Employee Involvement Association:Home

Idea of the Year Competition
60th Annual Conference
Comments by Cyndi McCabe
EIA President - 1991 & 1992
On behalf of Kathy Bogan and Carol Stupica, thank for giving us the opportunity to judge this competition.

It was our privilege to deliberate over outstanding ideas from organizations that cared enough about the global business community to share their best practices and the dream and the passion for employee innovation.

We reviewed over 50 ideas individually and as a team and ultimately decided on finalists for:

Customer service
Environmental impact
Process improvement
Financial impact
Safety
Technical improvements

We would like to offer a little advice to the nominators of Ideas submissions for 2003:
If you would like your suggestors to make the short list next year, you may wish to:
- Coach them on their submissions
- Do more than photocopy the original suggestions - retype the suggestions to make it easier for the judges to read
- Help your suggestor so as to be able to tell the judges why this is a good idea- what is the impact?
Now, more about the finalists.
Over the last two days your judging team listened to nine outstanding presentations, the best of the best, that represents golden examples of innovation and creativity.

We heard about:

Commitment to the environment
Concern for the customer
Concern for the safety of their teammates
Desire to increase their organization's competitive advantage

After listening to and analyzing these presentations, it became clear to us that there was one idea that was head and shoulders above the rest, an overall winner:

A suggestion that had a financial impact, that demonstrated customer responsiveness, that represented process improvement. Who is that person or persons? You will find out soon.

We are here at this Conference to learn more about stimulating the passion for employee involvement, to catch the dream of employee innovation. From listening to these finalists, they are already infected with that passion and commitment. I don't know about you, but personally, I hope that it is contagious!

EIA
525 SW 5th Street, Suite A
Des Moines, IA 50309