What Does Brilliance in Business Actually Mean? Perspective from the Judges Panel

Every awards programme uses the word excellence. Fewer can tell you what it actually means in practice, who decides, and on what basis.

At the International Brilliance Awards™, that question has a direct answer: the judges decide, and they do so against published criteria, through a blind review process, with no knowledge of which organisation submitted the entry they are reading.

But before any of that process begins, there is a prior question worth asking. What does brilliance in business actually mean to the people who are assessing it?

We put that question to ten members of the International Brilliance Awards™ judging panel. Their answers come from different industries, different disciplines, and different parts of the world. What they share is a set of convictions about what strong work looks like and what it takes to produce it consistently.

Brilliance Is About Ethics as Much as Results

Anthony Berryhill, Founder and CEO of Elite College Hacker, is direct about what he looks for — and what he is not impressed by.

"It is not brilliant to have a 10% increase in stock and layoff people the next day. It is not brilliant to hire a homogeneous senior leadership staff and brag about net revenue."

For Berryhill, those outcomes reflect something toxic, not something worthy of recognition. His definition of brilliance in business is deliberately demanding:

"Brilliant business involves both achieving results and following ethical rules and principles when doing so. It is easy to behave poorly in business for profit. It is hard to make profit while acting on best practices."

As a judge, he is looking for organisations that serve as role models — businesses that succeed while doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.

This matters for anyone considering entering the Business Brilliance Awards. Entries that present strong numbers without any honest account of how those numbers were achieved will not carry the same weight as entries that demonstrate both the result and the integrity of the process that produced it.

Brilliance Creates Value That Lasts

Mayada Maged, Managing Partner of Staff Arabia Group, frames brilliance in terms of durability and fairness.

"Brilliance is meaningful, fair, and sustainable impact. It is about achieving results while elevating people, creating value that lasts beyond the moment."

That phrase — value that lasts beyond the moment — is one that recurs in different forms across several judges’ responses. It points to something specific: the difference between a result that was achieved once and a capability that was built to last.

Organisations entering the Business Brilliance Awards often focus on a single project or initiative. That is entirely appropriate. But the strongest entries tend to show that the work produced something durable — a process, a capability, a change in how the organisation operates — rather than just a number that no longer applies.

Brilliance Is the Combination of Creativity, Execution, and Resilience

Rajya Laxmi Yellajosyula, Senior AI Product Manager at Microsoft, offers one of the most layered definitions in the group.

"Brilliance is the ability to turn complex ideas into meaningful impact for others. It is the combination of creativity, execution, resilience, and the willingness to solve difficult problems that genuinely improve people's lives or experiences."

She adds a dimension that is easy to overlook:

"True brilliance also involves lifting others along the way, creating systems, opportunities, and innovations that enable broader progress beyond individual success."

This is relevant to organisations entering team and leadership categories in particular. Entries that describe individual achievement in isolation tend to miss the wider picture that judges are looking for. The question is not just what was delivered, but what it enabled — for the team, for the organisation, for the people the business serves.

Brilliance Looks Obvious in Hindsight

Jeanette Okwu, Founder and CEO of BeyondInfluence, brings a marketing perspective that applies well beyond her own discipline.

"A solution that makes you ask why no one did it that way before. Brilliance in marketing tends to look obvious in hindsight, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to produce in the first place. You need enough judgment to simplify, and enough courage to commit to the simple answer when everyone around you is overcomplicating it."

This is a useful observation for award entrants. There is a common instinct in award writing to make work sound complicated, to use industry language, to describe every element of a programme rather than explain what it actually achieved. Okwu’s point runs counter to that instinct. The most impressive work is often the simplest to explain and the hardest to have done.

Brilliance Is What You Did When the Problem Was Messy

Tanya Peasgood, Head of Consultancy at Williams Commerce, gives what is perhaps the most practically useful definition for any organisation preparing an entry.

"It is about doing something well in the circumstances you were actually in. It is what you did when the problem was messy. Did the decision you made with incomplete information turn out to be right, or did the team deliver something no one was quite sure was possible?"

She adds something that challenges a common instinct in entry writing:

"Brilliance does not have to shout about itself. You recognise it because it makes you think: that was the right thing to do, and they did it."

Many organisations feel pressure to make their work sound exceptional. Peasgood’s perspective suggests the opposite approach is more persuasive. Describe the actual conditions. Describe the decision. Describe what happened. Let the judges reach their own conclusion about whether it was brilliant.

Brilliance Connects Emotionally and Drives Action

Chow Kok Keong, Senior Creative and Brand Communications Leader at Atomiq, brings a different lens to the same question.

"Brilliance means creating work that connects emotionally while driving action. It should touch people's hearts, ignite their desires, and ultimately deliver measurable business results."

The combination he describes, emotional connection and measurable outcome, is one that appears repeatedly in the work that performs best at the International Brilliance Awards™. Entries that present data without context tend to feel thin. Entries that present context without data tend to feel unsubstantiated. The strongest submissions hold both together.

Brilliance Is Consistency at a High Level

Dani Bassin, Chief Content Officer at 10 Group, makes a point that distinguishes the organisations that win repeatedly from those that win once.

"Brilliance is about consistency at a high level. It is not one standout piece of work but the ability to repeatedly deliver strong thinking, high-quality output, and real results. That is what builds trust, relationships, and long-term success. That is what gives awards real integrity."

This has a direct implication for how organisations approach entry writing. A single exceptional quarter is worth less in context than a clear pattern of strong performance. Where the evidence supports it, entries that show trajectory — what the organisation has built, maintained, and improved over time — tend to be more persuasive than those that present a single peak result.

Brilliance Is Something You Recognise When You See It

Andrew Burrell, Head of Portfolio Marketing at Nokia, acknowledges the limits of definition while still saying something precise.

"Brilliance is something that you know when you see it, but defining it is a little harder. I would say that it is something different that you have not seen before. Something that catches your attention and makes you think. Something that might look a bit odd at first, but after reflection makes perfect sense."

That last phrase is worth holding onto: odd at first, but after reflection makes perfect sense. It describes work that took genuine courage to commission or execute — work that was not the obvious answer, but that turned out to be the right one. Those are often the entries that judges remember.

Brilliance Is Scalable, Real-World Impact

Madhuri Latha Gondi, iOS Technical Lead at Carnival Cruise, speaks from a technology and delivery background and focuses on what distinguishes genuinely impressive work from work that is merely technically competent.

"Brilliance is the ability to translate complex ideas into scalable, real-world impact. True brilliance lies in building solutions that combine technical excellence with strong cross-functional collaboration to deliver meaningful outcomes at scale."

She is specific about what she looks for as a judge:

"The most outstanding work demonstrates clarity of purpose, strong collaboration, and the ability to create lasting value."

Clarity of purpose is worth emphasising here. Many entries describe complex work in complex language. The entries that land are often those that can state, in plain terms, what they were trying to achieve, why it mattered, and what actually happened.

Brilliance Is Solving the Right Problem, Executed with Discipline

Prof. Dr. M. Amr Sadik, Group Chief Human Resources Officer at Katakit, brings the group to a close with a definition that ties together many of the threads above.

"Brilliance is the ability to translate insight into sustained, scalable impact. It is not about complexity, sophistication, or even innovation alone. True brilliance lies in solving the right problem, executing with discipline, and delivering measurable and lasting value. Often, the most brilliant solutions are not the most complex, but the most precisely designed and consistently executed."

Solving the right problem. That phrase carries more weight than it might first appear. Many organisations work hard, execute well, and deliver real results — but on a problem that was not quite the right one. The organisations that consistently perform well in business awards programmes tend to be those that identified clearly what needed to change and directed their energy accordingly.

What This Means If You Are Considering Entering

Ten judges, ten industries, ten definitions — and a set of consistent themes running through all of them.

Brilliance in business is evidenced, not claimed. It is ethical, not just profitable. It is durable, not just impressive in the moment. It involves doing the right thing under real conditions, with incomplete information, in circumstances that were genuinely difficult. And it is usually simpler to explain than the people who did it expect.

If the work your organisation has delivered in the past year reflects any of those qualities, the Business Brilliance Awards exist to recognise it.

The Entry Kit sets out the full list of categories, the judging criteria for each, and the evidence requirements. It is free to request.

The Business Brilliance Awards form part of the International Brilliance Awards™, operated by BOC Global Events and Training Group. Company Registration No. 07660435. Registered in England and Wales. Celebrating excellence since 2014.