orator of the mysterious grammar way, and deliverer of practical tips, she strives to restore fun to the desolate world of Grammaria. (Actually this is the blog of science writer Mignon Fogarty.)
Line 56 : A leading source of global news and analysis on e-business technology and strategy covering customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) to procurement and e-marketplaces.