You've been busy this year. The holidays are officially over and it’s back to work. Whatever the reason, you haven’t gotten around to submitting entries to the 2016 American Business Awards. But you've gotten a reprieve. We are going to show you how to submit entries to the ABAs in 10 minutes. The entry deadline of The American Business Awards, the preeminent business awards program in the U.S.A., is this coming Thursday, February 18. Submit your entries through Thursday to avoid late fees.

We know, you're still busy. Your calendar this week is still chock full. But surely you can find some time during your lunch break to prepare your submission. Because in 10 minutes you can prepare and submit an entry to the ABAs and potentially win a Stevie®, one of the most coveted trophies on the planet.

Here are a number of ways you can do that.

Repurpose Nominations From Other Awards Programs
The submission requirements for the ABAs are fairly open-ended, and there's a wide variety of categories to choose from. If you've entered any other awards programs this year, simply repurpose the nominations you wrote for those competitions for the ABAs. Most categories require only the submission of an essay of up to 650 words and a bullet-list summary of the achievements portrayed in the essay. It should be fairly easy to reconfigure your other awards nominations for the ABAs.

Repurpose Your Press Releases and White Papers
It's likely you've already done the heavy-lifting of describing your organization's achievements, your innovations, your new products and services, your marketing and PR campaigns, etc. Throughout the year you've been trumpeting your successes through press releases and white papers. Simply comb through your output over the past year and cobble together the text you've already written into a short essay. Note that the 2016 ABAs will recognize your achievements since the beginning of 2015.

Repurpose Your Press Clippings
With every ABA nomination you have the option to attach any number of press clippings, work samples, video clips, photographs, etc. to your essay, to help paint the picture for the judges. Does one or more of your press clippings feature a compelling story that can be the basis of the essay for your ABA nomination? There's no need to reinvent the wheel if it already exists and you can reuse it.

Hire a Consultant
Did you know that there are a number of consultancies that specialize in preparing and submitting awards nominations on behalf of their clients? There are quite a few in the U.S.A., and they've been remarkably successful over the years in winning Stevie Awards for their clients. Contact us if you'd like a referral to one of them who can take the process of getting entries into the ABAs off your hands this week.

Submit Media Work
Most often people think of business awards as recognizing a member of management or a member of your team. The American Business Awards has categories for a broad range of achievements including videos, apps, websites, publications, and live events. It's really easy to enter these categories. These categories generally require only a short essay of up to 125 words, describing the nominated work's purpose and results to date, and the nominated video or app, etc., itself.

Resubmit a Nomination From Another Stevie Awards Program
Did you have success with a nomination in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, or the Stevie Awards for Women in Business? One Stevie Awards competition has nothing to do with another, and resubmitting a nomination from one program to this year's ABAs is a valid strategy followed by many organizations.

Contact Us for Help
You'll save a lot of time by letting us do some of the important work for you. We'll save you the trouble of plowing through our category lists to find the category that's right for you, for example. Contact us, by email at help@stevieawards or telephone at +1 703-547-8389. Tell us what your organization wants to be recognized for, and we'll suggest the best category for your nomination.

Whichever strategy you choose to get your ABA nominations written and submitted,  be sure to submit through February 18 to avoid late fees!

Ready to enter The 2016 American Business Awards?  Begin here:

Wolfram Winter of Sky Deutschland GmbH in Bavaria, Germany, is Chair of the Committee to judge the Public Relations Awards, Video Awards and Publication Awards categories in the 2016 (2nd annual) German Stevie Awards.

He was named Executive of the Year in the Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Public Relations categories of the 2015 German Stevie Awards; and under his leadership, Sky Deutschland won a Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year-Media & Entertainment in the Company/Organization Awards categories of The 2015 International Business Awards.

The German Stevie Awards final entry deadline is February 12. Find out more here.

The 2016 International Business Awards opened this month and is now accepting entries. Find out more about how to enter here.

Wolfram Winter is Executive Vice President of Communications, Public Affairs & Advertising Sales at Sky Deutschland GmbH, and is Managing Director of Sky Media GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sky Deutschland. Winter is a senior spokesperson for the entertainment group and is responsible for the marketing of advertising time on all Sky platforms.

The Importance of Awards Competitions

As a winner of Gold Stevie Awards in both the German Stevie Awards and the International Business Awards in 2015, we asked Wolfram what he felt made it important to participate in these competitions.

“Competitions such as the Stevie Awards are like fashion runways for agencies and businesses: you get up there and showcase your best work. Awards competitions provide an opportunity for the most creative minds in the industry to show off their best work, cases, and campaigns. Plus, they provide an excellent opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and for active networking.”

The Judging Process

As Chair of one of the 2016 Judging Committees, we asked Wolfram for his comments on the experience of judging submissions to the 2016 German Stevie Awards so far. He told us that he had been deeply impressed by the range of companies that had entered as well as the high quality of the submissions. “The effectiveness and original thinking demonstrated by some of the participants has been remarkable,” he explained. “And these are precisely the qualities essential for any successful PR or Marketing campaign.”

