KEEPING THE HEART IN HERTFORDSHIRE
The Queen’s Award - Our Journey by Jonathan Kane, CEO
Thanks to 3 years of 5 Star customer comments on trustpilot and a forensic investigation of our accounts, turnaround times and refunds, we proved our claims were true.
• Celebration The Queen’s Awards were announced every year on her birthday and published in the London Gazette, a little known daily publication.
L-R Jonathan Hoole, KANE Managing Director, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire Robert Voss CBE and Jonathan Kane, KANE CEO
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veryone will remember 2022 for war in Ukraine, global supply issues and high energy costs. Most will remember 2022 as the year of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, her death and proclamation of our new King. KANE will also remember 2022 as the year we won the Queen’s Award for Innovation for KANE CARE - Our promise to never let you down or your money back.
• Backing British Business The Queen’s Award is the highest honour a British business can win, first proposed by Prince Phillip in 1965 to celebrate British Industry - A year later the first awards were made. Today, there are Queen’s Awards for innovation, international trade, sustainable development and opportunity through social mobility - A parallel Award for voluntary service is the equivalent of receiving an MBE.
• In it to win it KANE celebrates 60 years as a family business but never considered applying - A chance conversation with our Chamber made us think again. Why? Unlike the Oscars and other awards, we were told you win if you’re good enough, but not at the expense of others. This meant we’d be judged on merit - but little did we know what would happen next.
• Two checks better than one The Queen’s Award is the only award requiring two audits of your application. We were interviewed by one set of experts asking many questions and giving nothing away - Think Dragon’s Den & the Apprentice combined. Another group reviewed how KANE CARE guarantees same day analyser service & recertification or your money back with a 10 year warranty & 20 year all inclusive pricing.
This year, in small print on page 2, was KANE – one of 51 Queen’s Award winners for Innovation. It meant we could advertise the Queen’s Award for 5 years, meet the Royal family at Buckingham Palace and receive our award in person from Her Majesty’s representative, the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. The Lord Lieutenant’s visit was a great moment for our team – everyone now realised we really were delivering the right promises to our customers for the right reasons.
• Your turn We should have applied years ago – our colleagues now understand the significance of our innovation and can better explain to customers why they should choose KANE. Although it took time to apply, the award’s prestige, fabulous logo and rarity mean we’re now seen as a business that delivers on its promise. It also makes staff & customer recruitment just that little bit easier. While we’ll never be complacent, it’s great to see innovation and hard work truly rewarded – if in doubt, go for it.
The Queen’s Award The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK business and recognise and encourage outstanding achievements in: •
innovation
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international trade
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sustainable development
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promoting opportunity (through social mobility)
The Queen’s Awards scheme was instituted by Royal Warrant in 1965 with the first Awards in 1966 (Gazette issue 43953) known as The Queen’s Award to Industry. In 1975 it became the Queen’s Awards for Export and Technology, with Environmental Achievement added in 1992. In 1999 it was renamed The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise with ‘international trade’, ‘innovation’ & ‘sustainable development’ categories. In 2017, ‘promoting opportunity (through social mobility)’ was introduced. In 2022, 232 businesses were recognised by Her Majesty on her birthday as among the best in the country. •
International Trade (141 winners)
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Innovation (51)
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Sustainable Development (31)
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Promoting Opportunity (9)
It’s now up to our King whether the awards stay in our late Majesty’s name or his.
KANE & University of Hertfordshire Lean boosts productivity
Recently voted Hertfordshire’s Best Business and winner of a Queen’s Award for Innovation, KANE is the UK’s largest family business making portable analysers & test equipment helping heating engineers worldwide keep our homes & workplaces safe and warm.
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ANE designs and delivers essential instruments with award winning service from its 25,000 sq ft home in Welwyn Garden City. 2 years ago KANE asked University of Hertfordshire to help introduce Lean – a tried and tested method to boost productivity first used by Toyota Japan over
70 years ago. UH’s team led by Marzia Milan and Thomas Baker explained how previously unfamiliar techniques such as KANBAN, KAIZAN, 1 piece flow, 5 Ys and Root Cause Analysis would actually work in KANE. The outcome was transformational – KANE dramatically improved delivery times and product quality, freeing capacity to grow sales.
It also reduced stock levels, freeing cash to reinvest in product and sales development.
For KANE, Lean is a winner – customers only see upside and colleagues become converts.
It’s also created cultural change – the daily walk around quickly identifies output and quality problems impacting colleagues and, since the first discipline of Lean is to respect your team, they soon see how quickly issues are addressed with daily feedback.
As Jonathan Kane, CEO, said: “Lean is great – motivated colleagues, few problems, happier customers and double the capacity to grow sales. Thanks to UH, Lean has transformed our business.”
www.kane.co.uk INSPIRE
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