Video: Highlights of the TOP 100 Award Ceremony

"TECOSIM is a thoroughly innovative company," affirmed Professor Nikolaus Franke from Vienna University of Economics and Business during informal conversations at the TOP 100 Award Ceremony at the German Mid-Size Companies Summit in Essen, Germany. Their innovative capacity is based on everything from processes and top management fostering innovation through to an innovation climate and an outward-looking perspective, according to the academic chairperson of the awards. The CAE specialists have now been honoured as one of the most innovative companies among German medium-sized companies for the second time.

TECOSIM engineers have a permanent innovation process, in which employees can play an active role. "If an idea has potential, the colleagues themselves have the opportunity to work out the details and implement the concept, thus contributing to the company's success," explains Dr André Backes, Innovations Officer at TECOSIM. The executive management at TECOSIM devised its new SIM|PULS process together with employees at all levels through ideas competitions and workshops. Top management, who spend a third of their work time on innovations and keep their knowledge up-to-date on an ongoing basis, motivate the workforce constantly. There is a bonus for every interesting suggestion in idea management, for example.

"We are living in times of change. That is why it is important to position ourselves well for the next few years," affirms science journalist and competition mentor Ranga Yogeshwar, stressing the importance of the TOP 100, "After all, innovative capacity ultimately serves as a guarantee that a company will continue to exist in the future."

The TOP 100 competition has been on the market for a good twenty years now and acts as the only benchmarking event for innovation management in Germany. TOP 100 does not honour individual products, but closely examines all steps in a company's innovation process instead.