ASIAN Sources Media (ASM) Group, the winner of this year's International Award, can truly claim to be a global organisation.
Founded 21 years ago by chairman Merle Hinrichs, the group began with just one general export magazine, titled Asian Sources . It had a staff of 10 in Hong Kong and a further 15 spread across the region.
The company is now Asia's largest trade publisher, employing more than 1,300 people in 29 countries, producing 29 publications in seven languages, and reaching more than 500,000 readers in 165 countries.
The cover of the first edition of Asian Sources had no flashy eye-catching picture but instead carried a copy of the company's mission statement.
It read in part: ''We believe that the cause for world peace through freedom from want is advanced by the establishment of long-lasting and mutually beneficial trade relations between private businessmen in the East and the West.
''We are firm enough in this conviction to speak out as we see fit against those elements we judge harmful to these relationships and to this cause, no matter what their association with this magazine.