TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

Entrepreneurship
Award 2009
At the national entrepreneurship
com petition “Entrepreneurship Award
2009” with the longest history the
companies who are most worthy of
recognition from the viewpoint of the
state and exemplary will be traditionally
chosen. This year the best were
chosen in five categories: Developer
of the Year 2009, Tourism Innovator
2009, Exporter 2009, Foreign Investor
2009 and Innovator 2009.
THE JURY:
The jury included the Minister of Economic
Affairs and Communications
Juhan Parts, Foreign Minister Urmas
Paet, Rector of Tallinn University of
Technology Peep Sürje, President of
the Bank of Estonia Andres Lipstok,
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
Enterprise Estonia Mart Einasto,
Chairman of the Management Board
of ABB AS Bo Henriksson.
Compared to the earlier years there were consider
ably more candidates in the category of innovator
which indicates that during hard times
the companies struggle even more in developing
new technologies and applications than in
the years of economic prosperity.
Each award category has its own criteria in
choosing the best, at the same time several nationally
important aspects cross the years as
red line: export capability, high productivity, innovativeness.
This year the real achievements,
not so much enthusiastic future visions, were
assessed. The methodology of the competition
has been developed by the specialists of Enterprise
Estonia, the years-long experience and
the opinions of several independent experts
have been taken into account.
In order to apply as the candidate the company
had to fill in the online questionnaire by answering
the questions regarding the different
economic indicators, products, services and
several other figures. The questionnaires were
prepared and the first information processing
was carried out by the Estonian Institute of Economic
Research.
The obtained information was analysed by the
divisions of Enterprise Estonia, by involving the
professional experts from outside. As a result
of the analysis three best were specified in all
categories, the nomination of which was submitted
to the jury of the competition for making
the final choice. At the end of August the gathered
jury chose the winner of each category out
of the three submitted nominees at the meeting
and the winner of the main prize from among
the winners of the categories.
“Entrepreneurship Award” has traditionally been
a competition, in case of which the subjective assessment
of the state’s representatives in addition
to the real economic results is considered.
The decision was adopted by the jury based on
the valuation criteria of each specific category
and the achievements and perspective of the
companies applying for as candidates. •
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