Dale E. Gerstenslager is General Manager, Public Relations & Communications for Doosan Heavy Industries Vietnam Co., Ltd.  He has been a judge for the Stevie Awards for Women in Business for the past two years, and plans to to assist with the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards judging early in the new year.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2015 edition of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, which are open to all organizations operating in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region.
(REVIEW THE ASIA-PACIFIC STEVIE AWARDS ENTRY KIT HERE.)

We talked with Dale about his company, working in Vietnam, and judging the Stevie® Awards. He told us he’d learned some useful things from his judging experience: “First and foremost I’d have to say that as a judge for the Stevie Awards for Women in Business I’ve learned a great deal. It has been an opportunity to see some amazing Public Relations and Communication campaigns.  The entries spanned the globe and covered a wide spectrum of categories.  Many times I found myself taking notes and thinking: What a great idea.”

A Virtual Think-Tank

Dale is now looking forward to reviewing the Corporate Communications Awards, Investor Relations Awards, and Public Relations Awards categories of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.
“The Stevie Awards create a virtual think-tank that provides fertile ground where creativity can blossom and grow,” commented Dale.  “Rarely in life do true ‘epiphanies’ occur; so anytime people share ideas, doors in the mind begin to open and possibilities expand, with one idea leading to the next.  That’s how programs like the Stevie Awards help business leaders find new opportunities to increase market share and expand their business.”

An Unbeatable Package

We asked Dale why The Doosan Group, an international company headquartered in South Korea, was operating in Vietnam.  “The Doosan Group chose Vietnam for its $330M investment because of a unique set of incentives and circumstances offered by the leaders of Vietnam,” Dale explained.  “It began with a set of critical criteria followed by a lengthy global search and an extensive due diligence of the many proposals put forth by countries from all over the world. Doosan ultimately selected Vietnam because of the outstanding support and stability of the local, regional, and national governments, an unbeatable package of financial incentives, an eager labour force, and a coastal location that allowed us to build a dedicated port that would give us ready access to major sea lanes.”

Be Flexible

Since Dale is a specialist in communications in the region, we asked him for some tips for companies thinking of doing business in Vietnam. “First, do your homework,” advises Dale. “And that should involve consulting with those that have ‘been there, done that,and have the T-Shirt to prove it.’ That will save a ton of time and money in the exer-cise and get you into production much faster than would happen otherwise.
“Second, Vietnam is evolving at such a rapid pace that you should be prepared to be flex-ible—like you’ve never been before or even imagined possible—then double that.”

Future Potential

We asked Dale what excited him most about his work. “Communications is foundational to all that we do in life,” he told us. “So finding a new, more effective way to reach someone—be it a customer, co-worker, or community—is both challenging and exciting. It keeps my wheels turning and my mind working.  Here in Vietnam, the communications industry is morphing on an almost daily basis. It is still developing, but to look back just a few years and compare it to today, I see tremendous improvement and even greater potential.”

About Dale E. Gerstenslager:

After a 25 year career in the media, living and working in six countries and 14 U.S. states as an award winning editor, journalist, and publisher, Dale Gerstenslager moved from mass communications to public relations and communications.  He accepted a position In Vietnam with Doosan in 2008 where he planned, launched, and now leads the Public Relations and Communications function for the Doosan Group’s $300 million investment in Vietnam.

About Doosan Vina:

Doosan Vina is a high-tech industrial complex in the Dung Quat Economic Zone of Central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province.  It covers 110 hectares, employs 3,000, and has shipped over $1 billion U.S. of product to global markets.  The company supplies the mega infrastructure products that make modern life a reality. Doosan Vina’s products include: boilers for thermal power plants; heat recovery steam generators that increase the efficiency of a typical power plant by over 30%; 4,500 ton desalination plants that are the size of a football pitch and turn 95 million liters of sea water into fresh per day; material-handling systems like the cranes that are the heart of logistics at ports around the world; and chemical processing equipment that turns the earth’s natural resources into the useful products we use every day.  

