NSCA announces 2022 Excellence in Business Award winners

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA, Feb. 22, 2022 — NSCA, the leading not-for-profit association representing the commercial integration industry, is excited to announce 2022 Excellence in Business award winners in six categories:

• Business Performance: ASW (formerly Atlanta Soundworks), Fayetteville, GA
• Customer Experience: Taurus Technologies Inc., Flower Mound, TX
• Differentiating Strategies: Valley Communications Systems Inc., Chicopee, MA
• Employee Engagement: Mechdyne Corporation, Marshalltown, IA
• Strategic Transformation: Sound Incorporated, Naperville, IL
• Talent Development: Automation Arts LLC, Madison, WI

“This year, we’re especially impressed by the new strategies and initiatives that these innovative companies took on to develop new relationships, create new business, and keep up with how much the industry has changed in such a short period of time. These integrators have great stories to tell about how they’re continuously improving business,” says NSCA Executive Director Tom LeBlanc.

This year’s Excellence in Business awards honor six integrators in their successful efforts to adapt to the constantly changing industry, improving business along the way:

• ASW (formerly Atlanta Soundworks), winner in the Business Performance category, implemented Gino Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to organize the company’s mission, vision, values, and goals into a single document called the Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO). The document is shared with the entire organization and used by department heads to focus on near-term and long-term goals. It also provides accountability and focuses on decision making. As a result, ASW is achieving more than 90% of its operational and business goals, breaking the cycle of recurring issues that never get resolved.
• Taurus Technologies Inc., winner in the Customer Experience category, is always looking for ways to make the employee experience better. Over the last year, it instituted higher-level engagement before, during, and after projects to make sure information is clearly and concisely disseminated to customers. This initiative involved a custom-built CRM, an enhanced grading process that requires field staff to document even the most precise termination to make sure it meets quality standards, and a service that provides customers with custom QR codes to guide user experiences in each meeting room.
• Valley Communications Systems Inc., winner in the Differentiating Strategies category, strives to go above and beyond for each client. To do this, the company has deployed advanced technology, like 360-degree photography, laser measurement, and acoustical measurement devices. The design team assesses and considers the AV needs of every seat in the classroom, conference room, or theater, taking furniture layout, lighting, and ergonomics into account at every design phase. The company credits NSCA’s 2021 Business & Leadership Conference for starting internal dialogue about being more intentional and strategic, from expanding into emerging markets to reigniting a focus on ERP implementation. The company’s dedication to learning, improving, thinking outside the box, and delivering game-changing solutions is what continues to make it stand out.
• Mechdyne Corporation, winner in the Employee Engagement category, re-evaluates employee-engagement programs every year. This year, two new initiatives are being rolled out to support teammate development. The company believes that fulfilling its mission starts at home. As a result, it focuses on this question: “How can we enable teammates to discover new ways of thinking and remove obstacles to understanding themselves, each other, and the larger world?” A voluntary Beyond the Book program brings employees together in small groups to discuss takeaways after reading a book or listening to a podcast. They get to know each other across business units and on a more personal, meaningful level. At the manager level, the company is exploring the question: “What motivates our behavior and the behavior of teammates?” Each manager took an Enneagram Assessment to identify the personality types they resonate with. From there, ongoing training grows self-awareness and acceptance of teammates who respond differently to situations.
• Sound Incorporated, winner in the Strategic Transformation category, used to approach projects with teams of subject-matter experts dedicated to specific product portfolios: sound, security, or connectivity. With the advancement of cloud and convergence of software, data, network, and business efficiencies, the company decided to take a more unified approach, relying on the strengths of all engineers, solutions, technicians, and implementation specialists. The result: The ability to provide a true end-to-end solution. This approach gained traction as Sound looked to deliver top-level service amid the pandemic. The company focused on utilizing social platforms, sales enablement tools, messaging software, thought leadership webinars and luncheons, and strategic technology meetings with business partners. By investing in messaging as a multi-faceted market leader, implementing new software tools and processes, developing collaborative resources, and developing solution providers, Sound not only remained relevant to clients during troubling times, but also obtained consistent sales growth.
• Automation Arts LLC, winner in the Talent Development category, took on two initiatives over the past year. The first was the creation of Automation Arts University to facilitate an apprenticeship program that trains young individuals with little or no industry experience. A six-month program lets them shadow each department and learn about all facets of the business, including an in-field, hands-on unit to learn the basics of being a technician. The second initiative involved the formation of a partnership with 365 Nation to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion plan. Established in June 2021, two apprentices have already joined the program.

These six Excellence in Business award winners will be recognized at NSCA’s 24^th annual Business & Leadership Conference, Feb. 23-25, 2022, in Irving, TX. To learn more, visit www.nsca.org/blc.