• Scoop, a carpooling service, has prevented the release of more than 62 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by providing over 9 million trips to people across the United States
• Scoop is available in over 2,000 major cities including the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Los Angeles, Reno, Portland, and Detroit
• This carpooling service is the most sustainable in the industry—Scoop targets large employers, office parks, and government agencies to carpool efficiently, and the algorithm matches riders and drivers going in the same direction

About Scoop

Scoop is the largest carpooling solution in the country by creating more than 9 million trips on the road in major cities across the United States. Scoop partners with the world’s most forward-thinking businesses and organizations to offer an impactful carpool solution to their workforce.

Since launching in 2015, Scoop has become the definitive enterprise carpooling solution for employers. They have partnered with more than 55 innovative companies including LinkedIn, Workday, and T-Mobile to mitigate the impact of the daily commute on their workforces. Scoop operates in more than 2,000 cities across the country, with plans to expand to other major metro areas impacted by congestion caused by single occupant vehicle trips (SOVs). 

With over 9 million carpool trips to date, Scoop takes a unique approach with each city to build an extensive enterprise carpooling network that is cohesive with the city’s laws and workforce dynamics. 

Scoop does not focus  on individual riders and drivers, which has proven ineffective for making carpooling a viable commuting option. Instead, the company targets large employers, office parks, and government agencies to carpool efficiently and to offer carpooling as a workplace benefit. To match coworkers or neighbors going in the same direction, Scoop uses an algorithm based on prior trip feedback from drivers and riders, prescheduled pick-up times, and city-wide traffic patterns. Riders and drivers split the cost of the commute, and to incentivize carpooling, some employers are partially subsidizing the costs of the ride.

Using Data to Bring Awareness to the Impacts of Commuting

To expand education and awareness on the true environmental, social, and professional impact of commuting, Scoop surveyed over 7,000 workers in 16 metropolitan areas via the 2019 State of the American Commute. The study’s goal was to learn how the commute is decreasing productivity, adding costs, and extending the workday of Americans. The report found that 74% of Americans drive alone to work each day, resulting in more than 50 billion solo trips each year. To combat the negative impact of single-occupancy vehicle trips, Scoop has put more than 9 million carpool trips on the road to date, preventing the release of more than 62 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

Scoop’s COVID-19 Response

As a safe, reliable, and equitable carpooling solution, Scoop is working with employers across the nation to help organizations prepare their return-to-workplace plans. A return-to-workplace plan is only as safe as your people's commute to the workplace. In this new landscape where 90% of Americans are avoiding public transit and only 1/3 of Americans have reliable access to a personal vehicle, Scoop is helping employers create a safe commute solution for their people.

Recent Accolades 

• Scoop was named to the list of Best Workplaces by Inc. magazine and the San Francisco Business Times 
• Scoop won 2020 Comparably Award categories for Best Company Culture, Best CEO, Best Company for Women, and Best Company for Diversity
• The World Economic Forum’s Mobility Challenge Awards recognized Scoop for its carpool partnership with LinkedIn. Chosen as one of the 18 case studies worldwide used as exemplary sustainable corporate mobility programs, a critical element to the success of LinkedIn’s deployment of the Scoop carpooling service was Scoop’s dedicated efforts to  educate LinkedIn employees on the social and environmental values of carpooling.

Scoop won the Silver Stevie Award for Company of the Year - Transportation in The 2020 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2021 American Business Awards? 

With the ongoing economic impacts of the Great Recession, astronomical student debt, COVID-19, rising housing costs, and myriad other financial factors, retirement looks a lot different today than it used to. Gone are the days of finding a job, staying with the company for 40 years, and retiring with a handshake and a gold watch. Pensions and 401(k)s are increasingly hard to come by. Plus, with often insurmountably expensive real estate costs, fewer people are entering the realty market. As a result, many people don’t have valuable homes to supplement their retirement nest eggs.

Given these kinds of factors, it’s little surprise that the concept of “retirement” has shifted. In this landscape, one thing is clear: If financial services groups want to continue to stay relevant, they will need to change their approaches, advice, and outlook to match what financial wellness means to millennials and members of Generation Z.

Rethinking Retirement Age

In a 2018 study by Bankrate.com, millennials responded that they think 61 is the ideal age to retire. Despite this aspiration of early retirement, however, approximately two-thirds of millennials have nothing saved for retirement.