Judging of the German Stevie Awards opened on February 5 and will continue through February 19. If you would like to participate, complete the application here.

What To Do

We asked Wolfram what he thought constituted a successful awards submission. “First, a nomination should meet the awards criteria—that’s essential. Then, it’s important to stand out from the other nominations through creativity and originality, and if possible to give the jury that “Aha Moment”—something which only ever happens with a few, really good applications.”

What Not To Do

On the flip side, we asked Wolfram what he saw as the most common mistakes made by companies entering awards competitions. “Participants often fail simply in the basic requirements,” he observed. “For a submission to be successful it should be clearly structured with detailed responses to all the given questions. That might seem obvious, but in practice often gets overlooked.”

“Another common mistake: assuming too much. When submitting an entry that a jury is going to have to read and evaluate, remember that it is often difficult for the judge to recognize and understand what is so special about a campaign or project. A clear, brief explanation of the core information can help tremendously.”

“In conclusion: Keep it simple. And short wouldn’t hurt, either!”

Looking ahead, we asked Wolfram what he expected of the 2017 German Stevie Awards. His gnomic response: “Disruption.”

About Wolfram Winter:

Wolfram Winter is Executive Vice President Communications, Public Affairs & Advertising Sales at Sky Deutschland and Managing Director of Sky Media GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of Sky Deutschland. With a degree in political science and training in journalism, he is responsible for representing the entertainment company as its senior spokesperson as well as the advertising sales business across all Sky platforms.

In 2007, he founded Premiere Star GmbH, a distribution platform for the pay-TV broadcaster, which was completely acquired by Sky Deutschland in 2009. Before that, he served as Managing Director of NBC Universal Global Networks Deutschland, where he oversaw television activities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Prior to that, he was the programming manager of DF1, a predecessor of Sky Deutschland GmbH.

Follow Wolfram Winter on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/wolframwinter

About Sky Deutschland:

With 4.5 million customers and annual revenues in the amount of approximately 1.8 billion Euros, Sky is the pay-TV market leader in Germany and Austria. The program offering at Sky includes live sport, films, series, kids’ channels, and documentaries. Sky Deutschland, with its headquarter in Unterföhring near Munich, is part of Sky plc, Europe’s leading entertainment group. More than 21.5 million customers in five countries are watching the exclusive Sky programs whenever and wherever they want (Status: 31 December 2015). For more information, go to www.sky.de

We are pleased to announce that the new Stevie® Awards websites are live.  The new websites make learning about each of the Stevie Awards programs much easier  – from requesting an entry kit to viewing the lists of categories. Check out the sites on your laptop or tablet today at www.StevieAwards.com.

Here's a rundown of features on the new sites:

Same Function, New Design

For those of you who have been using the Stevie Awards websites for years and don’t want to re-learn how to navigate the sites, you're in luck. Those of you who thought the old sites were hard to use are also in luck. The basic functions of the sites haven't changed, and most of the tools are similarly placed throughout each site. They were designed to be much more user friendly and easier to read. All of the most important tools for submitting nominations, contacting us, etc. are now in a pullout bar on each page of the website, so you never feel lost. This brings us to our next feature…

What Do You Want to Do? Tool

We think this is the most useful new feature for many reasons. All of the main tools you need for learning about and submitting entries to the Stevie Awards competitions are now available to you at all times, no matter which webpage you are on. On the left-hand side of the page, you will notice a collapsed menu labeled “What Do You Want To Do?” When you expand the menu the following options are always available:

• Get The Entry Kit
• Schedule (text message) Reminders
• Submit Entries
• Apply to Be A Judge
• Purchase Tickets
• Become a Sponsor
• Contact Us

This menu will follow you up and down, and across, every page of a Stevie Awards site.

Logging In

Before the sites were updated, you were only able to login to your Stevie Awards account from the homepage of each Stevie Award program website. Now, at the top of each and every page you will see an account login space for both entrants and judges. *Note – the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards site was not updated in the same way as the other five sites because it is newer and offers multiple language options. It is still very user friendly.

Current and Forthcoming Award Cycle

The competition calendars, labeled "Current and Forthcoming Award Cycle", with entry deadlines, finalist and winner announcements, and event dates are now available in a large chart at the bottom of each Stevie Awards homepage. You are also able to keep track of important dates by scheduling text message reminders.

Text Message Reminders

You now have the option to opt-in to receive reminders about Stevie Awards entry deadlines via text message. Each Stevie Awards homepage includes a Schedule Reminders feature.

Tablets and Desktops

The Stevie Awards websites are now optimized for both tablets and desktops! This means you can request entry kits, login to your account, edit and submit your entries, sign up for text reminders, and more while on the go. Even judges will now be able to better participate while on the go!

Questions about the new Stevie Award websites? Contact us.

