Britam staff are all smiles as they pose with the Overall Company of the Year award that the firm won during the COYA and SMOYA gala night held at the Safari Park Hotel on Friday. Britam’s chief executive Benson Wairegi took the CEO of the Year award. The awards are organised by the Kenya Institute of Management. Photo/SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
Britam completed a double after being declared the top firm and its leader the best CEO during the Company of the Year Awards (COYA) ceremony on Friday
Benson Wairegi, the head of the listed investment firm, bagged the CEO of the Year top prize
The awards for the first time feted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Kenya Red Cross-owned Boma Hotels emerging the inaugural winner
Britam completed a double after being declared the top firm and its leader the best CEO during the Company of the Year Awards (COYA) ceremony on Friday.
Benson Wairegi, the head of the listed investment firm, bagged the CEO of the Year top prize in the awards dominated by financial services firms.
The awards for the first time feted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Kenya Red Cross-owned Boma Hotels emerging the inaugural winner.
Financial services firms Britam, Gulf African Bank and Jubilee Insurance scooped five of the seven categories under the Organisational Performance Index (OPI), a business excellence tool that rates companies against international best practices on a scale of 1 to 10.
The ratings are on leadership, financial management, human resources management, corporate citizenship, innovation, productivity as well as customer care and marketing.
“Since the introduction of OPI none of the overall winners has ever attained an OPI score of 8, which is the gold mark. This remains a challenge,” said David Muturi, the CEO of Kenya Institute of Management (KIM)—which launched the awards 13 years ago and introduced OPI in 2010.
“The winner last year had a score of 6.7 while this year’s overall winner has a score of 6.0. Leading organisations are challenged to aim for world-class scores of above 8 or even go for 9 – 10,” he added.
Last year, auto-dealer Toyota Kenya was crowned company of the year.
LapTrust CEO Hosea Kiili was named runners up in the CEO of the Year category. Gulf African Bank emerged top on financial management measure while Jubilee Insurance was the victor on human resources management.
Crown Paints and Githunguri Dairy, owner of Fresha brand, were top on innovation and corporate citizenship respectively.
The Small Medium Company of the Year Award (SMOYA) is intended to highlight the growing co-dependence between large firms and mid-sized companies.
Besides Boma Hotel, Pewin Cabs Ltd, Taifa Sacco, Lean Energy Solutions and AAKI Consultants Ltd were also feted in the category.
“If you want to know how competitive Kenya will be tomorrow, look at the micro and small enterprises sector,” said Patrick Mwangi, the acting CEO of Micro and Small Enterprise Authority.
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