Because of increased debt and decreased financial opportunities, more people than ever are being forced to reevaluate what’s realistic when it comes to retirement. For many, this means bumping out that expected age of retirement. Some don’t even expect to retire at all, instead considering part-time jobs, second careers, or other money-making opportunities as they get into the later years of their lives.

Increased longevity further complicates the issue. Across the globe, people are living longer than ever, which seriously skews issues related to realistic retirement age, health insurance, and life insurance.

Rethinking Financial Wellness

Companies that provide financial planning and other money-management services are often viewed as symbolic of a bygone era. After all, someone who has nothing saved for retirement, doesn’t own a home, and is working on paying down $50,000 in student debt can feel as if these companies aren’t relevant to their financial realities.

That doesn’t need to be the case, though. These companies can still help younger clientele reach their financial goals; they just have to shift how they think about accomplishing this endeavor. John Hancock, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, is one such company successfully refining its approach. 

“At John Hancock, we know it’s time to look beyond outdated concepts like ‘net assets’ and to build financial solutions that fit into customers’ whole lives—with easily accessible products that reflect their values, their approach to wellness, and their holistic well-being,” says Meghan Fackler, a thought leadership manager at John Hancock. “That’s why we’re redefining retirement, insurance, and investing for the modern generation of consumers to address both their health and wealth.”

To connect with this modern generation of consumers, one key is reframing the idea of financial wellness as the most important kind of wellness. Financial service providers are finding that the younger generation prizes a more holistic approach to well-being, and providing advice that resonates means tailoring to that mind-set.

Twine is an app that provides financial advice and automated money management to empower users to manage multiple savings goals with a partner – it’s a smarter way to collaborate and save for what matters. Twine is for people who might not have their own financial advisor but want to make better financial decisions to reach their goals, regardless of their income or age. The app simplifies saving for major milestones like down payments, weddings, and vacations by allowing users to collaborate and link accounts with others to stay on track. Twine is built, developed and powered entirely by innovative technology while leveraging the financial expertise of John Hancock.

“We believe good health and financial wellness are essential ingredients to overall well-being, and we want to help motivate people to make healthier
choices—for themselves and their future,” says Fackler.

With this goal in mind, John Hancock has had success especially with one initiative: a partnership with the Vitality Group, which can serve as a template for similar companies looking to connect with younger investors.

“In 2015, we started a new chapter in our 155-year history when we partnered with the Vitality Group to help our clients live longer, healthier lives,” says Feckler. “As the first life insurance company in the United States to offer a wellness-based rewards program, John Hancock life insurance with Vitality gives our customers the financial protection they need while also helping them earn savings on their premiums, shopping gift cards, and travel discounts for their everyday healthy habits, such as going for a walk, eating well, and getting a regular health check.”

John Hancock was recently honored with multiple Stevie® Awards in the 2020 American Business Awards®, earning the company a Grand Stevie® Award. This designation is reserved for the top 10 most-recognized organizations. 

The 2021 American Business Awards are not open for entries yet. The 2020 International Business Awards® are accepting nominations through July 28, 2020.

Robin Toft, the Founder and CEO of Toft Group, a leading executive search firm  based in San Francisco, accomplished something rare: in the American Business Awards for 2020, Toft won Gold in the three major individual categories of Lifetime Achievement, Maverick of the Year and Woman of the Year.

Toft is a legend in her field and in many cases, outside of it as well. That field is executive search fully devoted to the life sciences, healthcare and biotech. As COVID-19 spreads around the globe, Toft is at the forefront of placing key talent researching a cure; as she has said, “my phone is ringing off the hook.”

Toft founded her company ten years ago, in 2010, before which she worked full-time biotech, where she became a “superstar.” At Roche Diagnostics, Toft launched the first global initiative for access to HIV viral load testing; at ViroLogic, Inc., she launched and commercialized first HIV/AIDS genotype and phenotype tests to guide doctors in selecting correct drug combinations; as a result, HIV became a chronic disease and no longer a fatal one.

To know this disruptive leader is to know something else crucial: Toft is positive always. Call; email; meet one-on-one: the optimism is ironclad. And you may want to know this, too: Robin Toft is a colon cancer survivor; and a survivor of the California wildfires, where she lost everything, her home included.

