Telco giant, Telstra has announced the launch of its new awards program, the Telstra Best of Business Awards, which celebrates small and medium sized businesses who are using innovation and expertise to drive the nation forward.

The new program continues Telstra’s long legacy of awards programs that recognise exceptional leaders and small and medium businesses, providing a platform to further their success and inspire others.

Telstra Consumer and Small Business Group Executive, Michael Ackland said the past year gave Telstra an opportunity to reflect and reimagine a program of the future.

“We are proud of the support we have shown the small business community over the past 25 years through the Telstra Business Awards and the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, where we have recognised over 5,000 finalists from both city and regional areas across each state and territory of Australia,” Mr Ackland said.

“The Telstra Best of Business Awards builds on the success and learnings of these award programs and is a reflection of our desire to continue to lead positive change for all Australians.

“It allows us to celebrate the businesses and people making a positive impact within their community, industry, across the country or perhaps the world.

“We know the past year has been challenging for everyone, particularly small to medium sized businesses. We hope by creating this new program, we will lead a national conversation and shine a light on businesses that are making a meaningful contribution to Australia and provide them with the recognition they deserve.”

Central to the new awards program is the addition of a new, annually-changing awards category – Progressing Australia. The new category will highlight businesses that are best responding to the most pressing issues the nation faces.

To identify this category, Telstra will conduct extensive research each year with the Australian public and business experts to gain a pulse check of the nation, and the issues that matter most. This research will be used to set the ever-changing national agenda for the awards.

This year’s topic is Local Leadership – a category that champions small businesses who are excelling in their role of building a thriving community of the future. This comes after research showed 96 per cent of consumers said they considered small businesses an important part of their community.*

Diversity and inclusion is also at the heart of this revamped program, from improved accessibility to the entry process, to the creation of new categories. This includes Indigenous Excellence for Indigenous-owned businesses, Accelerating Women for businesses challenging exclusion and inequality, and Building Communities for businesses working to make a positive impact on their communities.

“We are committed to embedding diversity and inclusion and ensuring all business owners from a cross-section of industries, sizes, categories and locations are able to enter and are judged fairly. We want to give everyone across Australia the opportunity to be on the main stage,” Mr Ackland said.

All businesses under 200 employees are invited to nominate and enter across eight categories.

Entering the Telstra Best of Business Awards will help business owners take their business to the next level. The rigorous judging process will seek to identify those who are having an impact in the areas and industries most important to Australia’s growth.

Anyone can nominate an exceptional business by heading to the website today: www.telstrabestofbusinessawards.com