Business Achievement Awards

Business Awards Translate into Business Expansion

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Businesses on Long Island compete in a huge economy that’s approximately $200 billion in size. In a market of this magnitude, only the highest-quality firms will come out on top.

As advocates for our regional business community, HIA-LI actively recognizes the importance of showcasing the achievements of our top-performing companies. In this spirit, we’ll be hosting our 28th annual “Business Achievement Awards” event on Tuesday, September 20, where HIA-LI will shine a spotlight on “the best in the business.” 

The value and meaning of a business award runs a lot more deeply than you might first think. A business award represents far more than a plaque on the wall.

First, remember that award recipients are genuinely the best.

Nominees are closely evaluated on a number of criteria: the quality of their employee relations, their regional business engagement, their profitability, and their vision for their future. Award selection also takes into account the nominees’ recent accomplishments, their innovative processes, their market growth, their industry leadership, and their ability to overcome adversity.

Second, we learn pathways to business success by scrutinizing the strategies adopted by successful companies.

HIA-LI’s “Business Achievement Awards” program is consciously designed to educate Long Island’s business community at-large about the winning practices of award recipients. How do they maintain employee morale and loyalty? How do they cope with the steady onset of new technologies? How did they maintain their competitive leadership amid the COVID crisis?

Award programs enable your firm to compare itself to competitors – and to explore where you stand based on a third-party evaluation. You can examine the work other award winners are doing and see whether any aspects of their work can be leveraged within your own enterprise.

Third, winning a business award can translate into business expansion.

A research study by the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that corporate award winners had 37 percent higher sales growth than their peers.

A study by British Quality Foundation uncovered similar numbers, with smaller award-winning companies experiencing a 63 percent increase in operating income and a 39 percent growth in sales. Large, award-winning companies benefited from a 48 percent increase in operating income and 37 percent growth in sales when compared to non-award winners.

And fourth, members of the awards committee are sometimes willing to provide helpful, informal feedback to individual nominees about the content and quality of their submissions after the awards have been announced. This feedback can prove valuable in shaping a nominee’s self-improvement program. 

Here are event details: 

  • HIA-LI 28th Annual Business Achievement Awards
    Recognizing Excellence in Long Island Business 
    Tuesday, September 20, 2022
    11:30am – 2:30pm

The honors, which are awarded competitively, cover four categories: Large Business, Small Business, Not-for-Profit, and Rookie of the Year. Here are this year’s finalists:

Large Business Finalists 

Small Business Finalists

Not-For-Profit Finalists

Rookie of the Year Finalists

Please mark your calendars and join me and HIA-LI Chair Rich Humann on September 20 as we recognize the best of the best…and learn from them!

HONORING THE BEST IN BUSINESS

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Every fall, HIA-LI takes a moment to recognize our region’s truly outstanding businesses.

We’ve done it for 26 years by honoring “the best in the business” on Long Island through our “Business Achievement Awards” program – and HIA-LI presented our most-recent set of awards again on September 29.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to conduct our awards event virtually – but the pandemic also required awardees and finalists to work harder at many levels this year. They’ve had to dig in, be creative, and do more to inspire their workforce. Being at the top of your game in a year like 2020 requires something special!

The honors, awarded competitively, cover four categories. Nominees were evaluated based on the quality of their employee relations, regional business engagement, profitability, and vision for their future. Other considerations included recent accomplishments, innovative processes, market growth, industry leadership, and their ability to overcome adversity.

Let’s look at the recipients:

The “Large Business” awardee was Hauppauge-based American Diagnostic Corporation, one of America’s largest, privately held manufacturers of diagnostic medical equipment. Other category finalists included: Citrin Cooperman of Melville; Custom Computer Specialists in Hauppauge; Mazars USA, LLP of Woodbury; and The Tiffen Company of Hauppauge. The three Hauppauge-based firms are located in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge (LI-IPH).

The “Small Business” honoree was Central Business Systems, a Melville provider of document imaging and other IT-related services. Other “Small Business” finalists included Valley Stream-based LMN Printing Company, Inc.; Summit Safety & Efficiency Solutions in Miller Place; Techworks Consulting Inc. in Ronkonkoma; and Terwilliger & Bartone Properties of Farmingdale.

Selected as “Rookie of the Year” – for firms in business for less than five years – was Hauppauge-based Connections4Hire, an LI-IPH company that provides business development and marketing-related services. Category finalists included 4G Professionals in Nesconset; and BLUZAP UV Disinfection Company of Northport.   

