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The Innovations in Employee Ownership Award

The Innovations in Employee Ownership Award (the "Innovations Award") is an annual award recognizing creative ideas that help make employee ownership stronger, and publicizing those ideas so others can learn from them. Innovations can deal with employee participation, entrepreneurship, communication programs, education, plan design, or other ideas that strengthen employee ownership.

2010 Award Winners

The NCEO and the Beyster Institute at the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management announced the three winners of the 2010 Innovations Awards on April 22 during the Annual Employee Ownership Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. Judges selected three winning companies: a diversified construction services company, one that makes and distributes optical supplies, and an engineering / architecture company.

BL Companies, Inc.

www.blcompanies.com
Meriden, Connecticut

BL Companies delivers integrated architecture, engineering, and related services to public and private clients for land development, building design, and infrastructure projects. Founded in 1986, BL Companies has 170 employees with seven offices in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. A number of practices at BL Companies -- including rigorous leadership development, structured business and ESOP communications, and constant training -- help create a culture of innovation. Company leaders believe that these mutually reinforcing activities are necessary to gain sustained benefit. In their words, "we are proud of our progress, but we believe we are never done."

Pala Group, Inc.

www.palagroup.com
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Pala Group has performed work throughout the United States since 1973 as a diversified construction services company with customers from the Fortune 100 and contracts in refineries and chemical plants throughout the Gulf Coast and Midwest. Following a recent transaction, Pala Group is 100% owned by an ESOP with 394 participants. The company's core innovation is a simple but intricate ESOP learning lab. Used as part of an intensive dialogue session, this interactive computer model jump-started the Pala work force's transition from employee to owner by allowing participants to run the company virtually and experience the potential results of stock ownership for their own ESOP accounts.

Walman Optical

www.walman.com
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Founded in 1915 by J.A.L. Walman, Walman Optical's multiple operating divisions engage in manufacturing and distributing contact lenses, proprietary frames, buying groups, instrumentation, coating, and equipment. An ESOP for over 20 years, it became 100% employee-owned in 1998. The judges were impressed by the Innovation and Sustainability Committee at Walman, which started work in October 2008 with a goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% and converting 30% to renewable fuels. The committee split into three teams, which together created a dramatic reduction in energy use, volume of waste, use of materials, and shipping costs, making the company more profitable and environmentally sustainable.

About the Award Program

The Innovations Award is sponsored by TEOCO Corporation. TEOCO, an acronym for "The Employee-Owned Company," is based in Fairfax, VA: see www.teoco.com. The award is administered jointly by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and the Beyster Institute (BI) at the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management.

The application for the 2011 Innovations Award will be available in November 2010, both here and from the Beyster Institute.
We are looking for your recommendations! Click here to give us a tip on a company that would be a good candidate for the award.
View highlights from award winners in 2009 and earlier.

1. Who Is Eligible to Win?

The award is open to any employee ownership company that promotes the spread of employee ownership plans or the development of best practices in employee ownership. (TEOCO Corporation is not eligible to win.)

For purposes of this award, "employee ownership" includes:

employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
broad-based stock options ("broad-based" means that the plan covers a substantial percentage of the full-time workforce)
employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs)
worker cooperatives
401(k) plans, stock bonus plans or profit sharing plans substantially invested in employer stock
similar plans that provide ownership incentives to a substantial percentage of a company's employees.

2. How Do I Submit an Entry?

Companies may self-nominate for the Innovations Award by completing an application that is available from the NCEO and the Beyster Institute.

Companies may also be nominated by third parties, although the application must include permission from an authorized representative of the nominated company accepting the nomination.

3. Award Criteria

The Innovations in Employee Ownership Award is intended to recognize distinctive innovative practices that support employee ownership and uses of employee ownership that represent advances in this field.

