Our Program
Since 2001, we have recognized organizations accomplishing forward-looking breakthroughs. Many of them have toiled for months and years to make a difference in their industry.
To have an impact as a disruptive and transformational company, you must focus on visionary innovation. This focus entails setting new standards, attaining new visionary goals, and consistently pushing the limits.
Being a visionary innovator means being able to innovate today in light of perceived changes tomorrow. It requires a deep understanding of future implications and global ramifications.
This is exactly what our Best Practices recipients do. They take present action, creating opportunities for the future.
They set the example for others. They lead the way.
To all our recipients, well done!
Our Research
Frost & Sullivan conducts primary research to identify unrivaled innovation and leadership among companies, products, and processes.
Our research analysis includes challenges prevailing in the industry, market responsiveness to the current economic conditions, future growth, market trends, and competitive analysis.
We boast:
experts
major market sectors
niche industries
regions
As part of our research, we analyze companies performing exceptionally well. This process is a part of the competitive analysis in our research—it is the guiding foundation. We conduct extensive primary and secondary research to validate our initial findings and discover leaders of the pack.
Our Selection Process
Our team works diligently to uncover and identify leaders in many different industries.
Receiving an award is the result of hundreds of hours of work by our team to identify the best of the best: True innovators who are paving the way for tremendous new areas of growth in their industries, society, and beyond.
STEP 1
Industry Challenges
This phase of our research process focuses on key industry challenges. Once these are determined, it is then possible to identify applicable measurements a company has taken to address these challenges.
STEP 2
Market Research
The next phase, market research, is based on in-depth interviews with vendors, suppliers, and customers. If a company’s product, service, or technology exceeds the pre-set criteria, the analyst can select it for an award.
STEP 3
In-depth Interviews
We conduct in-depth interviews with finalists to learn how their company has performed in our pre-set individual performance criteria. (We have a total of 10 performance criteria for each award category.)
STEP 4
Best Practices Recognition committee
Finally, we prepare a nomination document with all the necessary substantiation and justification. We submit the document to our Best Practices Recognition committee for consideration.
* Frost & Sullivan does not accept solicitations, nominations, or submissions for Best Practices awards. We follow this model to keep the process pure and to ensure that our awards are based entirely on the merit of the product, service, or technology. Awards are open to all companies regardless of size, public or private status, and whether they use our research or not.
Our
Categories
Company of the Year
Recognized with a high degree of visionary innovation, market-leading performance, and unmatched customer care.
Must demonstrate excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Addressing Unmet Needs/Match to Needs
7. Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends
8. Implementation Best Practices/Excellence
9. Leadership Focus
10. Financial Performance
Competitive Strategy Leadership
Recognized with the stand-out approach to achieving top-line growth and superior customer experience.
Must demonstrate the competitive intelligence to successfully execute a strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning, and customer satisfaction.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Strategy Effectiveness
7. Strategy Execution
8. Competitive Differentiation
9. Executive Team Alignment
10. Stakeholder Integration
Customer Value Leadership
Recognized with a unique focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, that leads to improved customer retention and customer base expansion.
Must demonstrate excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on investment that customers make in its services or products.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Financial Performance
7. Customer Acquisition
8. Operational Efficiency
9. Growth Potential/Pipeline
10. Human Capital/Company Culture
Enabling Technology Leadership
Recognized for the use of technology in new ways to improve existing products and services and elevate the customer experience.
Must develop a pioneering technology that not only enhances current products but also enables the advancement of new products and applications.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Commitment to Innovation/Visionary Innovation
7. Commitment to Creativity
8. Stage Gate Efficiency
9. Commercialization Success
10. Application Diversity
Entrepreneurial Company of the Year
Recognized for the best up-and-coming, potentially disruptive market participant.
Must demonstrate excellence in devising a strong growth strategy and robustly implementing it, and showing strength in terms of innovation in products and technologies, leadership in customer value as well as speed in response to market needs.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Leadership Focus
7. Competitive Differentiation
8. Market Disruption
9. Market Gaps
10. Passionate Persistence
Market Leadership
Recognized with great market share resulting from outstanding performance, products, and services.
Must develop value-added features or benefits of a product and the increased ROI it offers customers, which, in turn, raises customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Implementation Best Practices/Excellence
7. Growth Strategy/Performance
8. Product Quality
9. Product Differentiation
10. Technology Leverage
New Product Innovation
Recognized with a new product or solution that uniquely addresses key customer challenges.
Must develop an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies.
Criteria:
1. Price/Performance Value
2. Customer Purchase Experience
3. Customer Ownership Experience
4. Customer Service Experience
5. Brand Equity/Strength/Loyalty
6. Addressing Unmet Needs/Match to Needs
7. Product Quality
8. Reliability
9. Positioning
10. Design
Product Leadership
Recognized with a product or solution with attributes that deliver the best quality, reliability, and performance in the industry.
Must develop a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid market acceptance.
Criteria:
1. Match to Needs
2. Financial Performance
3. Customer Acquisition
4. Operational Efficiency
5. Growth Potential/Pipeline
6. Human Capital/Company Culture
7. Reliability & Quality
8. Positioning
9. Design
10. Product/Service Value
Technology Innovation Leadership
Recognized with the best underlying technology for achieving remarkable product and customer success while driving future business value.
Must develop a unique and innovative technology that delivers significant customer value that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market.
Criteria:
1. Financial Performance
2. Customer Acquisition
3. Operational Efficiency
4. Growth Potential/Pipeline
5. Human Capital/Company Culture
6. Commitment to Innovation/Visionary Innovation
7. Commitment to Creativity
8. Stage Gate Efficiency
9. Commercialization Success
10. Application Diversity
Our
Promotion
Receiving a Best Practices Award allows recipients to take a step back and reflect on their achievements and celebrate them. Many might be at the very beginning of that journey, and for some, this comes as validation of years of hard work. We take pride in helping these trailblazers promote their recognition and showcasing how Best Practices award recipients are changing the world.
- Independent Validation and Endorsement
- Augmented Branding
- Bolstered Customer Outreach and Media Attention
- Distinguished Recognition of Unique Products/Services in the Market
- Validation of Employees’ Accomplishments
