Dell Small Business Excellence Award Judges

John Sibley Butler holds The Gale Chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business in the Graduate School of Business (Department of Management). He is the Director of the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship and the Director of the Institute for Innovation and Creativity (IC2).

Andy Freire

Andy Freire is co-founder and CEO of Axialent. He is an entrepreneur in both business and social realms. After working at Procter & Gamble, he founded and led Officenet, a company that revolutionized the industry of distribution (retail) of office supplies in Latin America. When he was eighteen, he created the Fundación Iniciativa for the promotion of leadership among Latin American youth.

Heather Gorringe

2008 Global Small Business Excellence Award Winner

Heather is the founder of Wiggly Wigglers and gets to do all the jobs nobody else wants to do. When she's not recording company podcasts, keeping the Wiggly Community together or sorting out the next catalog, you'll often find her on the telephone looking for great new products.

Charles Matthews, Ph.D.

Dr. Matthews is an internationally recognized scholar and teacher in the field of entrepreneurship. His teaching and research interests include: strategic management; small, entrepreneurial and family-owned ventures; and leadership succession in family/privately held firms.

Steve Felice

Steve Felice serves as senior vice president and president of Dell's Small and Medium Business group. In this role, he is responsible for operations, sales and marketing activities serving small and medium business customers worldwide and leads one the company's top five global initiatives. Prior to his current role, Mr. Felice was president of Dell's Asia Pacific and Japan region. More

U.S. Judges

Erik Dithmer
Dr. Mark Shenkel
Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy
John Lanier

Erik Dithmer

Erik serves as the vice president and general manager of Dell's Small and Medium Business group for North America. Since joining Dell in 1997, Erik has served in numerous leadership roles. Most recently, he was the vice president of U.S. Small and Medium Business sales.

Dr. Mark Schenkel

Mark is assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Belmont University. His research and teaching interests focus on the role entrepreneurial cognition (e.g., opportunity recognition and assessment) and strategic decision-making play in new venture creation, and corporate venturing activities. Mark is also a member of the International Council for Small Business.

Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy

Ayman is the executive director of the International Council for Small Business and a visiting assistant professor at the George Washington University's School of Business. He teaches in the full-time, part-time, and executive MBA programs and leads the primary entrepreneurship and case study methods course for GW Healthcare MBA program.

John Lanier

John serves as senior vice president of operations for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). He is responsible for the critical functions that support the entire organization in its efforts to safeguard the interests of small-business owners.

