Following the successful first year, AECOM kicks off second year of employee innovation program
LOS ANGELES (Oct. 19, 2017) — AECOM, a premier, fully integrated global infrastructure firm, announced today the launch of its second annual Global Challenge. The employee competition leverages gamification to encourage and incentivize all employees to anticipate clients’ most complex challenges and develop innovative products and services in alignment with AECOM’s strategic vision. The winning teams will receive support to develop their ideas for potential release in the marketplace.
“Our annual Global Challenge is a great opportunity for our employees to realize their big ideas with the focused resources and support of AECOM by their side,” said Michael S. Burke, AECOM chairman and chief executive officer. “By providing an ideation platform, identifying those solutions with the highest potential and shaping them for success in the marketplace, we can help to strategically accelerate employee ideas from concept to commercialization.”
2017 marks the second year of the competition and encourages employees around the globe to develop creative and impactful solutions for reinventing the cities we live and work in; ushering in a new era of multi-modal transportation, transforming the ways we use and protect our natural resources; tackling the challenges of climate change and natural disasters; advancing the use of technology like augmented and virtual reality; and dreaming big with other innovations that help deliver a better world.
Launched in late 2016, the inaugural competition received over 700 entries representing 235 offices across 32 countries. The submissions were evaluated by a committee of AECOM executives and subject matter experts against criteria focused on the vision and predicted impact of the innovation, its ability to deliver game-changing advantages to our clients and its market potential to drive growth.
Selected from the original entries, 25 semifinalists received support from MBA students at leading universities in AECOM’s A-Lab program. This program was designed as a dynamic startup environment that fosters entrepreneurial learning while acting as a center of interaction between employees and universities around the world. It applies the expertise of graduate students to support employees in the evaluation and positioning of their innovations for success in the marketplace.
This past summer, five teams were named the inaugural Global Challenge winners with ideas spanning improved air quality, environmental remediation, complex site management, technology in support of connected and autonomous vehicles and innovations that drive efficiencies in the semiconductor industry. These teams are now working to accelerate development of these concepts and move their innovation into its commercial market.
For more information on the AECOM Global Innovation Challenge, visit https://aecom.com/careers/global-challenge/.
About AECOM
AECOM is built to deliver a better world. We design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets for governments, businesses and organizations in more than 150 countries. As a fully integrated firm, we connect knowledge and experience across our global network of experts to help clients solve their most complex challenges. From high-performance buildings and infrastructure, to resilient communities and environments, to stable and secure nations, our work is transformative, differentiated and vital. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM had revenue of approximately $17.4 billion during fiscal year 2016. See how we deliver what others can only imagine at aecom.com and @AECOM.
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