The benchmark of excellence
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The Great British Excellence Awards celebrate the people, businesses and organisations doing exceptional work. Explore the categories and help recognise someone shaping the future through their achievement, leadership and impact.
Working Women Awards
Individual Excellence AwardsBusiness Woman of the Year
Recognising the woman whose business leadership has delivered outstanding growth and results
About this category
Business Woman of the Year recognises a woman who has shown exceptional commercial leadership. Whether she founded the business, runs it or leads a major part of it, she has made the decisions that drove growth, built a strong team and steered the organisation through the challenges of the year. Judges look for clear commercial results and the leadership behind them.
Eligibility
- Open to women-identifying founders, owners, directors and senior business leaders
- Any sector and any business size, from micro businesses to large organisations
- Must hold a leadership role with responsibility for business results
Judging criteria
- Commercial performance: growth in revenue, profit, customers or market share
- Strategic leadership: the decisions and direction behind that performance
- People: how she builds, develops and keeps a strong team
- Resilience: how she has handled setbacks or difficult market conditions
Qualitative criteria
- Clear vision and decisive leadership
- Commercial judgement
- Ability to inspire teams and customers
- Integrity in how the business is run
Metrics
- Revenue and profit growth
- New customers, markets or products
- Jobs created and team growth
- Funding raised or investment secured
- Awards, accreditations or press recognition
Additional criteria
- Results should relate to the last one to three trading years
- Supporting figures are treated in confidence
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