Official Rules

No Purchase Required. To enter, go to www.dell.com/ceaward, fill in a Contest application, and submit the requested materials. Contest is available to small businesses that employ 100 or fewer individual employees or individual independent contractors (full or part-time) headquartered in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some specific requirements will apply to entrants from various countries. See section [8] below for your country-specific rules. No government or quasi-governmental entities may enter. Person submitting application must be an officer or other authorized representative of the entrant. Businesses chosen to advance to the National Finalist round of judging described in section [5] will be required to verify the annual revenue submitted in their application. Winner and Finalists must submit unaudited financial statements from a certified public accountant by specified date or forfeit prize. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) will be provided for both parties to sign to ensure privacy of financial data.
Entrant will be required to demonstrate how the company has used information technology (IT) to deliver superior customer experience. They must 1) describe the innovative ways they use IT in their business to better serve customers(20% of score); 2) show how it has led to significant improvements in the experience of their customers (40% of score); 3) show how they use IT to better manage business operations (15% of score); 4) show how the innovative use of IT has affected the success of the business i.e. growth, profitability, cost reductions (15% of score); 5) tell how the company's use of IT creates a competitive advantage (10% of score). The judging panels made up of entrepreneurs, small-business experts and representatives from Dell and its partners will select up to 10 National Finalists per country, one National Winner per country, and one Global Winner.
Award Submissions must be complete on or before 11:59 p.m. EST, April 3, 2009. All entries become the exclusive property of Dell and will not be acknowledged or returned. Judges decisions are final.
In order to advance to Finalist judging, the top 30 to 50 entries per country, determined by Dell and its national partners, will be required to submit three customer testimonials and annual revenues for the past fiscal year. The additional information will aid in the Finalist and Winner judging sessions; see section [5] for additional details. Testimonials and 2008 revenues must be received between April 20 and May 1, 2009, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Ten National Finalists will be notified by email or phone by June 2009 and announced in July 2009. National Winners will be notified by email or phone by August 2009 and announced publicly in September 2009. (Note: individuals are not winners or finalists, only eligible companies as set forth in Rule 1.) The Global Award Winner will be announced in Fall 2009.
Judging Process and Prizes: Prizes will be awarded based on the results of three (3) phases of judging. PHASE ONE: Each country's Finalist judging panel will determine up to 10 country-level Finalists (up to 130 National Finalists selected worldwide) to be considered for that country's National Winner Award. Each of these National Finalists will receive a Dell business-class laptop computer with a maximum value of $1500 and a one-year membership to the individual country partner organization (if available). This membership cannot be exchanged for any cash amount under any circumstances and the Finalist must abide by any regulations or terms of membership imposed by the national partner. See section [8] below for your country-specific Finalist Award value. The National Finalist selected as the National Winner (13 National Winners total) forfeits their $1500 laptop award for the National Award value. PHASE TWO: The second phase of judging will determine the National Winner. The National Winner panel of judges will review the applications, testimonials, and revenue data for each National Finalist and determine a National Winner. The National Winners receive a day scheduled by Dell with Dell experts and other regional winners to share best practices, including conference time with Michael Dell, subject to his availability. Dell will make arrangements for the company owner plus two staff people (3 people per National Winner) to travel to a Dell chosen location within the region. Up to two nights of lodging, meals, ground and air transportation will be paid for by Dell (average value of "Day at Dell" travel package is between $4,500 and $10,000 per company, dependant on air travel costs). In addition, National Winners will receive $25,000 in technology and services from Dell to be used in Winner's business. Presented as a credit to be used for up to $15,000 in Dell Small-Business products only at Dell on-line prices at time of purchase prior to Oct. 31, 2010, as well as Dell professional services based on Dell's assessment of customer's business needs (up to a maximum $10,000 at standard Dell rates) used prior to Oct. 31, 2010. Finally, National Winners receive membership to the individual country partner organization (if available). This membership cannot be exchanged for any cash amount under any circumstances and the Winner must abide by any regulations or terms of membership imposed by the national partner. See section [8] below for your country-specific Winner Award value. The National Winner selected as the Global Winner forfeits their $25,000 technology award for the Global Award value. PHASE THREE: The third phase of judging will determine the Global Winner. The Global Winner panel of judges will review the applications, testimonials, and revenue data for each National Winner and determine a Global Winner. The Global Winner will be featured in a global entrepreneur's summit, including conference time with Michael Dell, subject to his availability. Dell will make arrangements for the company owner plus one staff person to travel to the summit (location to be announced). Up to two nights of lodging, meals, ground and air transportation will be paid for by Dell (average value of summit travel package is between $4,000 and $8,000, dependant on air travel costs). In addition, the Global Winner will receive $50,000 in technology and services from Dell to be used in Winner's business. Presented as a credit to be used for up to $30,000 in Dell Small-Business products only at Dell on-line prices at time of purchase prior to Oct. 31, 2010, as well as Dell professional services based on Dell's assessment of customer's business needs (up to a maximum $20,000 at standard Dell rates) used prior to Oct. 31, 2010. Finally, the Global Winner will receive a lifetime membership to the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) and engagement with Endeavor's network of business leaders and high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets worldwide. This membership cannot be exchanged for any cash amount under any circumstances and the winner must abide by any regulations or terms of membership imposed by ICSB. (Global prize value is approximately $70,000). No cash or prize substitutions or transfer of prizes, except by Dell, who reserves the right to substitute a prize or prize component at its sole discretion with cash or another prize of comparable or greater value. Winner's technology and services purchases from Dell must be used in Winner's business; Dell reserves the right to limit Winner's technology and services choices to those that can be used in Winner's business.
Dell, ICSB, Endeavor and NFIB assume no responsibility for lost, stolen, delayed, damaged or misdirected entries or for any failure of the website during the entry period, for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, access providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail or entry to be received by Dell on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof including any injury or damage to an entrant's or any other person's computer related to or resulting from entering or down loading any material in connection with this contest. Dell, ICSB, Endeavor and NFIB reserve the right, in their sole discretion to cancel or suspend this contest should a virus, bug or other cause beyond the reasonable control of Dell corrupt the security or proper administration of the contest. Any attempt to deliberately damage any web site or to undermine the legitimate operation of this promotion is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, Dell reserves the right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent permitted by law, including criminal prosecution.
Except where prohibited by law, Winners and Finalists consent to the use of entrant's name and logo and entrant materials (with the exception of confidential financial information) in publicity, advertising and promotional materials for Dell and/or ICSB, Endeavor, NFIB, without further compensation, and agree to cause entrant principals to appear, by name and photograph, in such materials. Submission of an entry further constitutes the entrant's irrevocable assignment and transfer to Dell, ICSB, Endeavor and NFIB any and all rights, title and interest in and to the submission including, without limitation, the copyright and all intellectual property rights and the right to publish and exploit the submission in any and all media worldwide, without limitation and without compensation to the entrant, and entrant may or may not be attributed as the source of the entry material.
Country Specific Requirements: Applicants from the UNITED STATES must be a for-profit "C" or "S" corporation, limited liability company limited liability partnership or other partnership, or sole proprietorship formed pursuant to the laws of the fifty states or the District of Columbia of the United States of America, and in good standing in the relevant jurisdiction. U.S. National Finalists receive a one-year membership in the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). U.S. Finalist prize value is approximately $1750. The U.S. National Winner receives lifetime membership to NFIB. National U.S. prize value is approximately $45,000.

Except where prohibited, you agree that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the Contest or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, your rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of the Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Texas, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of Texas or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of Texas.

Sponsors:

Dell, Inc. One Dell Way, MS RR3-06, Round Rock, TX 78682

Endeavor, 900 Broadway, Suite 600, New York, NY 10003

ICSB, GWU School of Business, 2201 G. Street, NW, Funger Hall Suite 315, Washington, D.C. 20052

National Federation of Independent Business, 1201 F Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20004

Global Partners

U.S. Partners

Dell Small Business Excellence Award