We invite you to enter for the TBIBC Diversity Awards. Please submit your application to Bill Flynn, President, Huijun Yang, Chairman or Glynis Ross-Munro, Vice President. You may also submit your application to a Board member of the TBIBC, or a member bi-national chamber of commerce of your choice. The current members of the TBIBC are as follows:
• British-American Business Chamber: www.babctampabay.org
• Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce: www.cacctb.com
• Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce: www.ccctb.com
• French-American Business Council: www.framco.org
• International Business Board: http://ctr.usf.edu/ibb/
• Indo-US Chamber of Commerce: www.indo-us.org
• Tampa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: www.tampahispanicchamber.com
• Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce. www.paccoftampabay.com
• Russian-American Association: http://russianamericanassociation.org
• Scandinavian Trade Association: www.scandbalt.org
• Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of Tampa Bay:www.tcctf.com
Preamble
Diversity is defined in a broadest sense by TBIBC. The bi-national Chambers of Commerce and Trade Associations primarily bring the resource of (a) bi-national life experience and (b) new or wider connectedness to the West Central Florida economy.
TBIBC believes that differentness of all types is an economic resource. Diversity of gender or thought style, hobby or generation, occupation or religion, disability or nationality, language or personality type, veteran or parental status, industry background or learning orientation, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, networks or cultural knowledge… each different orientation, set of life experiences or perspectives offers wealth for our economy.
Organization Name: _________________________________________________________________
Contact Person: ____________________________________________________________________
Email: __________________________________________________________________________
Tel (Office): ___________________ Tel (Cell)___________________ Fax: ______________________
Address: _________________________________________________________________________
City: _________________________________________ ZIP: _______________________________
Preferred Chamber Contact(s): _______________________________________ (Not required to win)
The Selection Committee is looking for Diversity, Collaboration and resulting Prosperity.
Diversity
Selection Criterion: Nominees looked for, supported and leveraged human differences as an effective business and economic resource.
The Selection Committee is interested specifically in any actions that took people or organizations out of their existing comfort zone(s), towards new behaviors or systems, using diversity (of any type) as problem solving or growth strategy.
Evidence of diversity might include:
• a diverse staff – in terms of gender, race, culture and ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender orientation, veteran status, thought style etc.
• diverse management – if the organization is large enough, this diversity will be seen at varying levels of responsibility.
• a relaxed atmosphere around the issue of diversity and inclusion.
• an awareness of the value of differentness and of the road blocks that differentness can create in economies. This will show in systematic use of strategies such as small or minority business supplier programs, mentoring of minority talent (e.g. women, racial minorities and unusual thinking styles), soft landing programs for new US residents, training in understanding the cultural differences between occupational groups, divisional, organizational and regional cultures, multi-national cultural preparation for those visiting other cultures on business etc.
• support for community projects that promote the acceptance and celebration of differentness from an early age (e.g. www.communitytampabay.org)
• creation of a community matrix or environment that is welcoming to difference (e.g. support for soft landing programs, development of an environment where diverse people and communities may thrive etc.)
• other evidence of diversity in this category.
Concrete examples:
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Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.
Collaboration
Nominees encouraged collaboration between diverse people or groups to achieve business or economic objectives. The Selection Committee is interested specifically in on-going or systemic examples of collaboration, or successful culture change where collaboration is becoming (or has become) entrenched in an organizational culture. If management is consciously driving growth towards collaborative systems or processes, or supporting a collaborative culture where this is appropriate for their business and industry, this meets the criterion of Collaboration.
Evidence of collaboration might include:
• the emerging of new products and/or new services, suitable for either existing or new customers,
• process and systems improvements that arise from multiple sources within the organization,
• an innovative culture,
• easy cross-functional communication,
• openness to new ideas, irrespective of their origin,
• high employee engagement,
• a strong employment brand,
• low staff turnover relative to the rest of the organization’s industry.
• other appropriate signs of a collaborative environment.
Concrete examples:
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Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.
Prosperity
Nominees achieved real measurable results, in terms of top-line revenue or cost-effectiveness (bottom-line profitability) as a result of their active investment in diversity and collaboration.
Evidence of prosperity arising from collaboration and diversity might include:
• new or increased revenue streams from innovative products or services, or from the development of new markets by innovative and collaborative processes,
• new or increased revenue streams developed by collaborative and innovative marketing, or as a result of collaborative networking, especially through diverse demographics,
• bottom line profit increases as a result of cost-effectiveness. This may be because of more efficient processes, or systems improvements, brought about by innovation and collaboration. It may reflect improved productivity resulting from team engagement, improved understanding and cross-functional communication
• improved productivity and execution from attracting and retaining talented people (because of being seen as an innovative, collaborative and diverse organization)
• cost-effectiveness from lower staff turnover (but should be resulting from high employee engagement, not from recession fears)
• products or services that make the region more attractive to diverse demographics.
Concrete examples:
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Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.
Appendix: Further examples/ideas
Diversity
• All project teams are pre-assessed to ensure sufficient diversity of thought style.
• Diverse teams use regular process analysis to ensure that minority members (members of minority ethnic, gender, unusual thought-style groups etc) are heard. (This example illustrates that “minority” simply means statistical minority- e.g. in a predominantly female group, a minority group simply means men, who bring a different set of life experiences, world views and assumptions to the group.)
• Sales teams have concrete, specific annual multi-cultural community networking goals, and training in cultural diversity.
• The organization reviews the local soft-landing program when conducting an innovation brain-storm.
• A company with a foreign branch, manufacturer or call center operation sets goals to meet with the relevant bi-national Chamber and attend events to understand their international colleagues. (This example illustrates that the award is not only about Chambers and Trade Associations that are part of TBIBC.)
Collaboration
• The organization established or made good, economically-beneficial use of a supplier diversity program, perhaps with small, local, women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned etc businesses.
The metrics are in line with, or above, the benchmark 7% savings achieved by NASA, Disney etc.
• Projects were measurably more successful than previously, as collaboration and communication improved between different business levels, silos, regions and/or divisions.
• The organization reached out to other industry players, perhaps through regional structures, to find ways to grow in ways that were not possible alone.
• Deliberate collaborative efforts have led to organizational rebranding, new products, new services, process improvements, staff engagement and retention, or other successes.
Prosperity
• An organization in the Tampa Bay/Lakeland/Sarasota/Bradenton region worked with a bi-national resident or bi-national resident group, to establish successful trade, manufacturing, innovation or any other cost-saving or revenue producing initiative that would not have been possible without collaborating across differences.
• A cross-functional group in an organization has measurably improved a process, solved a problem or worked together to create a new service/product or marketing campaign. Their different resources (perhaps including networks) were combined in a way that achieved unforeseen, positive results.
These results are visible in ‘hard’ income increases, real cost reductions or other measures such as share value, company expansion, market share, job creation etc.
Please contact glynis[@]c-psolutions.com, or the presidents or administrations of any of the Chambers if you need assistance in applying for consideration for the award.
Please note that the judges’ decision is final, and the TBIBC Board cannot enter into any discussion about the award choice after the final judgment is made.
