EFMD is delighted to announce the 2018 EFMD Excellence in Practice Gold Award Winners.

Since 2007, the EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards (EiP) have recognised outstanding and impactful Learning & Development partnerships in the domains of Leadership, Professional, Talent, Organisational and Ecosystem Development.

The 2018 Gold Award Winners in the following five categories are:

Organisational Development
Valmet & IMD
“Forward-Looking Leadership Development”

James Henderson, Director of Valmet Forward Strategy Program and Professor of Strategy at IMD, commented on the recognition: “We are honoured at IMD to be recognised for this prestigious EiP award with Valmet. It has been such a deeply rewarding experience to be part of Valmet’s leadership development journey – in helping transform the company from a struggling company in a seemingly unsexy industry to a forward looking technology front runner through real impact.”

“We built our Forward Strategy and Fast Forward programs together with IMD to accelerate strategy execution and enable growth increasing the capabilities and competences of the organisation. Through the meeting points concept, we’ve managed to leverage the talent of our high potentials and re-energise senior management with Valmet’s Way Forward,” added Julia Macharey, Senior Vice President for Human Resources at Valmet.

Talent Development
Epiqus & Hanken & SSE Executive Education
“Integration Programme Business Lead – A Fast-track for Educated Refugees into Business Life”

Marc Hinnenberg, CEO of Hanken & SSE Executive Education, stressed the value of the winning public-private partnership: “Our partnership with Epiqus supports fast integration and enables work for educated and unemployed immigrants and refugees. This is the foundation for the integration program Business Lead℠ which is also a great showcase of public-private partnership through the Social Impact Bond (SIB).”

Executive Development
Telstra & LIW
“Empowering People to Connect”

“Telstra and LIW are delighted to be selected for this award, among such a strong group of contenders. Our partnership has developed through a shared understanding and commitment to support Telstra in its transformation to become a world class technology company that empowers people to connect,” commented Andy Chevis, Managing Consultant at LIW.

Professional Development
DSM & Vlerick Business School
“The Journey to Marketing and Sales Excellence: How building the capabilities of DSM’s Marketing and Sales Teams Creates Successful Growth”

“In today’s digital age, the design principles for learning journeys centre around relevance, personalisation, versatility and putting theory into practice. This learning journey was built according to these principles because both partners were willing to co-create,” said jointly Alexandre Segers, Business Unit Manager Customised Programmes, Vlerick Business School and Arthur Simonetti, Global Marketing Director at DSM.

Ecosystem Development
Monocities Development Fund & Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
“Monocities: A Long Journey of Transformation.”

“This complex 2-year joint initiative of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO and Monocities Development Fund to change the life of 319 monocities and create dedicated teams to drive the change. One can’t achieve the results of the programme alone: a strong team is needed. This approach joined together 319 teams, with 1500 people involved in the project now, who share their experience and independently implement new projects. This case could become the basis of development in other cities,” said Irina Makieva, head of the Working Group for Monocities Modernisation of the Government Committee for Economic Development and Integration.

Finally, Eric Cornuel, Director General & CEO of EFMD, congratulated all the winners on the EiP Gold Awards: “We are delighted to see that once again the EIP Awards have drawn out some outstanding cases that illustrate the value and impact of successful partnerships in Learning & Development.”

Providing an environment that helps to engage and develop people and enhances skills is an essential component for any company. All of the winning cases clearly show that investing in human and organisational development is a key strategic asset for business success.

“Some very original solutions were deployed to address sometimes mind-boggling challenges with proven impact. Inspiring reading for all professionals in L&D as well as for business leaders for sure,” added Jan Ginneberge, Senior Advisor at EFMD Corporate Services.

EFMD is eager to provide visibility and support to all professionals in the L&D sector. The Winners will be awarded during the next EFMD Executive Development Conference which will be held at the IMD in Switzerland on 17 – 18 October.

We would like to thank all of the applicants as well as the jury members for their successful cooperation and hope to receive more exciting cases next year. We are pleased to take note of the continuously growing quality of applications. As well as the Gold Award winners there were Silver Award winners and also Finalists selected from all of the entries.

Next submission deadline: 15 March 2019

For submission guidelines & expression of interest, please visit www.efmd.org/eip

If you have any questions or would like further information on the EIP awards you can find out more via this EIP Overview Brief or please contact Florence Gregoire.