The Innovation Award
CRITERIA
Is innovation or a culture of continual improvement at the heart your organisation? Has your business successfully challenged established market leaders or proved the commercial success of a new product, process, solution or service?
This award celebrates British innovation in all of its forms across the private, public and third sectors. Innovation has put the UK at the forefront of many industries, and helped it to create new ones.
This award will recognise organisations of all sizes and stages of scale that have successfully applied innovation.
Judges will be looking for evidence of how applied innovation, invention or improvement have had an exemplary impact on business, industry or community.
Open to all organisation’s operating across all sectors, this award will go to those who can best demonstrate the following:
- Innovation to solve a business, industry, societal challenge or open up a new market
- Proven commercial viability and success
- Strong business growth or social impact
- Culture of innovation or continual improvement
- Engaged customers & employees
- Effective management & visionary leadership
SCORING AND WEIGHTING
In this category judges will compare the extent to which each candidate has demonstrated excellence in the following areas:
- Employee & Customer Engagement
- Leadership & Innovation
- Organisational Ethics & Policies
- Financial Performance & Growth
PROPORTION OF OVERALL SCORING
20% Employee, 30% Leadership, 25% Organisational, 25% Financial
ENTRY STATEMENT
In a summary of no more than 350 words, please describe what your business does, the market in which it operates and what differentiates you from your competitors. Please include your key business achievements that are significant for your market sector or industry. (Please note that should you become a finalist the answer to this question will be used in external PR & Communications to explain who you are)
In no more than 1200 words, explain why you should win this award using the bullet points below as a guide:
- Employee & Customer Engagement 20%
- Explain how you have created a culture of innovation or continual improvement, invested in training or R&D, or brought customer / client feedback into your business to gain a competitive edge.
- Provide evidence and case study examples of how employees and key stakeholders have been recruited, retained, motivated, developed and optimised to enable innovation or deliver growth objectives.
- Provide case study examples and top line data to demonstrate how you have increased your customer base, generated more revenue from existing clients, or increased market penetration over the last 18 months.
- Leadership & Innovation 30%
- Demonstrate evidence of how innovation has been successfully implemented within the business, or for customers, and how this has contributed to your organisation’s success.
- Show us how the management structure and leadership philosophy of your company has enabled innovation or driven improvement in performance and employee engagement over the last year across the business.
- How have you optimised new technology, platforms or processes to innovate or improve customer delivery?
- Organisational Ethics & Policies 25%
- How are ethical, environmental or social impact policies or initiatives aligned with your approach to innovation or broader commercial objectives?
- How does your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion align with your overall ambition for the business and how does it support innovation or continual improvement?
- Explain how your ethical or diversity policy or sustainability strategy has improved employee / client attraction and retention.
- Financial Performance & Growth 25%
- Explain your key growth metrics, including financial targets, KPIs, timescales and overall ambitions plus examples of milestones and barriers/challenges that have been overcome.
- How do you benchmark against your peers in terms of sales, profitability or market share?
- How has your company performed against your growth plan and what will help you to sustain future growth?
- Show examples and/or case studies of any innovation or improvement that has supported, or will drive further, commercial success.