Through it all, Toft’s focus has been steadfast on diversity since she knows it translates into return on investment. Companies with diverse leadership teams have been proven to be more innovative and profitable; and are more attractive to senior-level talent. Toft has focused on placing women in positions of power that have been held by men because, up until now, men frequently do not have female executives in the networks they rely on to fill top jobs.

In 2019, Toft Group had a remarkable 98% women on boards placement rate, five times the national average; and when it came to placing women in senior positions, the C-suite included, the company had a 48% rate at a time where the highest average offered is 29% (the lowest is 13%).

Over the years, as Toft interviewed and placed hundreds of women into executive roles, she knew something important that had been left unspoken: most women are miserable in their jobs and lack a clear direction for the future. “As a successful woman myself, it’s hard to see such high levels of career dissatisfaction.” As a result, Toft has personally coached thousands of women free-of-charge - to help them set goals; have the perseverance and tenacity to meet them; and to understand the importance of balancing and enjoying their lives.

In 2019, Robin Toft put it all down in a groundbreaking book titled WE CAN, The Executive Woman’s Guide to Career Advancement, an intentional and powerful platform for change. Like Toft herself, the book goes where others fear to tread: female indecisiveness and doubt; the great need for discipline, for a plan, for a map of one’s progression and for confidence; the power to create opportunities; to practice self-care and self-talk. And that men play a role, too. And, yes, women are not - nor should they be - “mini-men.” 

WE CAN was honored with Silver for Best Business Book in the American Business Awards for 2020 and was also named to the Top 100 CEO books of all time by Book Authority. Toft also won silver for Entrepreneur of the Year – Business and Professional Services.

Interested in entering The American Business Awards® in 2021? 

Since the publication of WE CAN, Toft has become a “name” on the keynote speaking circuit including corporations Qualcomm and Illumina; conferences including the top three for women in science; next generation female leaders and board members; the most prestigious in medicine including the Precision Medicine World Conference; MIT Alumni Network, among universities; and Athena International, the global non-profit leading the way in building a pipeline of women leaders in underrepresented areas, notably technology and medicine.

It’s no wonder then that thousands of executives outside of Toft’s search candidates now seek one-on-one mentoring with Toft (there is a waiting list) and that WE CAN, as of 2020, is a start-up company aimed at helping women – and men – grow from the “outside IN.”

As Toft says, “Placing top talent during the COVID-19 crisis has been extremely rewarding. My big dream in building Toft Group was to change the future of medicine, one relationship at a time and we have delivered upon that mission.  After 20 years as an executive in biotech and ten years building my own search company, I’ve learned to set goals, to reach them and to be happy. Teaching women - and men - to dream big and achieve their dreams is my mission for the next 20.”

For more on Robin Toft visit thetoftgroup.com; for information on Toft’s keynote speaking including topics, visit robintoft.com or wecan.works; to purchase the book WE CAN, go to https://www.amazon.com/WE-CAN-Executive-Womans-Advancement/dp/1949635031

Siri, the artificial intelligence assistant of Apple, is impressive. She is sassy, efficient, and articulate. She is also the result of thousands of hours put in by hundreds of people who are experts in language, machine learning, and software development. When you see the end results of some of the most extensive AI projects, it’s easy to believe AI is replacing humans, but that is far from true.

Harvard Business Review researched 1,500 companies that implemented AI to automate processes. They found that businesses only reap the true long-term benefits of AI when humans and machines work together; companies that deploy AI in the hopes of displacing employees only see short-term productivity gains.

Standing on the Shoulders of Humans
AI is not a stand-alone product. It needs to be trained to perform tasks, educated about the outcomes, and regularly maintained and updated. Millions of people around the globe earn their livings by teaching AI to make diagnostic decisions, to identify images, to recognize speech, and more. Has a website ever asked you to prove you are human by choosing the images that contain a certain street sign? If you filled in one of these image captchas, you were, in a way, teaching Google’s AI to identify that street sign.

Virtual support bots are one of the most common usages of AI today. One such example is Aida, a virtual assistant used by SEB, a bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Aida is trained to understand and to handle natural language conversations in order to answer customer queries. In about 30 percent of instances, the virtual system fails to resolve the issue, and it passes on the call to a human customer experience (CX) rep. It then monitors this human interaction and learns from it.

Complementing Each Other
What comes naturally to humans (reading complex facial expressions, creating art, making jokes, understanding implied meanings, and more) is not easy for machines. What’s easy for machines (such as crunching tons of data and doing repetitive tasks for months on end, for example) is practically impossible for people to accomplish. Through smartly executed collaboration, AI and humans can complement their respective skill sets to help businesses scale faster and better.

