Nomination Form

The Outstanding Corporate Innovator (OCI) Award

The Outstanding Corporate Innovator (OCI) Award is the only innovation award which recognizes sustained (5 or more years) quantifiable business results from new products and services.

For over twenty-four years, The Outstanding Corporate Innovator (OCI) Award selection process has provided an excellent mechanism for identifying companies which create and capture value through Product & Service Innovation.  Past OCI Award winners have proven themselves exceptionally capable of integrating strategy, people, process, and technology to consistently transfer their creative ideas into successful new products.
The award was developed with two objectives. First, to identify and publicly recognize the excellence of companies that have been the most successful in continuously developing a stream of value creating new products and services. The second, and equally important, rationale for the award is to provide a learning vehicle for the sharing of the winning firm's individual best practices with PDMA's general membership.
From the outset this award was envisioned as different from other traditional new product development awards offered by other industry organizations and publications by virtue of the rigor of the qualification and selection process. The basic requirements for receiving this award are:

• Sustained success in launching new products over a five-year time frame. This measure confirms the winner's approach to innovation and new product development goes beyond a single major product success. The winner's new product track record over an extended period provides adequate time to establish its ability to perform at an exceptional level in new product development.
• Significant company growth from new product success. This standard insures that new products that simply upgrade and replace previous company products are not considered the sole basis of outstanding performance.
• Well defined new product development practices and processes that can be described to others. Since the OCI Award is seen as a learning tool for other practitioners, it is essential that the winner have a new product development process that can be described adequately to the membership.
• Distinctive innovative characteristics and intangibles. This standard recognizes unique and innovative characteristics of the organization's approach to the new product development process that make it particularly suitable for the organization. It also provides for the recognition of noteworthy intangibles including the organization's culture.

Past Recipients - Since inception the following companies have been recipients of the OCI Award and have participated in our annual conference, providing valuable insights for the organization and its members.

1988  - Merck & Company
1989  - Hewlett-Packard
1990  - Advanced Cardiovascular Sys., Inc.
         - Harris Corporation, Broadcast Division
         - New Pig Corporation
1991  - Safety Kleen Corporation
1992  - Keithley Corporation
         - Marriott Lodging Group
1993  - Apple Computer
         - Nabisco Biscuit Company
         - Nordic Track
1994  - Bausch & Lomb, Eyewear Division
         - Chrysler Corporation
         - Welch Allyn
1995  - Fluke Corporation
         - Pepsi-Cola Company
         - Senco Products, Inc.
1996  - Eastman Kodak
1997  - Herman Miller
         - 3Com (US Robotics)
1998  - Cincinnati Machine Tool
1999  - Maytag
2000  - EXFO Electro-Optical
         - Rockwell Collins Inc.
2001  - Window Fashions Division-Hunter Douglas
2002  - BMW Group AG (click here for conf award presentation - PDMA MEMBER
           BENEFIT)
         - Teknion (click here for conference award presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2003  - Harley Davidson (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
         - Dow Polyolefins (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2004  - Affymetrix (click here for Trevor Nicholls' presentation and click here for Grace
           Colon's presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
         - Air Force Research Laboratory (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER
           BENEFIT)
2005  - djOrthopedics (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
         - Sprint/Nextel (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2006  - Xerox Corporation (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
         - Bank of America Global Consumer & Small Business Bank (click here for
           presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2007  - FedEx Corporation (click here for Visions article on FedEx)
         - Mine Safety Appliance (MSA)
2008  - Corning Incorporated  (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
         - DuPont (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2009  - Royal DSM NV 
         - PGi - Premiere Global Services (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER 
           BENEFIT)
2010 - Kennametal, Inc. (click here for presentation - PDMA MEMBER BENEFIT)
2011 - Illumina, Inc.
        - UnitedHealth Group

To learn even more about OCI, visit The Source to find articles, presentations, and more...
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