Today the Stevie® Awards opened entries for The 13th Annual International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition, which attracts nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations and territories each year.

All individuals and organizations worldwide -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small -- may submit nominations to The International Business Awards. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is 13 April. The final entry deadline is 11 May. Late entries will be accepted through 15 June with payment of a late fee. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

An international judging panel of more than 200 executives will determine the Stevie Award winners. Results will be announced in mid-August. Stevie Award winners will be presented their awards at a gala banquet in Rome, Italy on 21 October.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

• Management Awards 
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards 
• Human Resources Awards 
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards 
• New Product Awards 
• Public Relations Awards 
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

A variety of new categories are introduced for the 2016 competition including Technology PR Campaign / Program of the Year, and Re-Branding / Brand Renovation of the Year. The 34 Company of the Year categories have each been split into three categories, based on company size (small, medium-size, and large).

Stevie Award winners in the 2015 IBAs included ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller (United Arab Emirates), AT&T Inc. (USA), Bacardi Limited (Bermuda), Bahrain National Gas Company (Bahrain), Bell Helicopter (USA), Calik Energy (Turkey), Coca-Cola Icecek (Turkey) DHL Express (worldwide), Epicor Software Corporation (USA), Freelancer.com (Australia), Girl Scouts of the USA, iFinance Canada, Llorente & Cuenca (Spain), M3 Communications Group (Bulgaria), Ooredoo (Qatar), PR Telekomunikasi (Indonesia), RheinBrücke IT Consulting (Germany). Ribose Inc. (Hong Kong), Roshan (Afghanistan), and WNS Global Services Pvt. Ltd. (India), among others.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

The Stevie Awards are delighted to announce the seven distinguished professionals who will chair the final judging committees of the 2016 (10th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service competition.

The Stevie Awardsfor Sales & Customer Service are the world's top sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, contact center awards, and more.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie placements from among the Finalists will be determined in final judging, which is ongoing  Results will be announced at the 10th annual awards dinner in Las Vegas on March 4.  Tickets are on sale now.

The seven committee chair selections are based on the categories being judged. Final judging chairs helped to form their committees, each of which will be comprised of 5-20 other executives.  Here are this year's final judging committee chairs.

SALES TEAM/SALES ACHIEVEMENT/SERVICE PROVIDER
Chair: Rob Jeppsen, Senior Vice President & General Manager, HireVue Accelerate
HireVue, Inc., South Jordan, Utah

Rob Jeppsen is a senior executive at HireVue, a fast-growth technology company that is launching a game-changing tool for Sales Leaders worldwide, and aims to revolutionize how sales leaders coach their teams and develop the world's greatest sales teams. Prior to joining HireVue, Rob was the SVP of Sales at Zions Bank from 2005 to 2015, where he helped lead a team of about 300 commercial bankers in a full-service offering of products to help grow and manage businesses.

Rob loves moving the Sales needle and has worked for, and consulted with, many organizations on sales, sales processes, leadership development, and the commercialization of new products and services, with emphasis on the technology and financial services sectors. Rob also enjoys building and driving growth of emerging organizations. He sees relationship development, business development, marketing, and corporate strategy as key ways to engineer value in organizations.

Rob is invited to speak at over 100 events each year. His 6-course training series, The Business Performance Series, was recognized as "Sales Training Curriculum of the Year"​ in the 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and has been successfully taught to over 900 businesses. Since 2007, Rob has received 15 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service in categories such as Sales Team of the Year, Sales Coaching Program of the Year, Sales Process of the Year, Sales Director of the Year, and Senior Sales Executive of the Year.

SALES DISTINCTION/NEW PRODUCT & SERVICE
Chair: Mike Hart, Vice President, Sales, Lennox Residential
Lennox Industries, Inc., Richardson, Texas

Mike Hart serves as the Vice President of Sales for the residential division of Lennox International. Mike joined Lennox in 1994 and is responsible for leading the residential sales, business development, national account, and customer service teams in the United States and Canada.

Mike has over 30 years of experience in sales, sales leadership, brand management, distribution, retail, general management, M&A, operations, and coaching with multiple brands and channels in the heating and air conditioning manufacturing industry. Mike also volunteers as a board member of the Air Conditioning Heating Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) Education and Training Committee. He also contributes as a board member on the sales advisory board and the marketing advisory board at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Mike has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Marketing from the University of Maryland, and a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. He spends his time mentoring and developing his team, profitably growing and exceeding sales, margin, and earnings objectives, implementing effective people processes, creating a culture of growth, accountability and teamwork, improving productivity and efficiency, providing effective sales leadership and coaching, as well as exceeding market share objectives. His 762 member sales team is responsible for $1.65B in revenue.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCCESS & CUSTOMER SERVICE/CONTACT CENTER ACHIEVEMENT
Chair: Jo Wimble-Groves, Business Support Director
Active Digital, Lamberhurst, Kent, United Kingdom

Jo Wimble-Groves is a Director of the successful Kent-based company Active Digital, an award-winning business mobile communications company. Jo has spent the last 20 years of her career working on customer experience and team strategy. Her commitment to delivering an exceptional level of service and building her successful team has led to a number of European and global awards.

