2020 Economic Impact Awards Editor's Note and Judging Process

In the midst of a global health pandemic and economic recession, the 2020 Economic Impact Awards honorees are continuing to find ways to positively affect their community, organizations, employees and customers. The majority of this year’s companies receiving top honors are among the most affected industries by COVID-19: restaurant, hospitality and health care. Bravo to the winners, and all the honorees, for their ingenuity and perseverance.

I also give a round of applause to the judges who took their time to read and score the nominations, and a heartfelt thanks to you, our readers, for your continued support of Springfield Business Journal as we head into our 41st year in business.

—Christine Temple, Features Editor

Here’s the Economic Impact Awards selection process from start to finish:

1. Nominations are submitted from across the community.

2. Nominees are notified and given questionnaires to fill out for judges’ consideration.

3. SBJ selects an independent panel of judges to evaluate each submitted questionnaire, along with a resume and letter of recommendation for individual nominees.

4. Judges individually score each applicant based on their financial performance, community involvement and overall impact on the Ozarks region.

5. Judges are asked to recuse themselves from scoring any nominee who would be considered a conflict of interest.


6. SBJ tallies all judges’ scores to determine the top three companies in each category. In each of the five categories honoring businesses based on years of service, a top honor is given based on judges’ scores.

7. SBJ announces the honorees and reveals the year’s judges.