THINC Special Section

A letter from Insight's Co-Owner/Publisher: Margaret LeBrun Kudos to our 3rd annual Insight Innova on Award winners! INSIGHT INNOVATION AWARDS: Nomina ons accepted for 2017 The Insight Innovation Awards are designed to encourage innovation among businesses in Northeast Wisconsin that lead to breakthrough technologies, processes and/or company cultures and make an important, positive impact on their companies, employees, customers, vendors, industries, communities and/ or the environment. Award winners serve as examples of best practices in innovation that significantly improve the bottom line, grow the business or heighten employee morale. They may also prove themselves as innovation leaders in their communities or their industries. Nominees will be notified of their nomination by Insight Publications and invited to fill out an application on our THINC! website. Self- nominations are encouraged! Eligibility: Any company based in the 18-county region of New North that has been in business for at least two years as of Jan. 1, 2017. Companies may be headquartered outside of the region but applicants must have leadership in Northeast Wisconsin. Questions? Contact Insight Co-Publisher/ Editor Margaret LeBrun at mlebrun@ insightonbusiness.com. WEBSITE: www.insightonbusiness.com/thinc We at Insight are pleased to share the stories of our 2016 Insight Innovation Award winners. Once again we have five winners, in the categories: People, Product, Process, Planet — plus a special award for Excellence in Customer Experience. Our categories drive home the reality that innovation comes in many forms. Some might automatically think, "Product," or invention. But when we convened a committee of individuals from across the region to help us formulate our awards process three years ago, they advised us to think beyond "things." It's exciting to see so much innovation going on in companies and organizations throughout the New North region. is year, 18 nominees submitted applications. Our five winners were announced at our annual THINC! event in May and recaps of their innovation stories appear in this special section. A list of our other nominees appears on this page. So, what does innovation look like in Northeast Wisconsin? It takes shape in the earth-friendly products created by Au Naturale Cosmetics, a Green Bay company that's making a national splash for its all natural ingredients. It shows up in the people-focused strategies in place at Nicolet Plastics Inc., which began with an overhaul of the way they create injection moldings at the Mountain-based plant six years ago and quickly realized an entirely new approach called for buy-in, consistent training and a fresh approach to job titles (they no longer exist). It appears in the products developed by metallurgists and engineers who create unique alloys for individual manufacturing customers of Winsert, in Marinette. It pops up in the innovative process in place at NOVO Health in Appleton, which bundles fees for services related to specific medical procedures, saving patients money and its client health organizations headaches. And innovation takes a fresh approach to patient care when it's woven into the construction of a health facility such as Fox Valley Hematology & Oncology, also in Appleton, which won our special award this year. Of course, many other companies are embracing innovation to gain an edge in our competitive, global economy. We expect to highlight the best of them in upcoming issues of Insight. Do you know an innovative company — or is your own company deploying innovation? Let us know! We will be asking for nominations for the 2017 awards before the end of this year. CatholicLink Cineviz Conger Industries energybank Evergreen Credit Union Fox Cities Regional Partnership Masters Gallery Foods McMAHON Navitus Health Solutions RENEW Plastics Variant Productions Wild Blue Technologies Wisconsin Plastics Also Nominated:

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