Corporate University Xchange Honors 22 Leading Organizations for Excellence in Corporate Education and Improving Business Results

New York, New York, February 13, 2004 - The Fifth Annual Corporate University Xchange (CUX) Excellence Awards, held in December at Harvard Business School, honored 22 corporate learning organizations that have demonstrated excellence and innovation in improving organizational performance and delivering measurable business benefits.

The CUX awards, which are co-sponsored by Fortune Magazine, recognized organizations for their accomplishments in the following areas:

• Alignment: Successfully aligning learning and development programs with the organization's business strategies;
• Measurement: Measuring the value of an organization's investment in learning
• Marketing: Developing and implementing innovative marketing and branding techniques;
• Leadership Development: Developing current and future leaders through programs that apply a strategic, organization-wide approach to leadership development;
• Alliances: Creating innovative learning alliances with external providers, such as traditional universities and e-learning vendors, to offer educational and training programs.
• e-Learning: Creating a learning environment through technology;
• Launching: Successfully launching a new corporate university or leadership academy in 2003/2004; and
• Transformation: Best overall transformation of a corporate university

"The judges were unanimously impressed by the overall quality of this year's Awards applications. The level of achievement has been outstanding," said Mark Allen, President and CEO, Corporate University Xchange. "Challenging economic conditions have bread excellence. Organizations are now much more focused on driving continual business improvement. More and more of the corporate universities are targeting key business performance metrics and developing practical and innovative ways to measure and demonstrate their impact. This stands out in stark contrast with last year, where measurement was an unsolved problem for many."

The organizations presented with CUX awards include:

• Alignment:
  • Defense Acquisition University, Department of Defense - Award of Excellence
  • General Motors - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • First Data Corporation - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Measurement:
  • Defense Acquisition University, Department of Defense - Award of Excellence
  • Highmark - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • IBM - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Marketing:
  • Deloitte - Award of Excellence
  • Schwan's - Best Practice Honorary Distinction0
  • City of Houston - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Leadership Development:
  • IBM and Boeing - Award of Excellence
  • FedEx Ground - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • General Motors - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Alliances:
  • AT&T in partnership with Rio Salado College - Award of Excellence
  • eArmy University - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • SAIC - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• e-Learning:
  • Harley Davidson - Award of Excellence
  • AmeriCredit - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • Defense Acquisition University, Department of Defense - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Launching:
  • UBS - Award of Excellence
  • Florida Power & Light - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
  • North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System - Best Practice Honorary Distinction
• Best Overall Transformation
  • Schwan's

"Leadership has been a challenging area that many organizations addressed this past year, developing innovative approaches for engaging and developing current and future leaders," Allen noted. "For example, UBS, a winner this year in the "Launching" category, began their leadership development program by engaging the board of directors as mentors for key management positions. They then extended that pattern throughout the organization to establish a culture in which all leaders serve as teachers and mentors for the next generation. This has had a powerful impact on their corporate culture - establishing a common corporate wide identity with consistent vision and purpose. We can learn a great deal from the innovative practices and lessons learned from this year's winners."

The top CUX award winner in each category was featured in the January issue of Fortune Magazine. About Corporate University Xchange
Corporate University Xchange (CUX) is the leading provider of corporate university research, benchmarking, and advisory services for helping organizations transform corporate learning. The aim of CUX research and services is to maximize corporate investments in training and development to deliver improved business results. For more information, please visit CUX on the web at www.corpu.com.