The Dockyard Phoenix

by David Jones, (Former Medway Messenger deputy editor and Medway Business Awards founder)

THIS year, as everyone connected with the Medway Business Awards is well aware, is a very special anniversary for the county's longest-running business competition...
It's our 25th "anniversary," coinciding - though not by accident - with the 25th anniversary of Chatham Dockyard's closure in 1984.
It‘s hard to believe now that the dockyard's shutdown was a generation ago. At the time I was editor of the Kent Messenger's daily paper, the Evening Post, and like everyone else I was fearful for the future of the Medway Towns when 7,000 workers were thrown out of a job.
One day, not long after the gates were slammed shut for the last time, I was browsing
through a newspaper industry magazine and read that a local authority somewhere up North was starting up a small business competition following the closure of a mine or shipyard - I can't remember exactly what.
The idea was to encourage redundant workers to utilise their skills by starting up small businesses. I thought the scheme could easily be transplanted into Medway and thus the Medway Small Business Awards - as they have been known for most of their lifetime- were born.
With backing from Medway Council's predecessor authority, Rochester-upon-Medway City Council, the awards were an instant success. Many of the early entries were indeed from former dockyard workers.
In the 25 years, more than 1,000 businesses have entered the competition. I have never ceased to be amazed at the enterprise and enthusiasm shown by people who have often staked everything - even their homes - on getting their business off the ground.
The judging process and the awards night have become much more sophisticated over the years but I have always thought there is so much more to a successful business than the bottom line.
It takes courage to start up any business and to overcome the odds. Courage and determination are, in my book, every bit as important as turnover and profit when judging whether or not a business has been "successful."
Long may the awards continue.