For more than 20 years, the Top 100 award has signified innovative ability, thirst for knowledge and team spirit. Germany's most successful ideas factories will again receive this coveted accolade on 27 June when Top 100 mentor Ranga Yogeshwar presents the awards at the German SME Summit in Essen. compamedia, the initiator of the Top 100 project, expects more than 1,000 guests to attend the ceremony. Venjakob Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG from Rheda-Wiedenbrück is among the top innovators.
The Top 100 company Venjakob Maschinenbau is a traditional operation which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary. Just how young-at-heart - i.e. innovative - the Westphalian company is can be seen from the fact that last year half of its revenue and half of its profits came from new products and improvements that it has launched on the market ahead of its competitors since 2011. The top innovator's success is also reflected in its excellent mar-ket position. As a systems developer and manufacturer of spray coating machines, exhaust air filtering technology and handling equipment, the company is a world market leader with its own international patents. It employs 220 people.
The family-owned company from Rheda-Wiedenbrück also impressed the Top 100 judges with the focus on innovation provided by its senior manage-ment, who devote 20 per cent of their time exclusively to product develop-ment. Ten days a year are devoted to CPD.
General Manager Christian Nüßer believes the company's success in the Top 100 competition is a very special achievement: "We see winning the Top 100 accolade as a reward for our joint efforts in the company, but being inno-vative means not resting on your laurels. We may be celebrating today, but tomorrow we will be back at work experimenting with new ideas."
There was a challenging selection process before the companies made it into the Top 100. Innovation researcher Professor Nikolaus Franke and his team from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business examined applications from 247 companies. The top innovator award was conferred on 148 of them in three size-based categories (with a maximum of 100 companies per category). The study focused on innovations management and successful innovation.
"The Top 100 companies are extremely adept at translating their ideas into market successes, a hurdle at which many other companies fall. Strong team spirit and efficient processes enable the leading innovators to overcome this challenge, and they often also involve customers and external partners at an early stage of development," said Professor Franke.
A glance at the statistics demonstrates the high standard of this year's Top 100, which include 65 German market leaders and as many as 21 world market leaders. In the past three years, the top innovators have together reg-istered almost 2,100 German and international patents. Innovative capability has resulted in remarkable success for the companies, with 82 per cent of them exceeding the mean growth rate in their sector between 2011 and 2013 - on average by an impressive 22 percentage points. The proportion of their revenue attributable to innovative improvements and products new to the market was 41.6 per cent, compared with an average of just 6.8 per cent for all SMEs in Germany, while 62 per cent of the Top 100 are family owned.
Mentor
The Top 100 mentor is the journalist and television presenter Ranga Yogeshwar.
Project management and partner
This project has been managed by Professor Nikolaus Franke of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since 2002. The focus of his research is on entrepreneurship, innovations management and marketing and he is one of the world's leading experts in the field of user innovation. The Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research is the Top 100 project partner. Further information is available at www.top100.de.
compamedia - mentor to Germany's top SMEs
compamedia GmbH was founded in 1993 and has a team of 19 employees who organise the Top 100, Top Job and Top Consultant competitions for German SMEs. It also launched the Ethics in Business alliance for ethical values. It supports and awards prizes to small and medium-sized firms for outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, human resources management, consulting and corporate social responsibility. compamedia works closely with leading universities on all of its projects.
The Top 100 company Venjakob Maschinenbau is a traditional operation which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary. Just how young-at-heart - i.e. innovative - the Westphalian company is can be seen from the fact that last year half of its revenue and half of its profits came from new products and improvements that it has launched on the market ahead of its competitors since 2011. The top innovator's success is also reflected in its excellent mar-ket position. As a systems developer and manufacturer of spray coating machines, exhaust air filtering technology and handling equipment, the company is a world market leader with its own international patents. It employs 220 people.
The family-owned company from Rheda-Wiedenbrück also impressed the Top 100 judges with the focus on innovation provided by its senior manage-ment, who devote 20 per cent of their time exclusively to product develop-ment. Ten days a year are devoted to CPD.
General Manager Christian Nüßer believes the company's success in the Top 100 competition is a very special achievement: "We see winning the Top 100 accolade as a reward for our joint efforts in the company, but being inno-vative means not resting on your laurels. We may be celebrating today, but tomorrow we will be back at work experimenting with new ideas."
There was a challenging selection process before the companies made it into the Top 100. Innovation researcher Professor Nikolaus Franke and his team from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business examined applications from 247 companies. The top innovator award was conferred on 148 of them in three size-based categories (with a maximum of 100 companies per category). The study focused on innovations management and successful innovation.
"The Top 100 companies are extremely adept at translating their ideas into market successes, a hurdle at which many other companies fall. Strong team spirit and efficient processes enable the leading innovators to overcome this challenge, and they often also involve customers and external partners at an early stage of development," said Professor Franke.
A glance at the statistics demonstrates the high standard of this year's Top 100, which include 65 German market leaders and as many as 21 world market leaders. In the past three years, the top innovators have together reg-istered almost 2,100 German and international patents. Innovative capability has resulted in remarkable success for the companies, with 82 per cent of them exceeding the mean growth rate in their sector between 2011 and 2013 - on average by an impressive 22 percentage points. The proportion of their revenue attributable to innovative improvements and products new to the market was 41.6 per cent, compared with an average of just 6.8 per cent for all SMEs in Germany, while 62 per cent of the Top 100 are family owned.
Mentor
The Top 100 mentor is the journalist and television presenter Ranga Yogeshwar.
Project management and partner
This project has been managed by Professor Nikolaus Franke of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since 2002. The focus of his research is on entrepreneurship, innovations management and marketing and he is one of the world's leading experts in the field of user innovation. The Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research is the Top 100 project partner. Further information is available at www.top100.de.
compamedia - mentor to Germany's top SMEs
compamedia GmbH was founded in 1993 and has a team of 19 employees who organise the Top 100, Top Job and Top Consultant competitions for German SMEs. It also launched the Ethics in Business alliance for ethical values. It supports and awards prizes to small and medium-sized firms for outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, human resources management, consulting and corporate social responsibility. compamedia works closely with leading universities on all of its projects.
