HANOVER, March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Modern leaders who act in networks with transparency and agility are not only successful - they deserve an award. At the exhibition grounds in Hanover yesterday evening, the Leader in the Digital Age Award was presented for the third time running on the occasion of the CeBIT 2013. In front of an invited audience of 300 guests, the winners accepted the awards at the award-giving ceremony held in the NordLB forum.

The LIDA Award is presented to visionary heads who promote contemporary new management models and live values such as openness, participation, networking and agility. The former CIO of Bayer Material Science, Kurt De Ruwe, was given the LIDA Award in the "Managers" category this year. De Ruwe, who now holds the position of CIO at Phillips Lighting, was honoured as an IT decision-maker who frequently includes feedback from employees in the design of technical solutions. His motto: innovations are not an end in themselves but are there to network people. The jury was particularly impressed by his project of introducing social software at Bayer Material Science.

In the "Pioneers" category, it was the software company salesforce.com that received the LIDA Award. Agility and readiness to change are the two main values which this company has taken to heart. Since being founded by Marc Benioff in 1999, salesforce.com has exclusively devoted its efforts to supplying enterprise software via the Internet. Its focus on the cloud has made the California company one of the most rapidly growing software companies in the world. Internally, too, salesforce.com is not organized along classical lines: the 10,000-employee company is characterized by flexible structures, agile procedures for projects and the playful way in which its employees network globally and openly share information in order to be in a position to react quickly.

Pop singer Amanda Palmer was presented with the award in the "Entertainment" category for the crowdfunding campaign with which she financed her new album. She remarked on the great upheavals which digitalization and networking bring. "We are in the middle of a huge process of transformation. Companies and managers can learn from artists who make use of these opportunities. It's not necessarily the right way for everyone, but you can unleash a lot of potential if you build up dense networks by interacting with others."

The LIDA Award in the "Non-profit" category went to Mari Kuraishi, co-founder of GlobalGiving.org. This charity platform networks donators with grassroots initiatives worldwide. GlobalGiving.org catalogues a wide range of proven projects from all parts of the globe according to regional and thematic criteria. It allows private and institutional sponsors as well as those in charge of CSR in companies to find individual development projects. With GlobalGiving.org, the jury honoured a project which networks people and initiates positive developments.

The evening left the organizers and sponsors of the award with a positive impression: "We have now presented the LIDA Award for the third time, and I am very gratified to see that this event and our worldwide LIDA network are changing constantly," says jury member and LIDA initiator Dr. Willms Buhse from doubleYUU. "It is our ambition to build bridges for executives - to learn from the best how to transfer the success pattern from the Internet to companies in Germany. We only have international winners this year, so we have the opportunity to present fantastic models of success which can be a real source of inspiration for managers in this country."

Maria Gomez, Director IBM, Social Business and Collaboration Solutions IBM Germany, also thought the evening was a resounding success: "The winners of the LIDA Award all have one thing in common: they know how to use networking as a strategic instrument for success. What we saw on the stage here were four inspiring examples showing just how worthwhile this is."

"Disruptive technologies make new business models possible and allow a new type of interaction and dialogue with the customer," said jury member Thomas Spreitzer, CMO T-Systems International. "The people honoured with an award today have furnished impressive proof of this with their leadership and focus on the customer."

Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Messe AG, is happy to give the presentation of the LIDA Award a home at the CeBIT: "The Internet is the motor behind processes of transformation in virtually all sectors of industry. To find the right answers to the problems posed by these challenges, we need new concepts of leadership. Today we got to know a few personalities we can learn a lot from in this respect."

The Leader in the Digital Age Award (LIDA Award):

The LIDA Award is presented on behalf of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labour and Transport. The aim of the award is to draw attention to future-proof management models which promote the principles of the digital age - openness, transparency and agility - and the people who develop them. The prize, which has been awarded since 2011, developed from cooperation between the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics and more than 20 well-known German companies under the leadership of Dr. Willms Buhse, expert for networked cooperation and founder of the management consultancy doubleYUU. The 2013 jury included the following people: Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Messe AG, Prof. Dr. Carsten Winter, Department of Journalism and Communication Research (IJK) at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH), Thomas Spreitzer, CMO T-Systems International, Maria Gomez, Director Collaboration Solutions, IBM Germany, Herbert K. Haas, CEO Talanx AG and Cordelia Krooß, Senior Community Manager BASF and LIDA award-winner in the "Newcomers" category in 2012.

http://www.lidaaward.com

Contact:

LIDA Award / doubleYUU
Anja Hahn
T: +49(0)-40-33429594
anja.hahn@doubleyuu.com

SOURCE doubleYUU GmbH & Co. KG