Since starting the company aged just 16, Jo credits her success to an innate passion, dedication, and zeal for business, along with an intuitive ability to identify good opportunities. Jo was voted “35 under 35” in Management Today magazine in 2010. Active Digital also named one of the “Top 6 Customer Service Business Leaders in Europe” at the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards in 2013. The company also won the Gold Stevie Award for Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year - Technology Industries in the 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Established in 1996, Active Digital clients include Olympic teams and rugby clubs. Its core business is providing mobiles, tablets, fixed line, and apps to UK organizations of all sizes.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/CONTACT CENTER INDIVIDUAL
Chair: Michael Anthony, Managing Director
OnForce (a division of Beeline), Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Michael D. Anthony is General Manager of OnForce, a strategic business unit of Beeline. He is an innovative leader with more than 20 years of experience in the technical services industry. He is a passionate customer advocate who believes that a client-focused culture is the key to growing a successful business.

Michael joined Beeline in 2005 and recently transitioned from his role as VP, Client Services with Beeline to lead the OnForce business unit. Michael is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematical economics from the State University of New York at Oswego.

SALES INDIVIDUAL/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Chair: Jackie Coffey, CHIE, Vice President, Telemarketing
GuideWell Connect, Jacksonville, Florida

As Vice President of Telemarketing, Jackie Coffey is responsible for the overall direct-to-consumer telesales capability serving numerous clients in the health care vertical for GuideWell Connect. Coffey leads the multi-channel sales contact center specializing in new acquisition, welcome programs and retention for Medicare, Under 65, small group, and ancillary products.

Prior to GuideWell Connect, Jackie worked with Florida Blue for 22 years holding leadership positions in sales, marketing, and communications with Florida Blue. Before Florida Blue, Jackie held advertising and marketing positions with Shepherd Advertising Group, Mease Hospital, and other health care companies.

Coffey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Tampa, and she is a Certified Call Center Manager through Purdue University’s College of Call Center Excellence. Coffey is a Certified Health Insurance Executive (CHIE) and a 2013-14 graduate of the Executive Leadership Program sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans. In The 2014 International Business Awards, Jackie won the Bronze Stevie Award for Executive of the Year–Health Products & Services.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/CONTACT CENTER TEAM
Chair: Kadir Mustafa Öztürk, Executive Vice President, Alternative Delivery Channels & Digital Banking Projects
Intertech A.Ş., Istanbul, Turkey

After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 2000, Kadir worked at various companies on website development. In 2003, he started at DenizBank A.Ş. as a software engineer. In 2005, Kadir joined Intertech A.Ş. as a software engineer, fulfilling his duties in Internet Banking and Web Projects at Alternative Distribution Channels Department. He was named ADC Department Head in July 2010. In this position he has led many successful projects in Internet/Mobile Banking and CRM fields.

In August 2012, Kadir was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President in charge of ADC and Digital Banking Projects at Intertech A.Ş. He is responsible for Channel Management, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, ATM and Kiosks, Call Center, User Experience, and Design Teams under the globally awarded inter-Vision product of Intertech A.Ş. He is currently running local and international banking projects.

Kadir is married with two children. He enjoys spending his leisure time on world cinema and history of moviemaking.

CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT
Chair: Rebecca V. Eclipse, Chief Customer Experience Officer, 
Globe Telecom, Inc., Bonifacio Global City, The Philippines

Rebecca V. Eclipse is the Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Experience Officer of Globe Telecom, Inc., and heads the Office of Strategy Management and Customer Experience.  

Responding to the speed of change and evolution of the telecommunications space, Rebecca draws wisdom and insight from 5 years in consulting and over 25 years of experience in the telco industry–from financial management, revenue assurance and fraud, internal controls, and business operations to strategy development and management, process and quality management,and, more importantly today, customer experience transformation.

Consumers the world over now have an opportunity to tell the world’s best providers of customer service just how much they love them, by voting at https://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com in the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service.

This worldwide public vote is open through February 12, with the highest number of votes deciding the winners in 13 industry categories. All organizations honored in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories of this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are candidates for the people’s choice awards.

Winners will receive the coveted crystal People’s Choice Stevie Award at a gala ceremony in Las Vegas on March 4. Industry categories include:

• Computer Hardware and Services
• Computer Services
• Computer Software (<100 employees)
• Computer Software (100+ employees)
• Distribution & Transportation
• Financial Services (<100 employees)
• Financial Services (100+ employees)
• Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals
• Leisure & Tourism
• Public Services & Education
• Retail
• Telecommunications.
• All Other Industries

All customers, employees, fans, and followers of the nominated organizations are invited to vote.

Nicknamed the Stevie® for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at the 10^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service on Friday, March 4 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tickets for the event are now on sale. More than 450 executives from around the world are expected to attend.

The organizer of the world’s leading business awards programs invites you to submit nominations to the 2016 (second annual) German Stevie Awards. Welcoming nominations from all organizations with operations in Germany, the final entry deadline is five days away on Tuesday, January 26.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

The German Stevie Awards is the second national Stevie Awards program, after the 14-year-old American Business Awards.  The first German Stevie Awards was a great success. “In 2015 we received a great variety of compelling entries from organizations all over Germany. We look forward to even more companies and individuals being recognized for their innovations this year”, said Michael Gallagher, the president and founder of the Stevie Awards.

The German Stevie Awards welcome nominations from all organizations operating in Germany – large and small, for-profit and non-profit, publicly-held and privately-held - with a wide range of categories to choose from, including

• Company of the Year awards
• Management awards
• Marketing awards
• Public relations awards
• Customer service awards
• Human resources awards
• IT awards
• New product awards
• App and website awards
• Video awards
  and more

New categories this year include Best E-Book and Best Business Book.  The Startup of the Year and Technology Startup of the Year categories have a small fee of only 35 Euros.

Judging for the competition will be conducted in two rounds.  The first round will determine Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners in each category.  Those winners will be announced on February 24 at a press conference.  All of the Gold Stevie Award winners will then compete in the second round of judging for the right to be named the Grand Stevie Award winner in their category groups.  Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners will be honored, and Grand Stevie Award winners announced, at a gala awards banquet in Munich at the Hotel Vier Jahrezeiten Kempinski on April 8, 2016.

Applications to judge the German Stevie Awards are still being accepted.  Those interested in participating in the judging process may also apply at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland. If your application is accepted, you will be assigned to a category based on your experience. As a judge you'll see how individuals and organizations are achieving success, and you'll receive a certificate of appreciation suitable for framing

Some of last year’s German Stevie Award winners included Black Lane GmbH, CCC, JUNIQE, Feingold Technologies GmbH, Emanate PR, Coca-Cola Germany, Sky Germany, SATTLER, and MID GmbH, among others.

To learn more about the German Stevie Awards, visit our Frequently Asked Questions webpage at http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/gsa/about/514_2923_24742.cfm.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

Finalists in the 10th Annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, an international competition recognizing excellence in disciplines that are crucial to business success, were announced today.    

A diverse group of organizations and individuals around the world are among those recognized in the customer service awards, contact center awards, business development awards, and sales awards categories. Organizations with five or more Finalist nominations include Carbonite, Inc., Cisco Systems, Delta Air Lines, DHL Express, Digital Risk, eMoney Advisor, LLC, GuideWell Connect, HomeServe USA, Human Resources Development Fund, iHeartMedia, Inc., John Hancock Financial Services, Lennox Industries, Inc., LiveWatch Security LLC, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, MTM Inc., Nuance Communications, Odeabank, Revana, Sales Partnerships, Inc., SoftPro, SurePayroll, Inc., Turkiye Is Bankasi A.S., Visualize, VIZIO, Inc., Wells Fargo, WePay Inc., and Wyndham Vacation Ownership. For a full list of Finalists by category, visit www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced during a gala banquet on Friday, March 4 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tickets are now on sale.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows including the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards.

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition, an increase of 11% over 2015. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 115 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges. Entries were considered in 59 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Consulting Practice of the Year; more than 50 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Business Development Achievement of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

More than 60 members of seven specialized judging committees will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to begin January 25.

Beginning today through February 12, the general public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service in the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service. Voting is open at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com. Winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards in multiple industries will be determined in mid-February and honored at the awards gala in Las Vegas on March 4.

Sponsors of the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships and ValueSelling Associates.

The following professionals participated in preliminary-round judging of the 10th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service from November 2015 to January 2016.  Their average scores determined the Finalists in the sales awards, contact center awards, business development awards, and customer service awards categories.  We thank them for their time, insights and interest.

Finalists will be announced tomorrow (January 21), and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists announced during a gala banquet at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas on Friday, March 4.  Tickets are now on sale.