About The Doosan Group:
The Doosan Group is a global multinational focusing on power, water, and other infrastructure developments worldwide. The company is Korea’s oldest business operation, tracing its roots back to 1896 with the opening of the Park Seung-jik Store. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and has operations in 37 countries, over 35,000 employees, and $22 billion in annual revenue.

The Stevie Awards, the world's premier business awards programs, have just published a brochure about 2015 sponsorship opportunities.

READ THE BROCHURE HERE

The brochure outlines the opportunities associated with our six awards programs in 2015, including the newest program - the German Stevie Awards.

Among the benefits that are available through Stevie Awards sponsorships are:

• The ability to submit an unlimited number of entries to the sponsored program without having to pay entry fees. This benefit can be extended to sponsors’ clients as well

• The right to name and confer one or more honorary Stevie Awards upon your customers

• A full-page ad in the official program of the event

• Up to 100,000 banner ad impressions on the sponsored program’s web site and in the weekly Stevie Awards Update e-newsletter

• Tickets for the sponsored awards banquet

• At least 10 minutes of stage time to present awards at the sponsored event

• Logo identification in all photographs and video clips of the sponsored event

• Hospitality and display privileges, before, during, and/or after the sponsored event

• Editorial coverage, in the form of an interview or profile, in the Stevie Awards blog and e-newsletter

We welcome the opportunity to customize sponsorship benefits to suit your needs.  Contact Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher for details.

Strategy to Revenue, a global sales performance company, won a Gold Stevie® Award in the Sales Awards categories of the 2014 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's top sales and customer service awards program. The 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are currently accepting entries. 

GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.  

Strategy to Revenue’s Stevie Award winning nomination outlines how they worked with DHL Global Forwarding to achieve sales excellence. We talked with Matt Downes, Executive Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing, about what his company is doing to help its clients, and what he brought back from his experience at the Sales & Customer Service Awards in Las Vegas last February.

To provide some background on his company’s mission and vision, Matt explained that the company was established in 2008 and named Strategy to Revenue (STR) in order to telegraph that sales training should be deployed both to support the implementation of a company’s go-to-market strategy and to deliver revenue in line with the business plan. Said Matt: “We believe sales training is important only if it improves aligned sales performance and accelerates revenue.”

The founders of STR had many years of experience in leading premier sales training companies that provided sales effectiveness solutions to global organizations in transformation. “Our collective experiences have directly informed our point of view and our approach,” Matt told us.

A True Partnership

We asked Matt what winning a Gold Stevie® Award had meant to his company.  He told us that it had been a tremendous accolade for STR.  “The award is recognition that our innovative thinking and our approach to tackling the sales performance challenge head on is working,” he said. “What makes it extra special is winning this award in collaboration with our client DHL, as we have managed to develop a true partnership in supporting their growth strategy where the sales organization is at the heart of this success.”

He added: “Without doubt, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is one of the most respected and well known awards in the sales training and performance industry, so to be ranked up alongside other leading companies is fantastic for STR.”

Innovative Thinking

We asked Matt for some insight into his company’s innovative thinking. “We think few sales enablement or training programs have delivered the intended business impact because most training providers have failed to address obstacles in sales performance improvement,” he told us.  The examples he cited include:

- a lack of individual and team motivation to learn;

- inability to transfer learning into behavioral change in the field;

- difficulty in integrating new marketing collateral and product/service information into sales activity;

- poorly implemented tools supporting misaligned processes;

- inability to adapt to different customer requirements and situations; and

- lack of sales organizational/cultural alignment. 

Collaboration is Key

Continued Matt: “We also recognize the changing role of the Salesperson and, perhaps more importantly, the Sales Manager, as well as the increasing contribution that technology makes to learning. These obstacles present challenges to be resolved. This is our mission: to accelerate revenue by addressing these issues head on and resolving them. We can only do this in collaboration with our clients and other suppliers, so collaboration is key.”

A Source of Competitive Advantage

“Our continued focus is to work with our global clients to create sales performance programs that are motivating, embrace the culture of the organization, and are seen by the Sales team as a source of competitive advantage,” Matt explained. “In the right circumstances, we believe that Salespeople will take responsibility for improving their performance and see learning as a formidable tool to help them.”