The “Not-for-Profit” honoree was the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind located in Smithtown. Category finalists included Blessings in a Backpack of Yaphank; Family and Children’s Association in Mineola; Islandia-based Pal-O-Mine Equestrian; and Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk of Middle Island.

HIA-LI also presented a special “Industry Leadership Award” to Northwell Health, the state’s largest private employer. We recognized the U.S. Small Business Administration with an “Industry Partnership Award” for providing over a half-billion dollars in emergency financial relief to American businesses during the pandemic. We also honored Amneal Pharmaceuticals, one of America’s leading generic pharmacological companies and “Major Sponsor” of the overall HIA-LI Business Achievement Award program.

Leadership and business excellence shine through during tough times like this. These winners deserve credit for setting such great examples in the midst of a national pandemic.

Please join me – and Joe Campolo, Board Chair of HIA-LI – in congratulating them!

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Let’s Pause and Applaud True Standouts!

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HIA, Business Achievement Awards, B) Luncheon (2) (800x800)-COLLAGEAs business executives, we spend almost all of our work time trying to do our jobs well.

So it’s nice to pause for a moment to applaud those Long Island companies and organizations that are true standouts when it comes to performance and leadership.

That’s what we did on September 19 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury when HIA-LI held a gala luncheon to honor recipients of our 25th Annual Business Achievement Awards (BAA).

Some 500 guests were greeted by New York State Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, each of whom praised the honorees and also applauded HIA-LI on our commitment to fulfilling the vision set forth in our “Opportunity Analysis” issued last April.

Covering four categories, BAA nominees were evaluated based on the quality of their employee relations, regional business engagement, profitability, and vision for their future. Other considerations included recent accomplishments, innovative processes, market growth, industry leadership, and their ability to overcome adversity.

The “Large Business” recipient was SUNation Solar Systems, Long Island’s largest solar company, based in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge. Other “Large Business” finalists included: American Diagnostic Corporation; Custom Computer Specialists; JLL; and Northwell Health.

The “Small Business” honoree was East/West Industries, an aerospace engineering company in Ronkonkoma. Other “Small Business” entrants were Accu Data Workforce Solutions; Contemporary Computer Services; National Business Capital & Services; and Prestige Employee Administrators.

Selected as “Rookie of the Year” was Pure Mammography in Lake Grove. Category finalists included Naka Technologies, LLC; Senior Health Plan Specialists; and SynchroPET.

The “Not-for-Profit” honoree was Dominican Village, an assisted and independent living community in Amityville. Finalists included ACLD; CN Counseling & Guidance Services; EPIC Long Island; Independent Group Home Living, Inc.; and Splashes of Hope.

HIA-LI also presented a special “Industry Leadership Award” to Northwell Health, the state’s largest healthcare provider and the region’s largest private employer.

The luncheon gave us all a chance to publicly commend these outstanding firms. And, over the years, honorees have told us how they leverage their awards and finalist status to boost their marketing and their overall competitiveness.

So, my message to you? Nominate your organization in 2020! That way we can all applaud you next September!

Celebrate, Honor, and Flourish

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Over 24 years ago we had a vision to recognize excellence in Long Island business, and the HIA-LI Business Achievement Awards were born.

It is more critical today than ever before that we highlight this HIA-LI business growth initiative and celebrate and honor these Long Island businesses, particularly in light of so many businesses being courted off of Long Island by other communities.

We here at HIA-LI are committed to doing everything in our power to keep Long Island businesses here and to keep them flourishing.

The recipients of the Business Achievement Awards were judged in four categories; Large, Small, Rookie of the Year, and Not-for-Profits.

All companies in each category were judged on their accomplishments, positive employee relations, giving back to the Long Island community, revenue and profitability trends, and their overall innovation in business strategy.

Often, our member companies will ask, “What is the secret to success for these companies?” Well, there doesn’t seem to be a secret.  Because regardless of the industry, they all seem to have several things in common:

  • They are optimistic about the future.
  • They have good people in place and know how to celebrate them.
  • They are focused, particularly in this economy, on the development of their good people and on streamlining – doing things differently to make their company more effective.
  • They realize that if they are not constantly doing things better and more effectively, they can lose out in this economy to someone who is!

Lee Iacocca once said, “The most successful businesspeople are the ones who hold onto the old just as long as it’s good and grab onto the new just as soon as it’s better.”

Our Business Achievement Award recipients are great examples of that type of passion and commitment in a very competitive business environment.

These are the 2018 HIA-LI Business Achievement Award recipients who were honored on September 20th at the Crest Hollow Country Club: