I really enjoy supporting businesses to win the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise competition. It’s a true game-changer for winners, brings them so much great PR, opens doors to all sorts of global opportunities, and even gets them to a reception at Buckingham Palace.

But there’s one little word that comes up for discussion time and time again when deciding which category to enter. It’s a word that has really hit its stride in the awards industry over the last few years and judges quite rightly want to get to the bottom of what it means to you, your customers, your industry, and your future.

What is it?

Innovation

This seemingly innocent word in the awards lexicon is infamous for throwing organisations into a spin when it comes to winning a Queen’s Award.

Why?

Because unlike many prestigious awards programmes with lots of categories on offer, The Queen’s Awards stay focused on only 4 categories organisations can enter, these are:

• Innovation
• International Trade
• Sustainable Development
• Promoting Opportunity Through Social Mobility.

So if you are not exporting, doing something particularly sustainable, or focusing on promoting social mobility, you only have one choice left — and this can create what I have fondly coined the ‘square-peg-round-hole’ effect.

To win a Queen’s Award for Innovation you must first be able to show how you are innovative, and next be able to prove that your commercial success (your growing turnover and profit) is down to the innovation you have made — be that a product, a method, a service, or your whole business model.

Top Tip: If you are unsure whether to enter the Innovation category, or what the Queen’s Awards consider truly ‘innovative’, try substituting the word ‘innovation’ for the words ‘new and unique’. Ie. Is your business, product, method or service ‘new and unique’ or has it been done before? If it has, how can you demonstrate you are different?

NEW FOR 2020

The criteria for the innovation category has been updated for 2020. The criteria now asks for you to define your innovation as either:

• Disruptive innovation
• Continuous innovation
• Adoptive innovation

Whereas in previous years you have had to prove that your innovation is completely one of a kind, the awards are now appreciating that the innovation may just be new to your sector as a disruptive innovation, or an innovative new approach to an existing product, service or business model. You could also now win by taking an innovation that is successful elsewhere and applying it in a new way as an adoptive innovation.

If you’ve looked into winning an innovation award in the past but weren’t successful – this year could be a better opportunity for your business and you may have a better chance of winning.

Eligibility

Once you know you have a legitimate innovation to enter, all you need to do next is establish which of the two sub-categories ‘Outstanding Achievement’ or ‘Continuous Achievement’ will show your results and your business story in the best light. And only once that’s decided will you be ready to gather the most relevant and compelling information for your entry.

If you want to make sure you are not a ‘square-peg in a round-hole’ when you enter the Queen’s Awards give me a call and in a FREE consultation I will help you identify your innovation, determine your likelihood of success and choose which subcategory to enter. And if you would like me to I will advise you on how I can help maximise your achievements in an outstanding written report that gives you a real chance of becoming a Queen’s Award winner.

The competition opens for entry in May with approximately 150 awards up for grabs. Take a look here for more top tips on what to include in your entry, insights into the individual categories, and pointers on how to approach writing your entry from someone who knows all the ingredients needed to become a Queen’s Awards winner. You can also find out about our Queen’s Awards for Enterprise entry writing service here.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is a leading UK business award that you might have heard about, but don’t know where to start in knowing if you truly stand a chance of becoming a winner.

Well, I’ll let you into a secret;  the awards are rigorous, but certainly not impossible to win — so long as you fit the criteria for the chosen category and sub-category, have a compelling narrative, and can tie up your strategy, your story, and your results in a way that  shows you are outstanding.

These are one of my favourite awards to advise on and write, I  love the challenge of making the complex simple, it’s the linguist in me, but I also love to see good businesses become great, and winning a Queen’s Award will certainly do that!

To help you take the first step in deciding which category you could be ready to enter I’ve put together four simple Queen’s Awards eligibility infographics — just click on the links to check your eligibility for each category.

Queen’s Award for Innovation Infographic

Queen’s Award for International Trade Infographic

Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development Infographic

Queen’s Award for Promoting Opportunity Through Social Mobility Infographic

If you’re lucky the right category for you is straightforward, but what if your company has innovated a new product, is successfully exporting it overseas, focuses on sustainable business practices and social mobility practices — should you enter all three categories? Or just two? Or focus on one? And how will you position your story and your financial results to give you the strongest chance of winning?

There’s no such thing as a ‘typical’ award winner. Winners come in all shapes and sizes ranging from small businesses of just two people with an exciting new product that’s flying off the shelves to businesses focused on making society better, right through to a huge global business exporting around the world and turning over millions. Just take a look at some previous winners to get an idea of the scope of businesses winning Queen’s Awards last year.

The Queen’s Awards are open from May to September, but anytime is a great time to start preparing. Start by looking at your end of year results and thinking about whether you have enough evidence of success. Will you need to gather customer testimonials or work on your CSR initiatives for instance? A  winning entry can take a long time to compile, so don’t delay your chances of an award that could really put your business on the global map.
Donna O’Toole is an experienced awards expert with outstanding success in The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise competition. Contact Donna for a FREE consultation to find out if you are ready to win.