Improving Sales Performance

We asked Matt for some tips on how companies can improve their sales performance.  Following are some of his suggestions:

“Making a shift in sales behavior and productivity in the sales organization continues to be one of the hottest topics for every company out there.” suggested Matt. “What has become absolutely evident over recent years is that without sales leadership and first-line sales management alignment and com-mitment to any sales training initiative, the chances of a successful impact on sales performance are slim. 

“We have seen this happen all too often at companies that invest in high profile programs such as value-selling methodologies, value-proposition messaging, sales skills, or business acumen.  When they review the impact 12 months later, they recognize that it didn’t move the needle.”

Pipeline Management

According to Matt, there are two things that STR is absolutely focused on and which the company believes will help tackle this: 

“Firstly, investment into the sales management to ensure a consistent cadence and approach to pipeline management, and performance coaching aligned to the business metrics driving revenue and margin.  Sales Managers need to be able to anticipate potential issues in the pipeline before it’s too late, and then translate that into positive action through coaching. 

“Secondly, a ‘Certification’ approach to any sales training program that hits the field and a focus on evi-dence and observation that a change in sales behavior is taking place.”

Comments Matt: “I would argue that for every training dollar you spend, 30% should be focused on ensuring it is adopted in the field, otherwise the other 70% is being wasted. If companies can get these two things right–and at the same time ensure they have a solid customer-aligned Sales Process, sales tools automated inside the CRM, skills curriculum and effective proposition messaging, and collateral from marketing–then the chances of success are significantly improved.”

A Perspective on Sales Performance

We asked Matt if there were any online tools he found particularly useful in his work. “There are so many blogs out there right now covering thought leadership, insights, and opinions on the sales performance challenge,” Matt told us.  “I find the Top Sales World website very good as it brings together a number of thought leaders and blogging sites that all have good perspectives.  We also have our own STR Google+ site, where we comment on interesting blogs and post our own insights.  Check it out!”

Making A Difference

Finally, we asked Matt what personally motivated and inspired him about his work. “What keeps us all inspired is constantly looking to push the envelope when it comes to motivating sales organizations to improve their performance,” he told us. “The combination of talent inside STR–including our sales best practice experts, our content and creative designers, and our multimedia and learning technologies team–means we have all the ingredients to bring new thinking to market quickly and to execute these solutions with our clients to make a difference.  Not many companies can do that!”

About Matt Downes

Matt is one of the founders of STR and leads Global Sales & Marketing for the company.  Prior to STR, Matt spent eight years working for other global sales training and performance companies engaging with Fortune 500 companies.  During that time, Matt lived in the US and led a sales transformation practice before returning to the UK to launch STR in 2008. 

Outside of work, Matt is passionate about sport and is kept busy enjoying life with his wife Rosie and their three children Joe, Olly, and Bella.  Matt holds a BSc in Business Information Technology Manage-ment.

About Strategy to Revenue

Strategy to Revenue designates itself the 'Revenue Acceleration' company, delivering strategic consultation and sales execution programs that help businesses transform the way their sales forces sell. STR has created a unique position in the sales training industry by combining sales and management best practice, instructional and creative design expertise, and technology and broadcast media to make sales performance programs engaging and motivational for the sales force. For more information, go to: www.strategytorevenue.com

World's Top Honors for Women Entrepreneurs, Executives, Employees and the Organizations They Run Were Presented in New York Before More than 400 Accomplished Women From Around the World

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women, the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business announced the results of its 2014 competition on Friday, November 14.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition produced by the creators of the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards. The Stevie is widely considered to be the world’s premier business award.

With more than 400 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Nations represented at the event include Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A. and Venezuela.  The presentations were broadcast live across the U.S.A. by Biz Talk Radio.

