"When we're doing work for a business often you won't see APR attached. We take a more deliberate approach of just focusing on the needs of the client. They are front and centre. We've been involved in a lot in Rotorua that you wouldn't even know about.''
Although the firm's base _ and it's heart _ are in Rotorua, APR has played a vital role for organisations around New Zealand.
"We wouldn't be the scale we are if we just worked in Rotorua so most of our work is in other parts of the country,'' said Mr Shaw.
Recent out-of-town projects include Northland's regional development strategy and strategic planning for the future of tertiary education for regions around the country.
But it was its commitment to its home town that won it the Rotorua Business Excellence award _ after Mr Shaw decided the social responsibility category was the perfect reason to step out of the shadows.
"I looked at it and I thought there's a strong resonance between the award and APR and I thought maybe it is time, because sometimes you do have to put your best foot forward.''
Mr Shaw, who is also the Lakes District Health Board chairman and sits on a number of other Rotorua boards, had previously been an awards judge so knew how valuable the process could be.
"It is very good to reflect on your business, you do need to do that,'' he said.
"You need to re-energise yourself. It's also really good for the team, they often toil away and don't necessarily see the benefits they accrue, it's a reflection of the commitment they have made.''
This year's judges commented that APR ``operates on a triple bottom line mandate which ensures its social development and environmental sustainability is beyond `business as usual'.''
"We've always done a lot of probono work in the community and we've always had a concessional rate for community organisations as well. We see it as part of making a contribution to the wider community,'' said Mr Shaw.
"From a business perspective it's really useful to have a range of dimensions in terms of clients and the work we do. So we do commercially focused work but at the same time a lot of the community projects we have worked on actually have quite a fundamental impact on Rotorua.''
He said APR has been involved behind the scenes in a number of projects, such as the millennium projects for the Rotorua Trust, the national cycleway and the Waikato/Bay of Plenty cycling centre of excellence. It supported the Rotorua Museum upgrade and is a sponsor of this year's Bay of Plenty Sports Awards.
"At the end of the day business has to benefit the community and there's a lot of ways in which it does that, obviously in terms of job creation, increased levels of wealth in the community, innovation in terms of product development, those sorts of things.
"But I've always taken a bit of a personal view it's a little bit wider than that. The fundamental things are about improving the level of wealth that sits in a community and I don't necessarily mean economic wealth, I mean social wealth and lots of other things that surround that.''
For the last 14 or 15 years APR has been heavily involved in the development of the Rotorua Sustainable Tourism Charter and the Sustainable Business Charter, which remains a high priority for Mr Shaw.
"The Sustainable Business Charter is quite important to Rotorua _ it's operational but it's only got 20-odd members so we want to grow it out. We do the work on that at a reduced rate, it's one of those things that it's really good to do,'' he said.
