Based on its review, the panel will select up to three winning stories:

• First Prize Winner: receiving a $5,000 honorarium
• Second Prize Winner: receiving a $3,500 honorarium
• Third Prize Winner: receiving a $1,500 honorarium

Winners will be announced in September 2010. 

Olin Business School will create a compendium of selected qualified submissions (comprised of information written on the attached Entry Form and a Web link to the story on the publishing source’s Website, if available online), and widely distribute the compendium to further increase the awareness, understanding and impact of the collective authors’ works, including:

• Using the compendium for case studies and case competitions at Olin Business School to augment the educational experience of Olin students
• Sending it electronically free of charge to all accredited business schools for use in their academic programs
• Sending it electronically free of charge to all submitting journalists
• Olin faculty member collaborating with journalist to expand analysis into a formal business case for teaching

Contest Description & Entry Rules
The following entry rules must be met to qualify:

• The 2010 Olin Corporate Strategy Prize competition is open to professional journalists who have published a story in the last two years profiling a company that has recently undergone or is undergoing significant strategic change.
• The submitted story must profile a publicly traded or privately held company with revenues of $500 million or more that has initiated a significant and timely fundamental change of direction in its corporate strategy, business strategy and/or functional strategy. The intended change in direction must be transformational (as opposed to incremental and serendipitous), and as such, position the company to reinvent itself (as opposed to merely create successful product line extensions). A tightly integrated article series that deals with the particular company is also acceptable; on the Entry Form, list all dates that the articles in the series were published. In addition, the focus of the article may also be a number of interrelated named companies that have undergone or are undergoing a strategic corporate change, e.g., a group of industry competitors; several companies in different industries that are based in same geographic region; etc. In such cases, provide data on the Entry Form for each company that is central to the published story.
• The entry must include a story published in print or online mass media during the prior two years, i.e., between May 2008-April 2010 for the 2010 Award. A story can be submitted for consideration only once. A video or audio report that appeared online or in broadcast during these dates may be entered; however, the submission must also include a written transcription of the video or audio report.
• The story must have been written by a reporter or columnist whose major source of income comes from reporting, writing and publishing work in print or online mass media; for stories with contributing authors, the award submission should be by the principal author.  (Stories written by corporate communications or public relations professionals, or that are otherwise written or designed with the intent of promoting a given firm or industry, or for which the author or the author’s employer received any gain (cash or in-kind) from the company covered in the story, do not qualify. The competition is not open to employees of Washington University in St. Louis.)
• The story must be a minimum of 1500 words
• A fully completed and signed “Olin Corporate Strategy Prize 2010 Entry Form” – attached
• All submissions must be in English (may be translated from original published version)
• Submissions may be by hard copy or PDF; Web links and URLs must be active to be considered.
• A one paragraph bio of the writer (150 words maximum)
• Deadline for submissions: postmarked or e-dated June 30, 2010