NEW YORK, November 12, 2001—Denene Smerdon, a quality assurance associate at Philips Lighting Company in Somerset, N.J., received American Management Association’s 2001 Innovation Award for Administrative Professionals. Denene was presented the award during a luncheon ceremony at AMA’s 9th Annual Administrative Professionals Conference in San Francisco on November 12. In addition to a plaque recognizing her contributions at Philips Lighting, Denene received an all-expenses-paid trip to the conference compliments of American Management Association.

AMA’s Innovation Award strives to identify and celebrate outstanding examples of creative problem solving and innovation in administrative support. The primary purpose of the award is to serve as an inspiration to administrative professionals as they advance in their professional development and seek new knowledge, behaviors and skills.

“This truly was our most exciting competition to date,” said Mico Zinty, director of AMA’s Innovation Award. “We doubled the number of entries and tripled the number of inquiries over last year. The entries were diverse, interesting and competitive, making it a very difficult decision for our panel of judges,” Zinty said in presenting the award to Denene.

As a result of an expansion in distribution that generated a threefold increase in retail consumer inquiries, Denene and her colleague, Lisa Andre, set out to streamline the process Philips Lighting used to respond to consumers. Within two months, Denene and Lisa developed a process flowchart, which is now included in Philips’ employee policy. With no budget allotted to this project and only time and effort dedicated to its completion, Denene’s and Lisa’s new workflow process has achieved a 93.5 percent decrease in the need to mail response letters, thereby saving the company mailing costs. In addition, it has decreased the time and resources needed to complete the excessive filing and paperwork, leaving these employees to focus on other areas of responsibility and promoting growth throughout the organization.

“This award was created in 1999 to celebrate outstanding examples of creative problem solving and innovation in office support,” Zinty said. “Each year this award acknowledges the outstanding efforts of office professionals, working individually or in teams, and encourages others to seek opportunities to demonstrate the contributions they can make to their organizations.”

Entries were judged on the basis of documented positive results related to at least one of the following: savings, efficiency, productivity, problem solved, problem prevention, employee morale, accuracy and integrity of operations, customer satisfaction, organizational effectiveness and organizational communication.

To be eligible for the award, the innovation must have been developed and implemented by administrative professionals and must provide tangible, sustainable, and replicable examples of excellence that can assist others facing similar work and productivity issues. The innovation also must have been implemented for at least six months prior to the application deadline.

Executive secretaries, executive assistants, administrative assistants, personal assistants, secretaries, coordinators, office managers and receptionists are encouraged to apply for AMA’s 2002 Innovation Award.

Headquartered in Somerset, N.J., Philips Lighting Company markets more than 3,000 lighting products to the retail, industrial/commercial, consumer and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) markets. Philips Lighting innovations have included ALTO® low-mercury lamp technology, the compact fluorescent lamp, QL Induction Lighting and the halogen automotive headlamp. Philips Halogená™ Brilliant Crystal bulb is “The Official Light Bulb of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.” As part of the largest lighting company in the world, Philips Lighting employs almost 10,000 people in manufacturing, sales and distribution facilities throughout North America.

American Management Association is the world’s leading membership-based management development organization. It is distinguished by the quality of its faculty of global business practitioners, the practical, action-oriented focus of its learning programs and the dynamic, interactive nature of its courses. AMA offers a full range of business education and management development programs for individuals and organizations in the Americas, Asia and Europe. More than 700,000 AMA customers and members a year, including 486 of the Fortune 500 companies and many federal agencies, learn superior business skills and best management practices through a variety of seminars, conferences and executive forums, e-learning and self-study courses, books, research studies and on-site and customized learning solutions.