Recognition at the German SME Summit: Ranga Yogeshwar congratulates WERMA Signaltechnik GmbH + Co KG from Rietheim-Weilheim on being awarded the TOP 100 seal. The award ceremony took place on Friday, June 28, in Weimar as part of the Summit for all SMEs that received the TOP 100 seal at the beginning of the year. The science journalist is accompanying the innovation competition, which is being held for the 31st time, as a mentor. In the scientific selection process, WERMA was particularly convincing in size category C (over 200 employees) in the category “Innovation-promoting top management”. This is the sixth time that the company has been one of the top innovators.
TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. In the 31st edition of the innovation competition, 388 medium-sized companies competed for the award. The scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Niko-laus Franke since 2002. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The mentor of TOP 100 is the science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW.
Innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and his team examined the innovative strength of all participants on behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the competition, using more than 100 criteria from five categories. “Are the companies able to create new products, new services, new processes and new business models? And are these achievements just coincidences or the result of a structured and targeted approach? These are the questions we examine at TOP 100,” says Nikolaus Franke, explaining his approach to the review.