These things are no secret, of course. More instances of human experts powering AI are now seen worldwide. Directly, a support automation company based in San Francisco, California, United States, is one example. The company helps enterprises launch and train virtual agents. Their platform has human experts from all walks of life training CX AI agents for numerous enterprise companies, including Microsoft, SAP, LinkedIn, and Samsung. The human experts feed training phrases and intent to the company’s support AI, create authentic content the AI can use to automatically answer queries, and provide live assistance when needed.

“When the expertise of human workers is systemically injected into the AI system, AI becomes more accurate and paves the way for continued coexistence,” says Antony Brydon, co-founder and VP of Platform at Directly. “Since AI will rely on the expertise of human workers to be successful, there’s no danger of people training themselves out of jobs because the AI systems need constant maintenance. And because the more input from domain experts an AI receives, the better it becomes, the demand for workers to train AI will only grow.”

Directly won the Bronze Stevie® Award in the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Solution subcategory of the Product Management & New Product Awards category at The 2019 and 2020 American Business Awards® .

Interested in entering The American Business Awards?

The Stevie® Awards announced today the Grand Stevie Award winners in The 18th Annual American Business Awards^® competition. Winners will be honored during the ABAs’ virtual awards ceremony on August 5, 2020.  Registration for the virtual ceremony is now open.

All organizations operating in the U.S. - large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs in a wide range of categories, honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development.

This year more than 3,600 nominations were considered in the judging process by more than 230 professionals, whose average ratings determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners announced earlier this month. For a complete list of the 2020 Stevie Award winners, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

Grand Stevie Awards cannot be applied for directly.  Winners are determined by a points system based on the total number of awards won in the ABAs, with a Gold Stevie win counting for 3 points, a Silver Stevie for 2 points, and a Bronze Stevie counting for 1.5. 

2020 Grand Stevie winners in The American Business Awards are as follows:

ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR: Cisco Systems, Inc., the multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, CA, is the most honored organization in the 2020 ABAs, earning the most award points, 44.5, for nine Gold, five Silver, and five Bronze Stevie wins.

MOST HONORED MARKETING AGENCY: Mayfield Consulting, a business-to-business marketing and sales consultancy in Concord, NC, earned 25.5 points for Stevie wins on behalf of clients such as AspenRidge Recovery, B&S Site Development Inc., Newberry Tanks and Equipment, and Richmond Alarm Company.

MOST HONORED INTERACTIVE AGENCY: George P. Johnson, the Auburn, MI-based experiential marketing agency, earned 22.5 points for Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie wins for work for clients including AT&T, Google, IBM, and Infiniti, among others.

MOST HONORED PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY: Havas, the French multinational advertising and public relations company, is this year’s honoree, with several of its US-based agencies earning 22 points for Stevie wins on behalf of Loadsmart, Panda Express, Spireon, Inc., Toyota and other clients.

TOP 10:  The following organizations will also be presented with Grand Stevie Award trophies for being among the top award-point winners in the 2020 ABAs, for Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevies won on behalf of themselves and/or clients.

1. PAIRELATIONS, LLC (Denver, CO and New York, NY), 36.5 points
2. Jeunesse Global (Orlando, FL), 32 points
3. John Hancock (Boston, MA), 30.5
4. Wolters Kluwer (several US-based divisions of the Dutch information services company), 30
5. Melissa Sones Consulting (New York, NY), 26
6. POWERHOME (Mooresville, NC), 24.5
7. Comcast Business (Philadelphia, PA), 22
8. 10Fold (multiple US offices), 21.5
9. SoftPro (Raleigh, NC), 19
10. The National Association of REALTORS ® (Chicago, IL), 18

When discussing gender equality, the wage gap between men and women nearly always becomes a part of the conversation. While most people know this gap exists, not as many realize the far-reaching and detrimental impacts of that inequality.

Why Does This Gap Exist?