Asburche Adalan, Sr. Manager, Business & Sales Development, DHL Express USA, Plantation, FL USA
Maryam Alhashmi, Deputy Representative of Quality, Fujairah Police GHQ, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
Amal Al-Najjar, HR Manager, FLUOR / FDH JV, Ahmadi, Kuwait
Yeshiyah Amariel, Executive Consultant, Initiated Marketing, Chicago, IL USA
Tirupathi Anand, Strategy Advisor, Motivaluate Consulting & Training, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
David Araujo, DP DHL, DHL Express, São Paulo, Brazil
Heather Arthur, Director, Business Care, Rogers Communications Inc., Brampton, ON, Canada
David Ashton, Chief Revenue Officer, Jonckers, Boulder, CO USA
Tristan Averett, Associate Manager, Allscripts, Salem, OR USA
Jamal Ayyad, Vice President- Service Delivery, SurePayroll, Glenview, IL USA
Stuart Bankey, Manager, Community Management, Rackspace, Windcrest, TX USA
Nick Broadbent, VP Global Support, DataCore Software, Reading, GA USA
Steve Butler, Vice President, CXACT, Arlington, VA USA
Pembe Candaner, Founder, President, Pro-To-Cool, Istanbul, Turkey
Lucia Caron, Manager, Customer Support, Verint Systems Inc., Herndon, VA USA
Beth Castro, AVP - Commercial Enablement, AT&T, Energy Business Solutions, Dallas, TX USA
Deepak Chawla, Vice President of Worldwide Support, Nutanix, Fremont, CA USA
Lebin Ebru Cokisler, Head of Corporate Communications, ANADOLU GROUP, Istanbul, Turkey
Jeanne Conger, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing Operations, Rausch Coleman Homes, Fayetteville, AR USA
Jason Copeland, Vice President - Sales, SurePayroll, Inc., Glenview, IL USA
Tom Cross, CEO, TECHtionary, Boulder, CO, USA
John Cushman, Vice President & Chief Business Strategist, Tech Mahindra, Dallas, TX USA
Amjad Daoud, Program Coordinator - Archival Program, Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates
Churchill Dass Prince, Founder & CEO, Sales Intelligence Services, Inc, Silver Spring, MD USA
Karla Davis, General Manager, Plantation Resort, Surfside Beach, SC USA
Robyn Davis, Owner, When I Need Help, Columbia, SC USA
Luis Deza, General Manager, Canto Rodado Consulting, Miraflores Lima, Peru
Brent Dierking, Director, Business Development/Strategic Planning, NorthStar EMS, Birmingham, AL USA
Liliya Dimitrova, Customer Service Manager, Provident Financial Bulgaria, Bulgaria
Sheryl Dobson, Director of Customer Support, J2 Global Cloud Services, Customer Support, Ottawa, ON Canada
Teresa Dos Santos, Director, Business Interiors, Pensacola, FL USA
Alan Dowler, Operations Manager, Hamilton Jewelers, Princeton, NJ USA
Eve Dumovich, Publisher, Snowline Publishing, Ashford, WA USA
Laura Edgerton, Director, US Marketing, Manulife Asset Management, Boston, MA USA
Jessica Eker, Senior VP, Global Life Sciences Practice, Transperfect, New York, NY USA
Ed Ellsasser, President, PrimeGroup Insurance, Tampa, FL USA
Andrew J. Filipowski, Executive Chairman & CEO, SilkRoad Technology, Winston Salem, NC USA
Osman Firat, Customer Lifecycle Management Director, B/S/H Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey
Mark Fleming, Performance Manager, Delta Air Lines, Sales Support, Minneapolis, MN USA
William Garrick, Vice President, OptumRx, Costa Mesa, CA USA
Stephen Gill, President, Stephen Gill Associates, Derby, United Kingdom
Allison Golsby, CEO, ConsultMine, Brisbane, QLD Australia
Jeanine Greer, Inside Sales Representative, En Pointe Technologies, Chicago, IL USA
Robert Gregory, Senior Director - Hosting Support, GoDaddy, Scottsdale, AZ USA
Ankush Gupta, Vice President - Marketing, QEDBaton Enabled Services Pvt Ltd, Pune, India
Nabyl Hassain, Director Telesales Americas, DHL Global Forwarding, Miami, FL USA
Mary Henson, Membership Care Coordinator, United States Equestrian Federation, Customer Care Center, Lexington, KY USA
Phillip Horvath, Senior VP - Professional Services, Merchant Partners, Redmond, WA USA
Ozan Hunler, Senior Account Manager, AkzoNobel Coatings, Automotive and Aerospace Coatings Izmir, Izmir, Turkey
Linden Ingram, Executive VP Sales, Imparta Inc, Austin, TX USA
Jaimon Jacob, Associate Director - Customer Service & Business Excellence, UAE Exchange Centre LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mary Beth Jenkins, Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA USA
Becky Johns, Senior Vice President, MarketBridge, Bethesda, MD USA
Rod Jones, Chairman, Strategy to Revenue, Farnham Common, Bucks, United Kingdom
JoAnn Kay, Customer Care Director, GraduationSource, Port Chester, NY USA
Umut Kececioglu, Mobile Services Manager, Yapi Kredi Bank, Turkey
Joshua Kelley, Supervisor, Leadership Operations Training, MTM, Inc., West St Paul, MN USA
Lynn Kiser, Manager, Customer Service, MedCost, Winston-Salem, NC USA
Sandra Lynch, Account Manager, John Hancock, Boston, MA USA
Scott MacGregor, Founder & President, SomethingNew, LLC, Madison, CT USA
