Celebrate resilience

The Oxfordshire Business Awards is a sure fire indicator of the fighting-fitness of the county's business community.

Many firms in Oxfordshire have seen their sales volumes plummet in the last twelve months and there is a number that aren't going to make it to the upturn. Sombre news with little cause for celebration. But what this awards night shows is that firms in this county are achieving growth, gaining market share and even being born from the deepest of recessions.

Take European Electronique, which collected three gongs for the first time ever. This sizeable, 20-year-old IT services provider could be the type of firm to be sinking with the rise in cost cutting practices of its clients, or at best treading water. But no, it is showing itself to be as fresh, innovative and creative as ever to propel itself forward. Tom Courage (there's a name if ever there was one) of Key Hips came out and cited the dismal housing market as actually helping the firm to grow "...because we simply would not have been able to keep up with demand without it."

Now there's chutzpah for you.

Environmnetally sustainable businesses seem to be bucking the economic trend in Oxfordshire as much as anywhere, many having grown exponentially in the last decade. Eynsham's Ice Energy, now large enough to sponsor its own Environmental Award for Property and Construction, awarded handed it to Blenheim Estates for its Sawmills development, a beautiful collection of business units with all the right environmental credentials. Fired Earth picked up the Sustainability award for its environmental practices, another example of an established firm definitely not sitting on its laurels.