The Awards Committee will look for companies that meet any of the following criteria. Preference will be given to companies whose innovation meets more than one of these criteria:

Value of the innovation in developing best practices in employee participation, entrepreneurship, plan design, ownership culture, communications, and/or employee education,
Value of the innovation in increasing the number of employee-ownership companies,
Value of the innovation in promoting awareness and positive public perception of employee ownership,
The ability of the innovation to be transferred or propagated, and
The quality of the documentation of the innovation's implementation and effects.

All Innovations Awards are general: there will not be a winner in each of the categories listed above, but all companies will be judged in a single pool to determine winners.

Anything the nominee has done or is doing is eligible for consideration except activities for which the nominee has already won an Innovations Award. The Innovations Award is NOT limited to activities in the past year.

4. Prizes

In addition to the Innovations in Employee Ownership Award, which will be presented to a representative of the winning company at the NCEO/Beyster annual conference, one representative from each winning company will receive a complimentary conference registration.

All winners will receive prominent publicity, including the NCEO and Beyster Institute websites, written materials from both organizations, and ready-to-use press kits announcing their accomplishment. NCEO and Beyster will publicize the winning companies and facilitate dissemination of the ideas behind the winning entry so that the ideas can be spread as effectively as possible.

Do You Know the Next Winner of the Innovations Award?

If you know of an innovative company that should be recognized with an Innovations Award, take a few minutes to tell us about them. We'll give them a call and let them know that someone recommended them for an award: they will be flattered and you will have helped good ideas rise to the top for recognition.

Here's all we need to know:

The name of the company
A contact person
Contact information
Whether you want to remain anonymous
A brief description of why you think they are a good candidate (the judging criteria are above)

You can complete our online form or contact Loren Rodgers (LRodgers@nceo.org; 510-208-1307) directly.

2009 Winners

Namasté Solar

www.namastesolar.com
Boulder, Colorado

An innovative company in an innovative field, Namasté Solar is the leading installer of solar electric systems in Colorado. On an ongoing basis, the company offers full-time employees an opportunity to purchase shares through a restricted stock program. From its compensation system (ten salary tiers ensure that the highest salary is no more than twice the lowest) to a transparent decision-making system that combines the virtues of democracy with business efficiency, Namasté Solar provides a glimpse of what tomorrow's company may look like. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Namasté was recently hosted by President Obama during the signing of the historic stimulus bill.

Litehouse, Inc.

www.litehouseinc.com
Sandpoint, Idaho

Litehouse, Inc., is a company with lots of history. Now in its 50th year, Litehouse is both savvy and playful, as evident from its sales of over $140 million and its internal communications program, which makes tough-minded business lessons memorable by immersing them in a context that celebrates fun. Based in Sandpoint, Idaho, Litehouse makes salad dressing and other food products, but the company may stand out most for its relentless pursuit of business literacy among its work force, including an in-house re-creating the theme of the "Love Boat" for educational purposes. 30% of Litehouse shares are owned by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

Cooperative Home Care Associates

www.chcany.org
Bronx, New York

Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) is a South Bronx-based, worker-owned cooperative that provides home care services throughout New York City. With 1,550 employees, CHCA is currently the nation's largest worker-owned cooperative. CHCA has worked closely with SEIU Local 1199 in creating a formal Labor/Management Committee as a strategy to involve more employees in organizational decision-making. This initiative complements their efforts to provide home care workers with high-quality jobs characterized by above-market wages and benefits, full-time hours, opportunities for promotions as well as extensive training and support-all in contract to standard practices within New York City's home care industry.

Parametrix

www.parametrix.com
Auburn, Washington

ESOP-owned since 1992, Parametrix has long been a pillar of the employee ownership community. This year, Parametrix is being recognized for an internal education program designed to reach out to all employees with a focus on recent hires. Some of the unique features of this program are a multi-media outreach (participants receive a audio-visual invitation), a combination of hard numbers and thoughts on what ownership means, and an in-depth business simulation so people understand the impact of their role at the company. Based in Auburn, Wash., Parametrix provides consulting services for engineering, planning, and environmental sciences.