David Madacsi, Senior Technical Customer Support Engineer, GrassValley, Lakewood, CO USA
Omar Martínez, Human Resources Manager, DHL Express, Mexico
Wessam Massoud, Programme Delivery Manager, Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Center (ADSIC), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Rowena Maxwell, Senior Manager, Accenture, London, United Kingdom
Serkan Memisoglu, Manager, Forte Consultancy Group Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Altug Merhap, Senior VP, DenizBank Turkey, DenizBank Genel Müdürlügü, Istanbul, Turkey
Judy Mod, Founder, CEO, & Chief Adoption Officer, RevenueSphere, Atlanta, GA USA
Thomas Moor, Global Director, Strategy and Planning, Sartomer (a business unit of Arkema), Exton, PA USA
Heather Moreland, Commercial Services Executive, Brett Martin, Newtownabbey, Antrim, United Kingdom
Ann Moreth, Sr. Customer Service Engagement Manager, UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA USA
Zine Moufakir, Global Sales & Key Account Development Manager, 3M Global Sales Operations, Maplewood, MN USA
Pat Mussieux, Founder, Steps2Happiness Inc., London, ON Canada
Tracy Neiser, Customer Service Manager, Active Exhaust Corp, Toronto, ON Canada
Leticia Padilla, Corporate Recognition and Citizenship, Concentrix, Fremont, CA, USA
Tracy Parco, Director of Training, East West Bank, El Monte, CA USA
Leslie Phillips, Channel & Product Support Manager, GoDaddy, Customer Care Center, Scottsdale, AZ US
Dennis Reno, Senior VP, Customer Service, Proofpoint, Inc., Customer Services, Sunnyvale, CA USA
Peter Rifkind, VP, Client Services, UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions, Inc, New York, NY USA
Bruce Rosenblatt, Senior Housing Consultant, BR Consulting Group, Bonita Springs, FL USA
Sharon Rudd, Organisational Development & Sales Consultant, TNT, Mascot, NSW Australia
Jeremy Santiago, Senior Manager, Cisco, Global Virtual Sales Organization, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Paula Seeger, Information Support Specialist Sr, ASU Libraries, Tempe, AZ USA
Randy Selleck, Sr. Director, Call Center Operations, Assurant Solutions, Atlanta, GA USA
Priyanka Shah, Vice President, BNY Mellon, Albridge, USA
Dr. Shih Wei Sheu, China Zhi Gong Party:Jiangsu Explore Award, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Karishma Singh, Manager - Business Analyst, Fareportal, Gurgaon Haryana, India
Bella Slade, Consultant, Accenture, Financial Services, London, United Kingdom
Calvin St Juste, Customer Care Executive, CapitalOne, Retail Banking, Ellicott City, MD USA
Alec Stern, Founding Team, Vice President Strategic Innovation, Constant Contact, Waltham, MA USA
Michel Stevens, Senior Consultant, Futurelab, Willebroek, Belgium
Manfred Stockmann, President, Call Center Verband Deutschland e. V., Berlin, Germany
Joshua Strahler, Support Center Manager, Network Alliance, Parkersburg, WV USA
Lori Sullivan, Senior Director, Planning & Logistics, Phoenix Brands, Stamford, CT USA
Rochelle Sutton, Specialist, Customer Experience Management, Accenture, Financial Services, Tarvin, Chester, England
Kate Talbot, Director of Communications, Klick Communications, Santa Monica, CA USA
Anika Tannebaum, Head of Customer Service, Brands4friends, eBay inc., Berlin, Germany
Will Tarrant, Managing Partner, Service Metrics Group, Plano, TX USA
Özge Tekalp, Director, Türk Ekonomi Bankasi A.S - Alternative Sales Channels, Istanbul, Turkey
Rachael Thomas, Consultant, Accenture, Scotland, United Kingdom
Julie Thomas, President and CEO, ValueSelling Associates, Rancho Santa Fe, CA USA
Thomas Thuerling, Customer Service Consultant, Serviceberatung Thuerling, Germany
Emily Truslow, Annuity Customer Service Manager, Securian Financial Group, St Paul, MN USA
Irem Tüzünalper, Founder & CEO, EXTRA Loyalty Solutions Co. Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
Richard Tyrrell-Ead, Director, Grass Valley Customer Services, Lakewood, CO USA
Lori Van Dyke, Manager, Customer Care, Access One Inc, Chicago, IL USA
Patrick Van Tolhuyzen, Independent Consultant, Antwerp, Belgium
Naveen Venkat PV, Director - Support Services, Replicon Inc., Bangalore, Karnataka India
William Wade, VP Business Operations, Synapse Group Inc., Stamford, CT USA
Sunil Wadhwa, VP - Customer Success, Druva, Sunnyvale, CA USA
Jim Wagstaff, Managing Director, Jam Factory, Pte. Ltd., Singapore
Charles White, Principal Administrator, International Relations Officer (retired), European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Lisa Woods, Product Manager, WIN, Madison, WI USA
Leanne Yenush, Non-Cash Compensation Manager, MFS Investment Management, Sales Compliance, Boston, MA USA
Claudia Zacharias, President & CEO, BOC, Pompano Beach, FL USA
Tarek Ziadeh, Customer Service Manager, DHL Express, DP DHL, Beirut, Lebanon

