The World Confederation of Business (WORLDCOB) presents The Bizz Award to leading businesses worldwide for various categories of global business excellence. The award looks sexy and accepting entails “walking down the red carpet” to receive a statue that is uncannily similar to an Oscar. How curious though that…
- A comprehensive list of recipients of the award is guarded on WORLDCOB’s website for “members only”
- WORLDCOB discloses no information regarding their sources of revenue
- WORLDCOB also offers “Corporate Image Advising”
A friend who runs a medium-sized business in Costa Rica was contacted and offered “nomination” for the Bizz Award. He turned it down because he didn’t know who they were, why they were contacting him, or by what criteria he was nominated. He also guessed that accepting would eventually require paying a big chunk of change and was probably in essence an (ineffectual) publicity stunt more than a legitimate award.
A couple of lessons:
- If you’re offered an award, be careful about who is giving it and what it means
- If you’re in a position to offer an award, consider the benefits of offering it and how to make it most meaningful for recipients
p.s. CFO Magazine named Andy Fastow “CFO of the year” just before the Enron debacle. Fastow is now in prison for stealing from shareholders. This just proves that even legitimate magazines can misttep with awards
October 23, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Reminds me of “Who’s Who Among High School Students.” I see a ton of resumes where job applicants include that as a qualification. That’s generally a prelude to a paper airplane flight to the trash bin.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05340/617803.stm
November 6, 2008 at 8:05 am
Hi, my company was contacted and nominated for the same award.. the ceremony is supposed to take place in three weeks.
Is this thing legit or a scam?
February 3, 2009 at 5:33 am
Hi, I have just received an invite to attend and collect my BIZZ AWARD at the Burj Al Arab hotel Dubai one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. From this I gather these people intend to drag a large amount of money out of the “award winners” The Arab business men are quite keen on seeing their name in lights so maybe WORLDCOB have picked the right market for their SCAM !
February 15, 2009 at 1:16 pm
We are a Middle East company and have been nominated for the award. We dont know the background and criteria for this selection and thus a cause for surprise. It may sound very enticing to be in the List but It could be a big scam. We are verifying the same. Anyone have clues? Please do publish.
February 25, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Same here, also based in UAE. Any news on this thing?
February 25, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Same here… It’s a scam I assume.
March 19, 2009 at 12:43 am
This year I got my second congratulations on having won the “most important business Award in the world”. Yeah right. It is a puny organization operating out of a tiny office in Houston that sells nominations and awards. Interesting business model indeed. The fascinating part of this is that a simple google search comes up with all of the little companies that have been duped to pay for this, and then tout it in press releases as a true accomplishment. In regards to the major corporations that have been named, and there are some, I am sure some flunkie signed up. I find it interesting that they do not market this in the US. This is promoted in Latin American and the Middle East from what I can tell. Do you think they are concerned about the legal implications of what they are doing if they tried it in the U.S.?
Stay away from these clowns.
March 21, 2009 at 5:39 am
The award is legit although the reasons for nomination were never that clear, it turned to be a great way to network. Our company attended last year event in Panama and we had legitimate mainstream coverage media for this ceremony. The presentation of the award was very well done.
Frank, I’m not sure about the US but I do know they have the award for European and African companies as well.
April 14, 2009 at 1:27 am
We’ve been nominated in the past but never acknowledged them. Now I see they’re receiving coverage of local TV and press. Hmm even if fake the publicity could well be worth it.
Any idea how much the award is ?
Thanks
April 23, 2009 at 5:12 am
Hi Richard,
you should contact them directly. the webpage with the information is:
http://www.thebizzawards.com
I don’t know where are you located but they have offices in Peru, Mexico and the USA. Their main number is (713) 339-9900
My company is going to participate again this year on the main ceremony in Cuzco, Peru
July 4, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Hi my company also was contacted by this unscrupulous prize sellers, seems that all of them are from Peru, and in Bolivia they sell they prize to everyone since great banks to small hair shops. The prize cost about 3000 USD and curiously they only sell this prize in poor countries? Do you know about some company in USA or Canada that buy this price?
July 24, 2009 at 4:02 am
These guys wrote a mail to my company in india. looks pretty dicey.
I wonder how they get their award events in different countries funded/sponsored. apparently there are big names as sponsors. any idea?
September 30, 2009 at 10:46 am
We were also contacted for winning this prestigious award, but we got curious when we saw a statement in the mail by the organisers saying that, I can verify about this organisation from the receptionist of the hotel Taj Mahal, Mumbai and get it confirmed whether the organisation has booked the ballroom or not? No standard oganisation will give such type of statement. We were asked to pay $3500 for becoming the member and attending the award ceremony.. This is just ridiculous.. This type of people must be sentenced to death..
November 6, 2009 at 6:33 pm
WORLD CONFEDERATION OF BUSINESSES
Address: 2825 Wilcrest, Suite 163 – Houston, TX 77042
central office is just a suite for which they pay $ 500 per month.
???
see:
http://www.loopnet.com/property/14406080/2825-Wilcrest-Drive/