More than 1,200 nominations from organizations and individuals in 22 nations were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Best New Company of the Year, among others. More than 160 professionals around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and then the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to the seven organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition.  The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

•     Accenture, Chicago, IL U.SA. (#1)
•     NEI Global Relocation, Omaha, NE U.S.A. (#2 – tie)
•     iFinance Canada, Toronto, ON Canada (#2)
•     Nerium International, Addison, TX U.S.A. (#4)
•     MWW, East Rutherford, NJ U.S.A. (#5 – tie)
•     Jeunesse Global, Orlando, FL U.S.A. (#5)
•     LLORENTE & CUENCA, Madrid, Spain (#5)

Notable Gold Stevie Award winners from this year’s competition include:

• Century 21 Real Estate, LLC, Boston, MA U.S.A. -  Social Media Focused Campaign of the Year
• Michelle Dennedy, VP and Chief Privacy Officer with McAfee, Redwood City, CA U.S.A. - Woman of the Year – Technology
• Prime Therapeutics, Eagen, MN U.S.A. - Best New Consumer Service of the Year
• JuE Wong, CEO of StriVectin, New York, NY U.S.A. - Female Executive of the Year - Consumer Products
• Ffyona Dawber, CEO of Synergy Vision Ltd, London, United Kingdom - Female Entrepreneur of the Year - Business Services
• IBM, Armonk, NY U.S.A. - Online Marketing Campaign of the Year
• Justine Curtis, CEO of Inspired Adventures, Darlinghurst, NSW Australia - Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
• Propeller Resources, Portland, OR U.S.A. - Startup of the Year
• Christina Smedley, VP Global Brand and Communications with PayPal, San Francisco, CA U.S.A. - Female Executive of the Year - Consumer Services

The 2014 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include Accenture, Bitsy’s Brainfood, Dubai Police General HQ, LLORENTE & CUENCA, MWW, Nerium International, Newberry Executive Solutions, LLC, and Xceed Financial Credit Union.  For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Entries for the 2015 edition of the awards will open next May.

The 11th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, will be presented this Friday, November 14 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.  More than 400 women and their guests from around the world will attend.

The presentations will be broadcast live across the U.S.A., and simulcast worldwide via the web, by Biz Talk Radio, from 7:30 pm eastern time on Friday.  Listen in and follow along with a copy of the awards dinner's official program book.

Finalists in the 2014 awards were announced last month.  This Friday the Finalists will find out whether they've won Grand, Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award status.

So who's coming to New York City for Friday's gala event?  Here are the organizations who have already booked their place for the awards dinner.  Tickets are still available.