Jim Wagstaff is the Managing Director of Jam Factory Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based consulting and education technology firm. He is also an active judge for the 2016 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. In 2015, he participated in judging for the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

The 2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is currently accepting entries. Find out how to enter here.

We asked Jim about the Stevie Awards judging process, what it is like running a business in Singapore, and for his insight into the contrasts between working in Asia-Pacific and the West.

A Strong Endorsement

Jim would most definitely recommend being a Stevie Awards judge to others. As he told us: “I was initially invited to be a judge by someone who is a friend and colleague. The judging process really gives you a sense of the variety and creativity in how companies are approaching business challenges and opportunities in various parts of the world.”

Jim Wagstaff has called Singapore home since 2007. He had been living and working in Shanghai for a number of years when an opportunity to relocate to Singapore with Hewlett-Packard came up. Since 2010, he has been the Managing Director of Jam Factory in Singapore. We asked him about his decision to relocate to Singapore.

“There were a number of professional reasons I chose to move to Singapore,” Jim explained. “The job, the breadth of the role, and a promotion … but also, from a personal perspective, I really enjoy the quality of life in Singapore: the year-round warm weather, the food, the location, and the concentration of so many businesses’ regional headquarters in one city.”

The Asian Century

Jim is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in business administration with a research emphasis on cross-cultural leadership and organizational development. We asked him if he could provide us with some insight into differences between the ways companies operate in the Asia-Pacific region that Western businesses should be aware of (and vice versa).

Commented Jim: “As an American who has spent half my career in various cities in Asia, the need for cultural intelligence and cross-cultural leadership skills has been close to my heart for quite some time.”

“As a source of research, study, and practice during my doctoral studies, there are a few important points for anyone looking to do business internationally … but especially in Asia, or moving out from Asia,” continued Jim. “The twenty-first century has often been characterized as the ‘Asian Century.’ Rapid economic growth in East Asia has created opportunities and challenges for multinational corporations, particularly Western multinationals. Western businesses have largely been predisposed to using a “one-size-fits-all” approach to management in their international locations. This strategy can pose a number of particular cultural contradictions for team members in East Asia.”

Working Outside the Cultural Comfort Zone

“My research has uncovered a number of specific areas that can be used as a model for leadership development by local, regional, and global managers,” Jim explained. “The model centers on the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to align, relate, and communicate more effectively by anyone who needs to work within and outside their own cultural ‘comfort zone’ in a multinational environment–particularly as a local subsidiary of a Western multinational company.”

Solving the Tough Issues

With the start of a new year, we asked Jim what he most looked forward to in the year ahead. “I love working with my clients,” he told us. “Since moving out of HP, I have become an entrepreneur and an active board member in a number of companies. The variety of work and its challenges really keeps me motivated. I am constantly looking for opportunities to help my clients solve their toughest issues … cost, complexity, process, organization, leadership … and to put them in a better position to be successful in their markets.”

About Jim Wagstaff:

Jim Wagstaff is the Co-Founder, Managing Director, and Content Guru of The Jam Factory in Singapore. Jim leads the consulting part of the business, and has a wealth of experience in executive roles in various companies. He loves working with clients to help them identify their learning needs and map their plans so as to positively impact their business. He also leads content development, and has designed many training programs for different customers and industries.

Jim also serves as Managing Director of Renewtrak Asia, a fully managed, white-label renewals platform-as-a-service where the business model is 100% focused on helping clients increase their service contract renewals at no additional operational cost to the client. In addition, Jim is an active board member at Up 2 Speed Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based organization focused on crafting customized learning and development approaches for multinational and global companies.

Jim was previously Vice-President and General Manager of the StorageWorks Division for Hewlett Packard in Asia Pacific and Japan. His responsibilities while leading this business unit encompassed all aspects of the organization including sales, marketing, finance, operations, public relations and analyst relations, delivering around $800 million in revenue annually.

Prior to HP, Jim was at Dell in Shanghai, where he was General Manager of the server and storage business for China and Hong Kong. Jim was also responsible for Dell's alliance with EMC across Asia Pacific and Japan.

Jim has a BSc, an MBA, and is currently a doctoral researcher in the management school at the University of Liverpool with emphasis on the practical application of cross-cultural leadership approaches in multinational corporations. He is a runner and loves to travel.

About Jam Factory:

The Jam Factory enables businesses to enhance their workforce through training and development. Jam Factory provides learning and enablement solutions to businesses and professionals. The company believes in an integrated learning approach that is interactive and engages learners. It enables businesses to leverage technology to enable employees to learn, experience and engage. For more information, go to: www.jamfactory.net