Before diving into the consequences of wage inequality, it’s important to look at some of the reasons the gap exists. It’s a complicated issue involving many interconnected factors, but some of the most prominent reasons include:

• Occupational segregation, wherein more men work in higher-paid industries
• Vertical segregation, with more men in senior (and, therefore, higher-paid) positions
• Nonexistent, poorly enforced, or ineffective legislation related to equal pay
• Barriers to entering the labor market, including outright discrimination, access to education, and work-hindering issues related to child-rearing

Real-World Consequences of the Gender Wage Gap

Closing the wage gap would, of course, be positive because it would be a step toward overall gender equality. However, there would be myriad other positive effects that should motivate people and businesses to make this issue a priority.

For example, gender wage inequality reduces overall economic output. While it’s certainly not the case for every woman, the wage disparity does make it more likely for females to be dependent on welfare or other social aid programs—a problem that becomes even more pronounced in old age. With less savings and fewer pensions, women are generally at a disadvantage in regard to retirement and more likely to face poverty after the age of 65. One study by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs in Australia found that eliminating the 17 percent wage gap there would translate to approximately $93 billion in increased gross domestic product (GDP), or 8.5 percent of overall GDP.

Aptitude Research Partners also found that organizations that specifically prioritize gender equity perform better. They are 54 percent more likely to exceed industry average turnover numbers and 46 percent more likely to have higher year-over-year ratings on Glassdoor. With better retention rates and more engaged and motivated employees, companies are more likely to attract top talent, which then generally leads to improved customer satisfaction and higher-than-average financial returns.

In short, closing the wage gap would improve individual employee satisfaction and quality of life, improve a company’s bottom line, and positively impact an entire nation’s GDP and economic standing.

The March Toward Equality

According to the World Economic Forum, if progress continues at its current pace, it will take 108 years to close the global pay gap in the 106 countries covered in that report. This pace is a result of the slowness of global action on the topic and the sheer vastness of the gap itself.

While these numbers can seem disheartening, many individuals and companies are using them as motivation. Lauren Hasson founded DevelopHer, which is based in Dallas, Texas, United States. DevelopHer is an award-winning platform that bridges the gender wage gap, inspires, and empowers women to advocate for themselves to break glass ceilings.

The scalability and affordability offered through DevelopHer programs has allowed and empowered thousands of women to earn 26%, 43%, and 67% salary increases in just a single negotiation. Through DevelopHer, Lauren has created real change at a grassroots level. Women have also gained the confidence to secure better positions and move beyond glass ceilings, bridging the challenging opportunity gap.

Hasson just won the Gold Stevie Award for Entrepreneur of the Year - Consumer Services in The 2020 American Business Awards® as well as a Silver Stevie® Award in the category of Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year, and Startup of the Year - Consumer Services Industries in the 2019 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in entering the Stevie Award for Women in Business?

Hasson acknowledges not only the complexity of this global issue but the need to focus on local solutions.

“Pay disparity is an intractable issue that will not be solved overnight,” says Hasson, “but the DevelopHer mission is to foster engagement by businesses and individuals at a grassroots level to affect true change.”

The Stevie® Awards, organizers of the world’s premier business awards programs, today announced the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners in The 18th Annual American Business Awards®.

All organizations operating in the U.S.A. – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs in a wide range of categories, honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development. More than 3,600 nominations were reviewed in the judging process this year by 230 professionals worldwide, whose average scores determined the winners.

Winners of three or more Gold Stevie Awards include:

Cisco Systems (San Jose, CA), CitizenNet & Magnitude Digital (New York, NY), Comcast Business (Philadelphia, PA), Crocs (Niwot, CO), Fazoli's Italian Restaurants (Lexington, KY), George P Johnson Experiential Marketing (Auburn Hills, MI), Harman International (Stamford, CT), Hearts & Science (New York, NY), Hilton Grand Vacations (Orlando, FL), Humana (Louisville, KY), Jeunesse Global (Orlando, FL), John Hancock (Boston, MA), London Computer System (Cincinnati, OH), Mastercard (Purchase, NY), National Association of REALTORS® (Chicago, IL), Newberry Tanks and Equipment (West Memphis, AR), Nexxt Gen Corporation (Irving, TX), POWERHOME (Mooresville, NC), Red Hat (Raleigh, NC),  State Farm (Bloomington, IL), Toft Group (San Francisco, CA), and United Imaging (Houston, TX).

