It’s that time of year again!  A time to reflect on the achievements of your family firm as well as those of your peers – and to show all that, once again, family businesses have faced down adversity to emerge alive and well in Connecticut!  For 14 years, the University of Connecticut Family Business Program has been honoring family firms that have bettered our communities, our prospects for jobs, our prospects for security, and our prospects for wellbeing.  And while this past year has been among the  most challenging of recent memory, it is more important than ever to recognize those outstanding firms that have weathered these distressing conditions while also doing all they can to lift their suppliers, customers, community, and industry in its wake. 

Family businesses play a crucial role in Connecticut’s economy and society, a role too frequently overlooked as the public's eye is directed to public corporations. To emphasize the tremendous and positive contributions provided by family firms, large and small, the UConn Family Business Program holds the annual Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards ceremony - a prestigious way to recognize and honor those family businesses that embody core family values and the best of American free enterprise.

To date, the UConn Family Business Program, through the annual Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards ceremony, has honored 143 outstanding firms from across the state – creating jobs, investing in new technologies, supporting philanthropic causes, fostering innovation, and serving as champions of their industry and community.   It comes as little surprise that family businesses continue to prove themselves as the backbone of Connecticut’s economy, and the central nervous system of American free enterprise – and so it is important to recognize them and congratulate them on all they do and all they are.

We invite you to apply for the 2009 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Award, or to nominate those family firms that you feel are deserving of such an honor.  Finalists are chosen by a panel of outside judges and evaluated based on proven business success, positive family and business linkage, multi-generational involvement, contributions to community/industry, and innovative business practices/strategies.  The application process can be extremely rewarding as firm members reflect on their organization’s history and achievements throughout the years – a tremendous morale boost for all! 

An application is available as a link on this web page; however, we encourage you to submit your application through video so that our judges can best get a “feel” for your family business (people, facility, product, relationships, etc…).  Stories are sometimes best told verbally through the eyes of family members (working in the business, not working in the business, retired, or incoming generation), employees, customers, and suppliers; so in keeping with the intimate and unassuming nature of family firms, we’d like to offer this option to applicants.  While submitting your video, please be sure to cover all areas on the application and refer to video recommendations.  Applications/video submissions are due August 28, 2009.

Thank you for your assistance in helping us recognize and honor those family firms that embody core family values and the entrepreneurial spirit!  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Priscilla Cale, UConn Family Business Program Director, at 860.486.5628 or priscilla.cale@uconn.edu.

To greater success,
Priscilla Cale