Innovation Leader, a fast-growing media and events company focused on helping the world’s largest companies build competitive advantage, recently awarded Merchants Fleet with a 2019 Impact Award.
The award recognized Merchants Fleet’s INNOV8 program, which offers training and resources to help employees innovate solutions by thinking and acting differently.
The Impact Awards honor companies that have achieved extraordinary outcomes related to their corporate innovation programs. Merchants was specifically honored in the category of “Best New Initiative.” The INNOV8 program was launched in January of 2019.
Throughout the year it has included design thinking training, an innovation coaching academy, quarterly awards for individuals and teams, and celebration of both large, disruptive breakthroughs (what the company calls “Big Is”) and smaller process or service improvements (called “little is”). Outputs have included a partnership with Southern New Hampshire University, new ways for companies in proximity to share vehicles, and more flexible leasing options for clients.
“Innovation is one of our core values at Merchants Fleet, and we wanted to create a system where all employees are empowered to come to the table with ideas – big or small,” said Amanda E. Rogers, VP of Marketing & Innovation. “As the automotive industry undergoes significant changes and our clients demand more flexible, responsive, and on-demand solutions, we have to keep pace by offering more creative, outside-the-box options. Our INNOV8 program has helped us accomplish exactly that, and we are excited and honored to be recognized by Innovation Leader for those efforts.”
Other award winners included Adtalem Global Education, Robert Bosch GmbH, Citi Ventures, Delta Cafés, Duke Energy, Houston Methodist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Winners will be celebrated and more about their initiatives will be presented at Impact 2019,the only innovation conference designed exclusively for corporate innovators. Impact 2019 will take place in San Francisco, CA from October 22-24, 2019.
