Shining a light on the trade community's success stories

IOE&IT director general, Marco Forgione, celebrates some reasons to be cheerful in 2023

Being part of the global trade community has many wonderful upsides, not least the fabulous people and businesses I get to meet. But one criticism I have is that we don’t do enough to celebrate our successes. Considering all the upheavals of the last few years, which include a global pandemic and war in Europe, the trade community has proved itself to be remarkably resilient.

We know that businesses trading internationally are generally more resilient – as well as being more sustainable, employing more people and growing faster. But we don’t stop often enough to recognise this fact or to celebrate our trading businesses and the people who run them. 

An important part of leadership is knowing when to praise and congratulate. It has been a genuine pleasure this year to see the Institute of Export and International (IOE&IT) launch its inaugural awards programme. This is a moment where, as an industry and a community, we can congratulate some of our peers for their brilliant work.

Entries and nominations are open now for all nine categories. We want as many individuals and businesses as possible to enter themselves or nominate someone else (or another business) they think would be a worthy winner. To encourage entries, we have invested in a fabulous, automated awards platform and have made all entries free of charge. There should be nothing to prevent you from entering all the categories that are appropriate.

The right awards

When it came to agreeing which categories to run for this first year of our awards, it’s fair to say there was some impassioned internal discussion. Everyone had a view. One universally accepted desire was for us to recognise successful innovation in trade. For an industry that relies on paperwork dating back hundreds of years, it might seem an odd place to start. But trade is changing and at an ever-increasing pace. In future only the innovative will thrive. 

Sustainability is another area that is increasingly important for IOE&IT and the wider international trade arena. We knew we had to recognise the hard work and dedication of those looking to make trade cleaner and greener.

Anyone who has worked with me knows how much I believe in trade as a global force for good. I was particularly keen that we had an award recognising this and potentially highlighting how trade has lifted millions of people out of poverty around the world. We’re keen to showcase the many amazing things trade can do.

For the large business, SME and micro business of the year categories we’re looking for businesses of the relevant size that have achieved remarkable growth through international trade, whether that’s expanding into new countries and regions, increasing sales or growing market share. You can pick the measure and metrics, we just want to be impressed by your trade stories.

But trade is about people as well as businesses. And we want to celebrate the hard work and achievements of the brilliant individuals across the trade community, regardless of the stage of their career they are at. We are celebrating youth in looking for our first young trader of the year and for other rising stars across the industry.

These awards are a great start in helping us all do more to celebrate each other’s triumphs and successes. These are often noted as being challenging times. For me that makes it more important we take this moment to recognise the amazing feats of those rising above these challenges. I encourage you all to look at the categories in more detail and enter yourself or your business or nominate someone else and I look forward to celebrating at our fabulous gala dinner in November.