Thames Valley 250 dinner recognises region’s top performers

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TBM Team

An awards dinner was held last night for 60 local business leaders to celebrate the launch of the 2018 TV250 listing of the Thames Valley’s leading private companies.

The ninth annual TV250 listing is now available at businessmag.co.uk/thames-valley-250

Combined sales of TV250 businesses are well over £20 billion and they employ more than 100,000 people.

The TV250 is sponsored by HSBC UK, Moore Stephens, Gateley plc and Henley Business School. Vail Williams was announced as a fifth sponsor.

David Murray, publisher of The Business Magazine and the TV250, noted: “One interesting statistic that came out last year was that the economy of the greater Thames Valley actually dwarfs the economies of the so-called powerhouses like Greater Birmingham and Greater Manchester.”

Disrupt or be disrupted?

The evening’s guest speaker Scott Dodds, CEO of IT services provider Ultima Business Solutions, talked about the unprecedented scale of technology change that is underway.

Ultima won the Innovative Tech Company award and was named Thames Valley Tech Company of the year at The Business Magazine’s Thames Valley Tech Awards 2018. The company is 50th in the TV250 and recently invested £18m in new headquarters in Reading.

Dodds said the world of technology is moving so rapidly that businesses are operating in fast-moving “digital rivers” where they constantly risk being disrupted.

Cobotics – the collaboration between people and robotics – is an important step businesses can take in a future where Ultima redefines the term IT as ‘intelligent transformation’ that can free people to innovate. It’s a future were artificial intelligence is seen as the new electricity.

“We need to automate to innovate. We have to massively change the cost of running our businesses, which comes through automation and robotics, so we can afford to innovate and make our businesses more competitive,” said Dodds. “We all have to ask ourselves: do you want to disrupt or be disrupted?”

The TV250 award winners are…

Although not a fully-fledged awards, the dinner was an opportunity to recognise the achievements of some star performers in the TV250.

Achievement Award

This year, the TV250 judges and sponsors presented a special Achievement Award to recognise a business “that in many ways is the flagship private company of the Thames Valley”.

The award went to Westcoast, which has overtaken Thames Water at the top of the TV250 list, with sales of over £2.2 billion.

International Business Award

Winner: Williams Jet Tenders

Finalists: