What a month!

Not one, not two but THREE fantastic awards have come the way of Unique World in recent weeks, and we're over the moon.

It's always pleasing to be recognised for good work, but the most significant aspect of these awards is that they cover all aspects of our business; technical capabilities, business management and HR, and they all recognise our commitment to a collaborative culture.

The most exciting was global recognition for our work in Portals and Collaboration, a huge achievement. Unique World was awarded the 2011 Microsoft Portals and Collaboration Partner of the Year Award for its work with Telstra’s Enterprise Collaboration and Knowledge Management Portal, a collaboration platform providing end-to-end knowledge management across all core business processes.  I’d like to acknowledge Jason Sharpe and the team at Telstra Enterprise and Government for their faith in Unique World, and their vision in wholeheartedly adopting a collaborative approach to business transformation.

The other global award recognised our achievements in implementing Open-Book Management.  Unique World is the first non-US company to win an All-Star Award in the Great Game of Business (GGOB).

The GGOB and Open Book Management give our staff full visibility and understanding of all economic aspects of the business. All the numbers are shared, and everyone can see exactly how they’re tracking on the staff bonus scheme.  It’s required an enormous amount of effort by all staff to change our culture and to educate and drive awareness around the whole organisation about what we can achieve.

The whole idea of Open-Book Management really fits the collaborative, inclusive culture of Unique World, but even so, I’ve been astounded at our success in such a short period of time.

Finally, in our first year in the survey, we were thrilled to be included in the BRW Top50 Great Places to Work.  At Unique World, we’re not about perks or gimmicks for staff, we’re about creating a culture of involvement and collaboration. Part of this is our commitment to Open-Book Management.  We’ve almost doubled our staff in the last 12 months, and I think our ability to attract great staff due in large part to our collaborative and supportive culture.  

Of course, awards aren’t everything, but they have certainly caused a great buzz around Unique World.  I’m so pleased our hard work has been recognised, but we won’t be resting on our laurels.  We’ve set the bar high, and these awards will give us something to beat in 2012!