11mark  
6Sense  
ABS-CBN Corporation
AccountingDepartment.com  
All Channels Communication Group
ALOM  
Amadeus  
American Express Global Business Travel  
ARIIX
A-T Solutions
AT&T
Bahwan CyberTek  
Best Doctors  Inc.
Bhava Communications
Bitsy's Brainfood  .
Biz TV
BLAMtastic  LLC  
Bombshell Productions  
Collective Bias  
Complete Active Living  
Confirm Biosciences  
Curemark  
Deborah Mitchell Heaven Health & Beauty Ltd
Decisive Minds  LLC  
Dell Boomi  
Delta Air Lines
DentaSpa Seminars  
Descriptive Video Works  
Digital Risk  
EMC
EnergyRICH® Coaching  Inc.  
Esprit de Mami Corporation
Exceptional Business Solutions, LLC
Experian Marketing Services  
Extreme Networks  
eZCom Software
Fabric Innovations  
Fareportal
Financial Voyages LLC
FIS  
Gabriel Marketing Group
GALILEO RESEARCH AND STRATEGY CONSULTANCY LLC  
GE Software  
Girls Leading Our World
Global Good Fund  
Gridstore  
Grow Marketing  
Hansen Technologies  
HARMAN  
Hewlett-Packard Company  
HirePerfect
Home Development Mutual Fund (aka Pag-IBIG Fund)  
Home Rental Services  
IBM  
iFinance Canada Inc.
In-Flight Crew Connections  LLC.  
inVNT
Isagenix International  LLC.
iTalent Corporation
Jones Publishing (Citywealth)
KAY Corp.
KC Projects  
Lexicon  Inc.  
Lisa Tener  Book Coach
Liz Palmer Media Group Inc.
LLORENTE & CUENCA
Lovell Corporation
Lyons Consulting Group  
Marketsmith  Inc.
MarketStar  
Martz Parsons
Mblox Inc.  
McAfee  part of Intel Security  
McKinsey Development  Inc.  
Medical Observer
Miller Street Dance Academy  
Mosaic Sales Solution
Mosman NewMedia Inc.
National Merchants Association  
NEI Global Relocation
Nerium International  
New Family Organization  
Newberry Executive Solutions  LLC
Nicor Gas  
Novitex Enterprise Solutions  
NurseWise  
One Stop Environmental  
Origami Owl
Orion Associates Incorporated
Panache
Pascale Communications  
Pathways Community Interest Company
PepsiCo AMEA
PepsiCo SACCAF  
Picore International
Pink Elephant  
Plasticity Labs  
PPC Ltd
Pretty Pushers  Inc.
Prime Therapeutics
ProcessPro  
Proforma Printelligence  
Propeller Resources
ProposalHelper LLC
Qualia  
Rakuten Marketing  
Red Hat  
Regional Business Accelerator  Lloydminster  
Ripper PR
S & E Trusted Online Directories Inc
SAMMS Juke Box
Sarofsky  
SEARCH Group Partners
Seeing Angels Two by Two  
SevOne  Inc.
Silicon Image
SocialCode  
Spherexx.com  
SPLICE Software  
Synergy Vision Ltd  
Tequila Avión  
Tollgrade Communications  
UST Global
Veggiecation
VerticalResponse
Waitressville  
WDS Marketing & Public Relations
Wells Fargo Bank
WLF Medical  
Women Presidents’ Organization
World Vision Canada  
Xceed Financial Credit Union  
Yuwakai
ZYTO Corporation

We have changed the schedule for the 2015 (second annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the top business awards program for the region.

It has come to our attention that updates that were supposed to have been made to the website at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com before the opening of the awards last month were not made. It will take us about two weeks now to update the website fully. Therefore we are changing the schedule.

The early-bird entry deadline with discounted entry fees, originally published as November 12, has been changed to December 3. Review the complete revised calendar for the 2015 awards. The awards are open to all organizations operating in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

We expect the website to be ready to accept your entries the week of 17 November. You may submit your 2015 entries anytime after that date.

We have added many new categories to the awards, including marketing awards, PR awards, new product awards, HR awards, and more. Explore them all here.

The website at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com is available in, and entries may be submitted in, seven languages: Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay and Thai.

Please contact us with your questions about how to participate in the 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued a call for entries for the 2015 (9th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. 

GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.   

All customer service, contact center, business development, and sales departments, teams and professionals worldwide are eligible to be nominated, in addition to new products and services used by those professionals. The 2015 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2013.

The entry deadline is November 19, but late entries will be accepted through January 13 with payment of a late fee. Winners of the ninth annual competition will be announced at a gala awards banquet on February 27 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

The 2015 program offers new categories for business development professionals including Business Development Executive of the Year, Business Development Professional of the Year (for non-executive professionals), and Business Development Achievement of the Year.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 135 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards, and call center awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

•     Sales Individual categories such as Senior Sales Executive of the Year and Sales Operations Professional of the Year
•     Sales Team categories like Global Sales Team of the Year and Field Sales Team of the Year
•     Sales Achievement categories such as Sales Turnaround of the Year and Outbound Marketing Program of the Year
•     Sales Department of the Year categories in 13 industry groupings
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Individual categories such as Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year and Customer Service Leader of the Year
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Team categories like Contact Center of the Year and Customer Service Management Team of the Year
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Achievement categories such as e-Commerce Customer Service Award and Award for Innovation in Customer Service
•     Customer Service Department categories in 11 industry groupings
•     New Product and Service categories like Best New Business Intelligence Solution and Best New Relationship Management Solution
•     Solution Provider categories such as Sales Consulting Practice of the Year and Incentive, Rewards, or Recognition Provider of the Year

2015 will see the return of a popular feature of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. All Finalists in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories will be included in the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service voting.

