WESTPORT, Conn., Nov. 10, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Identity Circle LLC was awarded a Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) "Innovation Prize" for the firm's work on "Identity-Based Management" and its role as a driver of corporate value creation. The award was presented at the 22nd Annual Conference on Quality and Innovation in Westbrook, Connecticut.
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The CQIA is America's first state-level quality award that uses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality for Performance Excellence criteria. The Identity Circle is a research, consulting and education firm based in Westport, Connecticut, founded by Larry Ackerman.
The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award's 15-year old "Innovation Prize" is presented to organizations with facilities in Connecticut that have used innovation to create new opportunities or solve existing problems, and can demonstrate, numerically, the benefits to customers and clients.
The Innovation Challenge
According to Mr. Ackerman, The Identity Circle's work on the innovation challenge has involved identifying the root cause of business problems rather than their symptoms. "In my experience, even top-flight strategy consulting firms don't go far enough in understanding the root cause of success and failure and thus limit their impact on clients', as well as their own, growth. In response, The Identity Circle has developed a process for tapping an organization's core identity as its source of value creation," he said.
Mr. Ackerman argues that "identity" is the unique characteristics that reveals a company's value-creating potential - its ability to make a proprietary contribution in the marketplace and the world. This process, which Mr. Ackerman started developing in 1984, is Identity-Based Management, which was codified in his book, Identity Is Destiny: Leadership and the Roots of Value Creation (Berrett-Koehler, 2000). The process involves working around business conventions, such as how a company is organized (e.g., its divisions), its current business model, its culture and its products and services, in order to clarify how it creates value as one enterprise.
The Identity Circle recently released a quantitative research study entitled "The Identity Effect: Cracking the Code on Value Creation," which confirms that organizational identity strength drives high levels of employee engagement and business performance. The report is available as a free download at http://www.theidentitycircle.com/library/type/identity_impact_survey/.
To arrange a conversation with Larry Ackerman of The Identity Circle, please contact Itay Engelman at Sommerfield Communications, Inc. at 212-255-8386 or itay@sommerfield.com.
About The Identity Circle
The Identity Circle LLC (http://www.theidentitycircle.com/) is a research, consulting and education company that helps organizations and individuals clarify and capitalize on their unique, value-creating capacities in ways that improve performance, impact and reputation. The company offers Identity Impact Surveys, specialized consulting programs for senior executives and their teams and Identity Mapping(R) courses for employees and individuals.
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About the Award
The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award, Inc. was founded in 1987 in an effort to advance innovative programs that improve quality, performance, and marketplace competitiveness in the state of Connecticut.