Among other winners, organizations with five or more Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie wins include:

Bank of America (Charlotte, NC), BMO Financial Group (Chicago, IL), Curion (Deerfield, IL), Fannie Mae (Washington, DC), LifeVantage (Sandy UT), Medical Marijuana, Inc. (San Diego, CA), Merkle (Columbia, MD), Metro Development Group (Tampa, FL), MONAT Global (Miami, FL), Pareto Intelligence (Chicago, IL), Passageways (Lafayette, IN), SoftPro (Raleigh, NC), TBI (Chicago, IL), Tek Leaders Inc (Plano, TX), Tinuiti (New York, NY), United Imaging (Houston, TX), and Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. (New York, NY).

For a complete list of the Stevie Award winners announced today, visit www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

2020 Stevie winners will be celebrated and presented their awards during a virtual awards ceremony on Wednesday, August 5 at 2pm ET. Details of the event are available on the website.

The categories that recognize outstanding new products and services introduced in the USA are among the most heavily subscribed in the ABAs, and every new product or service nominated in The 2020 American Business Awards is included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a worldwide public vote. Voting opened today at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com and will conclude on July 15. People’s Choice Stevie winners will be announced the week of July 20 and will be honored during the August 5 virtual presentations.

“Despite the toughest business conditions in memory, American organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to innovation, creativity, and bottom-line results,” said Stevie Awards President Maggie Gallagher.  “This year’s Stevie-winning nominations are full of inspiring stories of persistence, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion.  We celebrate all of their stories and look forward to showcasing them during our virtual awards ceremony on August 5.”

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of The American Business Awards®, announced today that the final entry deadline for the 18^th annual ABA competition has been further extended to May 5. The organizers said it is apparent that the original final deadline extension to April 14 will not be enough time for American organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to submit their nominations of achievement.

No additional late fees will be charged, and nominations submitted through May 5 will not be penalized in any way in the judging process. Organizers still hope to be able to stage the 18^th ABA awards banquet at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on Friday, June 12.

The American Business Awards are widely considered to be the premier business awards program in the U.S.A. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations— public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large, and small. The 2020 awards will honor achievements since the beginning of 2019. Entry details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

With the announcement of the deadline extension organizers said they have waived all fees for nominations to the Startup of the Year and Tech Startup of the Year categories, for organizations that began operations since the beginning of 2018.

The further extension of the final entry deadline has prompted the organizers to change several other dates in the 2020 ABA calendar:

• May 10: Revised end of judging
• May 15: Revised winners notification and announcement
• May 15 - June 5: Revised window for public voting in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products

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

• Entrepreneur Awards
• Management Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Website Awards, Smartphone and Tablet Apps, and other Media Awards
• …and more

More than 200 executives on 13 juries will rate nominations to determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

The list of past Stevie Award winners in The American Business Awards reads like a who’s who of innovation and business success in the U.S.A. Explore the list of last year’s winners.

WE WILL EMERGE FROM COVID-19 AND YOUR BUSINESS CAN BE
FRONT AND CENTER

Susan Turkell of PAIRELATIONS, LLC won her first Stevie® Award for a client in the very first American Business Awards®, all the way back in 2003.  Since then she has researched and written hundreds of Stevie Award-winning nominations for scores of her corporate clients.

We asked Susan for her perspective on whether organizations should continue to pursue honors such as Stevie Awards during a crisis like the one we're all navigating right now.

We are all trying to navigate uncharted waters during these unprecedented times.

It’s scary, it’s unnerving, it’s uncertain.

What is certain is that at some point, we will emerge from this, and you will want your organization, its people and products to be at the forefront of the key audiences you serve so your business can hum once again. Using awards to highlight your business can help place it front and center.

To help your business establish or maintain brand awareness, consider highlighting your 2019 achievements by entering submissions in various 2020 Stevie Awards programs.

There are many programs and categories from which to choose, and even several that have absolutely NO entry fees. For example, the final entry deadlines for The American Business Awards will be further extended to May 5 without any additional late fees.

The categories in this program without entry fees include Startup of the Year and Tech Startup of the Year, for which the late fees have also been eliminated.

For The International Business Awards^®, categories without entry fees include Company of the Year, which spans many industries.  The early-bird deadline for the 17th IBAs is April 8.

Right now is a perfect time to seize opportunities for showcasing your business. Leveraging award wins is an excellent way to demonstrate the success of your organization and validate its mission, people and products for years to come.

PAIRELATIONS, LLC has a proven track record for helping corporations earn recognition for the successes they are achieving throughout the business and across their operations. For more than two decades, PAIRELATIONS has helped its clients wins hundreds of awards in various Stevie programs and categories. Why not have a professional capture your successes and help you earn the recognition you deserve?

