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Profil (Moscow) December 20, 2004
The calendar read December 8 - making headlines at RBC's sixth "The Company of the Year" national business award in Moscow's glittering International House of Music. The celebrities: prizewinning companies setting highest goals in their markets thanks to high production performance and business process engineering, top quality, management efficiency and personnel expertise. All elevating to prime importance the search for new solutions alongside the ability to foresee and forestall the future.
Success stays beyond reach unless new levels of business, human and financial resources and knowledge management are maintained. Forming a single corporate information space, accumulation of intellectual assets and best administrative, manufacturing and innovative practices are of high importance for the operation of leading-edge companies. Efficient social partnership to enhance the investment attractiveness of businesses and create favorable conditions for the activities of employees and the residents of enterprise locations has assumed great significance. For the strongest win in the end - the most competitive and best capitalized companies. The national business prize "The Company of the Year" has been developing in step with the country. Where once, business merely signified its presence, battling an adverse environment, it has developed gradually, taking a firm stand and claiming more and more attention. These days, it is a key component of society. Major companies are of geostrategic importance. They exercise considerable influence on the Russian economy and its social policy. They are active taxpayers and creators of new jobs. Small and medium-sized businesses are capable of serving as motive power for the entire economy by providing employment for millions. Year in, year out, the national prize has sought the unwavering goals of enhancing the investment attractiveness of Russian companies, drawing Russian public and world business attention to their activities, taking higher the competitive ability of Russia's economy, integrating into the world's economic system and improving public welfare. RBC's prizewinners are assessed by an expert council of authoritative business and state authority representatives and public figures. Initially, companies undergo a pre-selection process, thence to a shortlist. Three nominees in each category are selected for a prize diploma. The winning "The Company of the Year" is chosen by a poll of expert council members. This year, the prize ceremony took place in the Theatre Hall of the Moscow House of Music, Anton Khrekov and Yulia Rutberg being masters of ceremony. Leading lawyer and representative of Russia's government at the Constitutional Court Mikhail Barshchevsky rated it an informal and dynamic event, not long drawn-out, without unnecessary pomposity and with a respectful attitude towards the nominees. In a difficult climate where business heard but few words of encouragement from the authorities and society, public recognition was psychologically important for Russian companies, Mr. Bashchevsky said, noting such prizes more important than tax incentives. The masters of ceremony shaped the atmosphere of the evening with lightness of style and spontaneous wit on this first major New Year event in Moscow at a hall decorated as the season would have it. Prizewinners congratulated the audience on the New Year's turn, Viktor Gerashchenko wishing all better prospects than those of embattled YUKOS. Head of the expert administration of the president of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich said "The Company of the Year" prize gave businesses access to external and independent assessment of their activities, insight into errors and into their status against the background of their competitors. This way, the public could learn which companies were valued by the best analysts and the business community in general, learning also of best industry practice and opening their minds to new attitudes towards business, Mr. Dvorkovich said. General Director of Gazprom-Media Nikolay Senkevich noted more individuals, companies and events of worth in the nation needing domestic and external recognition. "The Company of the Year" award had earned a wonderful reputation to join the top five awards of the kind. Prizewinners highlighted the importance of the award from the perspective of public recognition of business. Chief Financial Officer at STS-Logistics Vladimir Dorokhov said the award raised the status of a winning company and enhanced negotiations with would-be clients; Vice President for Conceptual Development of BENELUX RESIDENCES Alena Melnikova said the prize was embodiment of ambition, a good impetus for a company's internal and external growth. Chairman and Chief Executive at United Financial Group Charles Ryan was happy to see the RBC prize helping true competition, noting the honor of such a win. The awards ceremony was agreeably conservative, yet distinguished this year by an essential peculiarity. Every representative of a winning company taking the stage was handed a brush to paint a canvas with individual touches to symbolize the solidarity of business and its future. Serious grown-ups often looked like children, their creative work spontaneous and sincere. From the painting perspective, the resulting work was curious. Behind the scenes, in media interviews, guests of note voiced, implicitly and explicitly, anxiety for the fate of Russian business operating under difficult conditions in contemporary Russia. Yulia Rutberg found the right words to voice shared concern. "I would very much like these people to prosper and be disturbed by no-one. And our state, our Russia, to become a power as a result. Our country has a great deal of intelligent and talented people - the most important thing is not to constrain their freedom. The point is to prevent a police state," she said. Distillers Johnnie Walker, Russia's and the world's best-selling whiskey, sponsored the ceremony, the brand's famous walker triumphantly treading the earth for almost 200 years and symbolizing hurdles overcome, constant progress and personal development. Ideology in the two simple words "Keep Walking" embodies the values forging the fame of the brand, values reflected in the company's motivation to sponsor a national celebration itself lauding "Constant Progress." The following companies took the accolade "The Company of the Year 2004" MAIN CATEGORIES
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