August 2009, From the Editor
Deserved recognition
In life, there are people who are not only comfortable tooting their own horns, but they will do it at every opportunity.
I am not in that camp.
In fact, I’m such a low-profile person that I’m the one that always volunteers to take photos specifically so I don’t have to be in them. I’ve won my share of awards and honors, but they are placed on an inconspicuous shelf in my office, between a collection of stone gargoyles and my bronzed baby shoes, which my parents gifted me with a few years ago because they wanted them about as much as I do.
I think there’s a large group of us who simply do what we do, going about our lives and careers with a strong sense of internal motivation. Getting an ‘atta boy (or girl, in my case) is always nice, but it doesn’t motivate us to achieve.
Sometimes though, I do think it’s important to embrace acknowledgement, particularly when it is due. Such is the case in this issue, with our Best of Wisconsin Business Award winners. Unlike our other awards programs, the Corporate Citizenship Awards and the Small Business Success Stories, each year’s BOWBA winners are not selected by a panel of expert judges. Instead, they earn their accolades from you, the readers. While our platinum award winners have earned the top spot in each respective category, to be a finalist in the annual BOWBA awards is quite an achievement when you consider how many top-tier businesses we have throughout the state and how many voters we have for this annual award program.
What struck me at the June awards luncheon was that while the people in the room represented a wide variety of industries, they all were consistently good companies. We live in a culture where we often only hear from our customers, clients and peers when something goes wrong, not when something is done correctly. That’s what makes awards like these meaningful.
We’re now gearing up for our Small Business Success stories, and if you’re not a small business, I encourage you to nominate or pass on this information to a small business (5 to 250 employees) that you feel deserves a little recognition. Information about the nomination process — and self nominations are encouraged, by the way — can be found at http://crwmag.com/SBSS_Nomination.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to check out our newly revamped Web site. We’re continuing to make improvements and will be adding new content during the next few months, but it’s already a great place to find content from previous issues or to do a little research … and it will continue to grow in the months ahead.
Likewise, if you’re not a subscriber to our free semi-monthly eNewsletter, I encourage you to drop me a quick email at crweditor@crwmag.com to get your subscription started. Our eNewsletter provides a quick update of breaking news and interesting business items from around the state that don’t always get statewide coverage.
Laurie Arendt is editor of CRW. She can be reached at crweditor@crwmag.com