Due to the current global pandemic, we realize it may be hard for companies to devote time to this process. As a result, for a limited time, PAIRELATIONS will offer one complimentary hour of professional awards consulting services to companies that hire the firm to help them enter one or more categories of any Stevie Awards program. Mention code HUMAGAIN.  (Offer valid for new clients only.)

PAIRELATIONS stands ready to put its talents to work on your behalf so your business can soon hum again.

Susan Turkell, chief executive officer at PAIRELATIONS, LLC, has a proven track record that spans more than two decades for helping corporations earn recognition for the successes they are achieving throughout their organizations and across their operations.

Over the years, through PAIRELATIONS’ awards division, she has helped clients win hundreds upon hundreds of awards across myriad Stevie® Awards programs. This includes assisting them in earning recognition across a host of categories, ranging from products and people to management and materials. She is a three-time Grand Stevie® Award Winner, which is based on the number of points scored for all entries submitted. She earned this for multiple wins on behalf of a range of clients.

You can email Susan at awards@pairelations.com, call her at 303-766-4343 or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Stevie-winner Braviant Holdings is a financial technology company that uses machine-learning to assess borrowers' credit and help them achieve lower rates.

Over 24 million American households are underbanked, and another eight million are unbanked (FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, 2017). While the former have restricted access to financial services (primarily due to bad credit scores), the latter have little or no access at all. As one can imagine, this closes a lot of doors. Many of life’s necessities, such as getting a job or renting an apartment, call for a bank account and a good credit history.

What makes this scenario even more unfortunate is that the unbanked and underbanked often land in these unfavorable financial conditions due to circumstances beyond their control. After all, not everyone with a low credit score is a habitual defaulter. For instance, many have low credit scores because of the 2008 financial crisis. Similarly, all those without bank accounts are not willfully refusing to get one. Many get their applications rejected because they have thin credit files or are migrants who don’t possess all the necessary documents.

Luckily, the fintech industry is now putting big data, machine learning (ML), and augmented analytics to work for these two neglected financial demographics, and the results are promising.

Banking the Unbanked

Online banking and lending services have made it convenient to access and maintain bank accounts, even for those in remote and rural areas. However, despite these advances, around 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked worldwide. Several fintech solutions are working toward making it easier for these individuals to create and to benefit from bank accounts of their own, though. The most notable among these is Onfido, an identity verification company based in London, United Kingdom.

Onfido does not follow the typical identity verification process. They pair highly advanced ML-based document checks with facial verification to compare user-furnished identity documents with their selfies. This makes it easier for individuals to prove their identities and open new bank accounts. This is particularly important for those with thin credit files whom banks are reluctant to trust and migrants who do not possess all the documents required for in-person verification..

Beyond Credit History and Scores

Fintech products are revolutionizing the way credit is assessed, and they are now paving the way for fairer access to financial services.

Zest AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) software platform for credit, based in Los Angeles, California, United States, helps lenders make faster and more accurate decisions on borrowers who are traditionally considered risky. It does so by using and analyzing thousands of data points to better assess predicted risk. Their clients have achieved, on average, a 15 percent increase in approval rates and reduced losses by almost 30 percent.

UltraFICO, a credit scoring system based on augmented analytics, was launched by FICO, a data analytics company based in San Jose, California, United States. It serves as yet another good example. While still in the works, it promises to be a huge step up from the antiquated FICO score system that prevents millions of people from receiving credit because of incomplete credit histories. UltraFICO will create more complete credit histories by using data from FICO, Experian, Finicity, different finance houses, and banks.

Stevie-winner Braviant Holdings, a fintech company based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, also offers financial solutions that help non-prime consumers graduate to lower rates as they work toward prime credit. They do so by building machine-learning decision models that look beyond a traditional credit score to more accurately assess the prospective borrower’s true ability and willingness to repay.

“Mainstream financial institutions cater to the needs of U.S. consumers with proven credit history, but more than 50 million adults labeled ‘underbanked’ are forced to look outside the traditional banking system to meet their needs,” says Stephanie Klein, CEO of Braviant Holdings. “Braviant offers tech-enabled credit products to help these deserving consumers access the credit they need today and work toward better rates in the future.”

Braviant Holdings recently won a Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year in the Financial Services category at The 17th Annual American Business Awards®, 2019.

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