Winners of the 2014 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Cars.com, Comcast, CubeSmart, Delta Air Lines, Etiya, eZCom Software, FedEx, HubSpot, Kohl’s Department Stores – Credit Division, OfficeDepot, SAVO, ShopKeep POS, Vestmark, and VIZIO, Inc., among others.

The 2015 competition will be judged by more than 200 professionals around the world.

The 2015 entry kit and a complete history of the awards program are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About The Stevie Awards:
The 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 http://www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

Sponsors of the 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include ValueSelling Associates.

The newest Stevie Awards program, the German Stevie Awards, is now accepting nominations from all organizations operating in Germany at www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland.

Recognizing the best in business in Germany, the program is offering the lowest entry fee of the year at 99 euros for all entries submitted by the November 5 deadline. Entry fees will rise substantially on November 6, through the final entry deadline of December 10.

The German Stevie Awards opened for entries in mid-August and have received an impressive number of nominations thus far from a wide variety of organizations.

The Stevie Awards are considered to be the world’s premier business awards, conferring recognition over the past 12 years in programs such as The International Business Awards and The American Business Awards. Stevie Awards programs attract more than 8,000 nominations each year from organizations in more than 60 nations.

Harald Oberhofer, Director of Corporate Communications at optivo and a Stevie Award winner, shared his thoughts about the new German Stevie Awards. “German companies are acting more and more internationally,” Harald added. “The German Stevie Awards might help to deepen our global mindset. At the same time, I think it’s great that German business achievements are going to be recognized through these new Awards, and that German innovations and product highlights will get the visibility they deserve.”

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

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. Stevie Awards competitions typically feature more than 200 executives as judges. Those winners will be announced on February 23.

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 Berlin in late March.

The Stevie Award trophies, made by the company that makes the Oscar and other major international awards, are among the world's most coveted prizes.

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.

optivo in Berlin, Germany won two Stevie® Awards in The 2014 International Business Awards: its Customer Care Team won a Bronze Stevie in the Customer Service Awards categories; and its optivo® broadmail–Marketing Automation Solution won in the New Product Awards categories.

We asked Harald Oberhofer, Director of Corporate Communications at optivo, for his thoughts about the new German Stevie Awards. (Get your German Stevie Awards entry kit here.)

“Herzlich willkommen, as we say in Germany,” was his response. “We regularly participate in the international edition of the Stevies and our company and innovations have received several awards. We are therefore really happy that the Stevie Awards have now launched a competition specifically for the German market.”

“German companies are acting more and more internationally,” Harald added. “The German Stevie Awards might help to deepen our global mindset. At the same time, I think it’s great that German business achievements are going to be recognized through these new Awards, and that German innovations and product highlights will get the visibility they deserve.”

Delivering Added Value

We asked Harald if he had any advice for companies thinking of doing business in Germany.

“The starting point has to be a valid business model–and that applies to Germany companies, too.” Harald told us. “In Germany, careful and thorough planning is of great importance. Plans and concepts should be developed very thoroughly, with a special eye on the details. There is a great demand in Germany for professionalism and for delivering added value. And, of course, reliability is a must.”

Industry News

Harald also gave us some tips on a few of the apps and blogs that he finds most useful in the workplace.

“optivo is one of the largest email marketing and omnichannel specialists in Europe,” he told us. “We have our own German language blog at www.optivo.de/de/blog, which provides a lot of useful industry news information. For other industry news, I can also recommend www.emailmarketingforum.de and www.emailmarketingblog.de.  However, if you need a cab in Germany, the MyTaxi app is essential!”

Looking Ahead

We asked Harald what he most enjoyed about his work at optivo. “optivo is the technology leader in its industry and right now we are expanding internationally, which is exciting for the entire company as well as for me,” he told us.  “Moreover, my colleagues in our Berlin office are cool and dedicated, as are the people working in our offices around Europe. In short, to work at optivo is fun and rewarding.”

optivo® broadmail

optivo’s main product is optivo® broadmail, which enables optivo clients to send out permission-based and professional newsletters as well as email marketing campaigns. optivo® broadmail is an internationally applicable solution for all business sectors and industries. The user interface is available in English, German, Polish, Dutch, and Turkish. The software includes more than 300 functions and can be used via all relevant web browsers. Its customers can send out up to 25,000,000 emails per hour. Furthermore, it is continuously being updated and developed. New functionalities are provided regularly and made available free of charge to optivo’s customers.

