Household names fight the odds to win national accolades as they survive 2010

At the Institute for Turnaround prestigious awards ceremony held on December 1st, Bernard Matthews, Clifford Chance and Crown Paints, are among those who successfully went home with accolades.
The IFT’s Annual Awards are presented to those who have struggled with financial or operational difficulty but have managed to turn their businesses around and the occasion celebrates Britain’s surviving businesses.
Archie Norman, Chairman of ITV, was awarded the IFT Chairman’s Special Award for leading transformations of major businesses including ASDA and Kingfisher plc.
It was a great evening for Deloitte, where IFT Fellow Aidan Birkett triumphed in the Turnaround Professional of the Year category and Jason Armstrong became the sector ’s Rising Star, each for their work on Dubai World.
Endless was in exuberant form, for the second year running chosen to receive the Turnaround Financier of the Year Award, in 2010, for Crown Paints. Excelsyn, a formerly failing pharmaceutical business, turned around by Endless, scooped the award for Small and Medium-Sized (SME) Turnaround.
Bernard Matthews fought off tough competition from Anglian, Care Principles and Foyles to win Private Company Turnaround of the Year. Awards Presenter and Speaker Michael Portillo dwelt on the achievements of company founder Bernard Matthews, who died just a week before the award’s announcement.
Awards Roll of Honour

The Awards judges included IFT Fellow David Hoare, Professor Thanos Papadimitriou of London Business School, Jane Calvert-Lee of the CBI and IFT immediate past Chairman Paul Thompson, who chaired the Awards judging.
The Institute is grateful to have had the support of two superb sponsors, AlixPartners, an IFT Award-winning firm and BTG Mesirow Financial Consulting, whose second consecutive year of sponsorship it was. The Awards are in their ninth year.
 
Key points:
• Once again 60+ nominees reached the final evaluation stage in 2010
• There had been ferocious competition in some categories – such as private companies, financiers, international and Turnaround Professional
• The Awards are given without fear or favour – whether or not the winner is a member or a corporate partner
• The result is judged on the basis of the evidence presented
• The proceedings are utterly confidential
• The awards selections are made mindful that IFT is looking from the special perspective of Turnaround
• The judges are seeking innovation, skills and dedication well beyond the norm; and a sustainable result

Awards Presenter Michael Portillo opened the proceedings by saying, “If all difficulties were known at the start of a journey, most of us would never set out at all; a truism that does not apply to turnaround professionals. There are no route maps for the uncharted territory that Turnaround Professionals navigate. They are more likely incline to the Chinese proverb, ‘The journey is the reward’ “The IFT Award recognises which organisations and individuals have made outstandingly successful journeys
from crisis to Turnaround – and,” he added, “everyone who is here managed to beat the travel difficulties!” (Ed. As a matter of record, despite many, many last-minute bookings changes, it was a completely ‘full house’)