Voting and How winners are determined
Voting will be done through the Online system on the website and using the USSD provided to voters.
Once winners are tallied as per the results of the online votes, they are personally notified before any public announcement is made, allowing time for any communications throughout the wider business and the coordination of marketing strategies. Unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner; however, all who take part are encouraged to come back next year, details of our award winners will be made public via the website, award winners’ magazine and subscriber newsletter.
Judging & Shortlisting and Awards Process
Vetting: Judging or vetting of entries will be conducted over two sittings in July by the jury focused on the main category groups. Each committee will have 5 members with two rights of votes. Judges will be both volunteers and invitees. Judges’ average scores will determine the competitors to ran for the category award. The nomination with the top three scores in a category will run for the votes in that group. then they both qualify for the same race and this shall be treated as an exception thus the race will have more than three competitors.
| SNO | Score Rate (out 100%) | Group | Award |
| 1 | 80.-100 | A | Cleared to run |
| 2 | 70-79 | B | Cleared to run |
| 3 | 50-69 | C | Cleared to run |
| 4 | 0-49 | D | Eliminated from the race |
Votes
The votes will be tallied by the online system but the principle of scoring is the same. In a scenario where two or more candidates have the same score, then the jury will sit and re vote for the best winner to be awarded: The different categories of awards will depend on the scores as indicated on the table below.
| SNO | Score Rate (out 100%) | Group | Award |
| 1 | 80.-100 | A | Platinum |
| 2 | 70-79 | B | Gold |
| 3 | 50-69 | C | Silver |
| 4 | 0-49 | D | No award but mentioned |
Every other nomination in the group of B and C will each win a Gold Award medal and silver medals respectively. Other nominations with an average score of less than 5 in group D will have no awards but shall be mentioned.
During judging, each entry is reviewed and rated by no fewer than five (5) judges. All entries are viewed and rated at the judges’ convenience over the Internet. Rating is done on a scale of 1-10.
All judges’ comments on entries will be available in entrants’ entry-submission accounts when Award winners are announced.
The veracity of claims made in winning entries may be audited. Any entry found to contain false or misleading information will be disqualified. Winning entries will be published on the web site. Winners will have the opportunity to redact any confidential or non-public information from their entries before publication.
Judging Criteria
Built on the principles of integrity, equality and inclusivity, the Telstra EABQA Awards judging process is rigorous and transparent. Our diverse panel of expert Judges work diligently to ensure Award winners are small and medium-sized businesses truly contributing to East Africa’s economic, social and cultural prosperity.
Research
The EABQA Markets team work hard in identifying great businesses, driving many of the nominations themselves. The team encourage external nominations from the subscribers , web visitors, social media following, clients and wider circulation. Nominating parties are invited to put forward either their own business or third-party companies whom they hold in high regard.
Shortlisting
All nominees are formally requested to accept their nomination, nominees are obviously free to accept or decline if they so wish. Those who formally accept are given the opportunity to submit additional supporting information to cement their nomination. There is no obligation to complete and supply such material, we have found that many nominees value this stage, in the process, as much as our research team do.
Evaluating shortlisted nominees
Our dedicated research team will assess all information presented to them. The team gather information independently from a variety of publicly accessible sources, which are assessed alongside any material supplied by a nominating party or by the nominee themselves. The research team casts their final judgment, based on various criteria such including business performance, longevity, diversification, growth (either sustained or rapid), any significant innovations, feedback from stakeholders.
How winners are determined
Once winners are selected, they are personally notified before any public announcement is made, allowing time for any communications throughout the wider business and the coordination of marketing strategies. Unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner; however, all who take part are encouraged to come back next year. Once the press embargo is lifted, details of our award winners will be made public via the website, award winners’ magazine and subscriber newsletter.
Sharing the news
We offer a range of promotional packages and items to EABQA award winners, which vary from inclusion in the winners’ directory, trophies, content in our magazine, on our website and other advertising platforms.
We encourage all winners to publicly announce their win independently in order to gain maximum exposure. Announcements via company websites, social media, via publicly released press releases, and through local and national press are all great ways of maximizing the exposure which can be gained from such a great achievement. If you have need of further advice, on how to publicize your win, please feel free to get in touch. We are more than happy to assist our clients with their needs.
What Judges are looking for
To determine a business’ overall success, Judges for all categories will use the following criteria.
- Economic sustainability
- Makes sound financial decisions and manages cash flow effectively
- Is profitable over a period and can clearly articulate potential profits
- Sustains goals and purpose over a period and can outline potential future impact
- Has proven examples of achieving mission-critical goals and objectives
- Considers competitor behaviors and how to counteract them
- Has examples of how they’ve found better ways to reach new markets
- Exceeds customer expectations and delivers brilliant experiences
- Operational effectiveness and technology adoption
- Harnesses technology in innovative ways to move the business forward
- Changes course with agility to adapt to market changes
- Has developed new internal processes, production or services to operate more effectively
- Takes a creative approach to solving customer problems
- Tenaciously pushes the boundaries to maintain success
- Progressive leadership and culture
- Has a visionary, future-facing business strategy
- Takes a courageous approach to risk, and adapts when necessary
- Fosters internal team culture by celebrating innovation, collaboration and diversity
- Invests in employee development and growth
- Is committed to reducing bias of any kind at any level and approaches hiring accordingly
- Proactively engages with diverse groups to understand different perspectives and apply them to their business
- Approaches customer feedback as an asset and uses it to enhance the business
- Social and community contribution
- Purposefully contributes to the wellbeing of the communities they serve, or society in general
- Promotes the importance of social impact internally, and demonstrates this externally
- Provides or contributes measurable value to their communities or society at large
- Behaves and operates in a transparent and ethical manner
- Positive and sustainable impact
- Is proactively finding solutions for a prevalent problem, gap or need
- Understands the overall significance of their service, product, solution or contribution
- Has a plan for how to achieve their vision in creating change and progress.
- Can produce measurable evidence of how they’ve contributed to a key issue within their chosen category
- Creates a visible difference, provides value or delivers a marked effect on people, communities or industries
- Has created a legacy of positive impact that is sustained and will stand the test of time
- Possesses the scalability and growth potential to increase their impact or contribution
- Thought leadership and innovation
- Takes an innovative approach to forge new paths and create progress for the category
- Uses creative and strategic thinking to solve problems and overcome barriers for their chosen challenge
- Challenges the status quo by celebrating and fostering fresh thinking in a way that demonstrably inspires others
- Commitment and perseverance
- Purposefully seeks to motivate, create and affect positive change or progress
- Shows passion and courage in achieving their goals current and future goals
Tenaciously approaches and overcomes any challenge