Customer Care Team

The optivo customer care team helps with advice and assistance in all matters concerning the use of optivo® broadmail. Online marketing specialists create customer templates for a consistent corporate design and give international support regarding the use of the online broadcasting system as well as email and omnichannel marketing in general. The staff is multinational and supports customers in various European languages.

optivo offers workshops on email marketing strategies, customer training, and academies. Its customers receive regularly updated documentation, technical white papers, video tutorials, and newsletters. Through its blog, optivo offers in-depth information on relevant topics concerning email and omnichannel marketing to all interested parties. Customers can also subscribe to a newsletter series that offersuseful tips on email marketing over the course of one year, and they can attend free webinars on special topics which are held on a regular basis.

About Harald Oberhofer

Harald Oberhofer is Director of Corporate Communication at optivo. He has 14 years of experience in PR and Marketing in the online sector. Harald joined optivo in 2007 in order to set up the Marketing Department. His current responsibilities are the management and coordination of international and corporate PR and marketing communications activities. Prior to optivo, Harald worked for Zanox and IBM, among others.

About optivo

optivo is one of Europe's leading email and omnichannel marketing service providers, delivering efficient, professional and secure email marketing solutions from one single source. Since the foundation of optivo in 2001, all of its operations have focused on efficient direct marketing. More than 1,000 companies from various industries rely on its services, including many top names; such as Best Western Hotels, Bosch Power Tools, Die Zeit, InnoGames, Henkel, and QVC.  For more information go to www.optivo.com

The Stevie Awards are delighted to announce the names of the five distinguished women who will chair the final judging committees of the 2014 (11th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business competition.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are the world's top business awards program for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.

Finalists in this year's Stevie Awards for Women in Business were announced last week.  Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie placements from among the Finalists will be determined in final judging, to begin next week.  Results will be announced at the 11th annual awards dinner in New York on November 14.  Tickets are now on sale.

The five committee chair selections are based on the categories that will be judged. Final judging chairs helped to form their committees, each of which will be comprised of 10-20 other executives.  Here are this year's final judging committee chairs.

INDIVIDUAL/EXECUTIVE AWARDS

CHAIR: Susan Johnson, Director of Communications
The Women Presidents’ Organization, New York, New York

Susan Johnson is Director of Communications for the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO). WPO is a membership organization for women presidents and CEOs of privately held, multimillion dollar companies. Through global, confidential, and collaborative peer-learning groups, the WPO accelerates business growth, enhances competitiveness and promotes economic security. Working at the local, national, and international levels, Susan oversees marketing, public relations, and brand building initiatives for WPO, whose mission is to accelerate business growth, enhance competitiveness, and promote economic security for multi-million dollar, women-led companies.

Prior to joining WPO, Susan had her own business, developing strategically creative marketing campaigns to give brands, services, and nonprofits a distinctive voice, personality, and presence.  A seasoned public relations agency professional, Susan has a strong background managing strategic business-to-business and business-to-consumer communications that build brand reputation and value, and support business objectives. Having had the privilege of launching and sustaining many well-known brands, she’s also helped startups come to market and built thought leadership platforms for nonprofit organizations.

Her work at Fleishman Hillard and Rowland Worldwide has been recognized with the industry’s highest honors, including a Silver Anvil from The Public Relations Society of America. Named a fellow of Columbia University’s Age Boom Academy, she honed her social media skills at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

INDIVIDUAL/ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS

CHAIR: Redickaa Subramanian, CEO & Chief Strategist
Interakt Digital Group, Singapore

Redickaa Subramanian is a global advertising, marketing, and technology expert and the co-founder and CEO of Interakt Digital Communications Group, a digital marketing and communications firm headquartered in Singapore. Through her strategic insight and hands-on leadership, she has guided Interakt’s growth to approximately 200 associates with operations on four continents.

