What makes a top tier awards submission?

Thinking about entering into the Asset Management Excellence Awards 2021? Hear from some of our judges and IAM experts what they think makes an excellent awards submission.

John Meehan:

"A good submission will be challenging, technically sound and able to show how value has been created and measured. In addition, I often consider how the individual, team or organisation approached the challenge. For example, this could include:

• How the approach adopted has demonstrated alignment with organisational goals and why it was better than other options.
• How were stakeholders affected and engaged?
• Working collaboratively across organisational functions. Demonstration of seeking the best overall outcome rather than what was best for one team in isolation. How were other teams brought along on the journey?
• Willingness to admit mistakes may have been made, either in the past or as part of the implementation in question, and using this as an opportunity to make things better.
• Demonstrating an understanding of the full breadth of risks that may have been involved and how these have been optimised.
• What are the plans for further improvement?"

Dr Clive Deadman

"People and organisations who make top submissions should demonstrate great outcomes. Perhaps with auditable achievements or third party recommendations. People and teams who do this have often worked away from their day job and across difficult interfaces. This could be great engineers winning the confidence of their finance director or busy front line staff. And we all need to demonstrate a sincere commitment to delivery outstanding customer service. After all our customers pay for and need everything we do."

Sarah Robinson (LinkedIn)

"One of the key aspects I look for as a judge is evidence of a sense of strategic purpose and vision. Did the candidates set out with clear objectives and do they demonstrate that in their submission? Targets may change over time but without regular review and at least an estimate of what success will look like, it’s difficult to know if your asset management strategy is working. Projects can be long term so sometimes it’s tricky to prove success at the time of submission, but evidence that you know what your asset management project success will look like is very helpful for a judge. Also, ensure that the submission text focuses on the key points so that they don’t get lost in paragraphs of maybe less relevant text. Less can sometimes be more if your key messages are communicated clearly. So, those two things and putting the information in the right boxes on the submission form! 😊"

John Green

"Simply follow these BASIC principles… (OK the S is a little tenuous!)

• Benefits: Are there demonstrable, tangible benefits? For example cost savings, performance improvements, environmental enhancements or an enabler to guide decision making. For me an initiative or project needs to be more than just an idea or an in-flight change programme to be winner, it needs to start realising the benefits
• Alignment: The asset management principle of alignment needs to be thoroughly considered. It has to work in the context of the organisation, how does this submission support the organisation in achieving the its asset management strategy and corporate objectives? How does this align to other existing activities, upstream and downstream?
• (Super) Value: It simply has to be worth it! Are the effort and resources involved proportionate to the outcome and benefits? Is there a considered balance between cost, risk and performance? And how has this been evaluated when developing a solution. If it’s data related is that data at an appropriate level of granularity to make the desired decisions?
• Innovative: It’s always exciting to see submissions that move our profession forward and develop our asset management thinking and knowledge, however it’s also important to recognise the smaller, well managed and well thought through improvements as these can often also make a huge difference to an organisition. Submissions don’t always have to be the big, exciting, ground-breaking projects, especially in organisation where asset management is not yet firmly established.
• Collaboration: The submission needs to demonstrate exceptional collaboration with a varied range of stakeholders. Involving and including the perspectives or a range of stakeholders across the organisation and beyond. Including different levels of seniority, business areas (upstream and downstream), perspectives and experience."

Andy Watts

“Over the years, each of the IAM award winners have caught the judges' eye by drafting submissions that are both easy to read and make it very clear how the achievement they putting forward meets all the award criteria. Whether it is an individual, team or organisation that contributed to the achievement, it is important to describe how those involved all played their part, the skills they brought and how these were used to deliver the achievement. Finally, the submission must explain what benefits were realised through the achievement and why and to whom these added value. Good luck!”