As Interakt’s chief strategist, she specializes in helping global companies deliver their brand promise inside/out by aligning all audiences and messaging, internally and externally. She has worked with some of the world’s most respected brands, including Citibank, Ecolab, Lenovo, Nalco, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, HSBC, Motorola, Levi’s® and Estee Lauder Companies.

Redicka earned her MBA at the State University of New York at Buffalo and was named “Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year 2007” by DBS-SICCI.

COMPANY/ORGANIZATION AWARDS

CHAIR: Stephanie Azzarone, Founder & President
Child’s Play Communications, New York, New York

Stephanie Azzarone is founder and president of Child’s Play Communications, the first agency to specialize exclusively in marketing to moms. Child’s Play celebrated its 25th anniversary last year (2013). Stephanie is creator of the award-winning Team Mom™ blogger network, the voice behind the blog Mom Market Trends, and winner of Bulldog Reporter’s Social Media Innovator of the Year Award. She also received an Honorable Mention in this year’s Enterprising Women of the Year Awards.

Stephanie has been quoted on the subject of marketing to moms in media ranging from PRWeek through The Wall Street Journal and writes a monthly post for the industry publication Engage:Moms. Disney, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Heinz, Hewlett Packard, TIME Inc., and the Wildlife Conservation Society are among her recent clients.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS/MARKETING/NEW PRODUCTS & SERVICES

CHAIR: Katrin Ludvigsson, CEO
Rippler Communications, Stockholm, Sweden

Katrin is the CEO of Rippler Communications, an award-winning strategic and creative agency committed to delivering quality marketing and communications solutions in multiple channels and across platforms. Having spent a decade as account director and senior consultant at one of Sweden´s largest PR-firms, she founded Rippler eight years ago together with a female former colleague. Together they set out to create a business squarely dedicated to delivering quality with pride, a matter of “ your business is our business.”

From the first year of operations, Katrin and Rippler have earned numerous awards in SPINN—the Swedish equivalent of the IPRA Golden Awards—for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients. Last year, though, was the first year Rippler entered any international competitions and as a result Katrin won the Gold Stevie® Award for Communications or PR Campaign of the Year – Public Affairs and Public Service with “For a more humane city” – displaying homelessness through a nationally covered photo campaign. The campaign “For a humane city” was also selected as one of the winners in IPRA last year.

On a more personal level, Katrin is dedicated to work against ethnic and racial intolerance, being one of the co-founders of Oss alla, a national network with about 20,000 followers, writing and co-signing opinion pieces, commissioning and promoting research to combat myths about refugees and immigration. She recently launched a campaign,“the mirror of prejudice,” targeted at high school students and aiming to promote classroom discussions on tolerance issues. Katrin and her Rippler co-founder have also started an informal network for women, meeting twice a year to help promote other women in business.

Katrin has a Bachelor of Arts in both journalism and international relations from the University of Minnesota.  

MEDIA

CHAIR: Caroline Tien-Spalding, Marketing Director
Arcsoft/Perfect 365, San Francisco, CA

As Senior Director of Marketing for ArcSoft consumer imaging applications and a photography black belt, Caroline Tien-Spalding is always looking to turn pixels into magic pixie dust. Caroline has built an impressive track record of success in the mobile app and consumer markets, and was the driving force behind bringing ArcSoft’s Perfect365, a digital makeover app, to the forefront of over 45 million users.

Prior to ArcSoft, Caroline was instrumental in successfully launching the renowned photo app Camera Awesome with SmugMug, and spreading the word on wireless memory cards at Eye-Fi.

Caroline has been a speaker at CES, Macworld, SXSW, and Mobile Mondays in Silicon Valley. She is a University of California, Berkeley alumna (go bears!) and has a Masters in Linguistics. She speaks on a wide range of topics related to imaging technology, including face recognition, Internet of Things, and connected home. Past engagements include Macworld, CES, CTIA, SXSW and Mobile Mondays.