Who is most innovative? To find out just this is the mission of the renowned “Top 100 – The 100 most innovative small and medium-sized companies” project. The annual event dedicated to innovation management will once more start in September. Those SMEs which make it into the first hundred will be awarded the “Top 100” quality mark and have the chance of winning the “Innovator of the year” title. Patron of the event is Dr. Lothar Späth.
The competition is organized by the compamedia GmbH, a service provider specialized in benchmarking projects for SMEs and the formation of networks between specialized service providers among small and medium-sized entities. The objective of the project is to confirm a company´s innovative potential in an independent way from a scientific point of view so that the company is able to convincingly position itself in the market. The close network formed by the top 100 provides valuable contacts and co-operations at a high level. An individual benchmarking report is to further improve the innovative potential of the best companies.
In order be admitted to the club of the top 100, companies have to prove themselves in the course of a testing process which was developped by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna economic university. Subject to evaluation are five categories: innovative power, innovative climate, innovative processes and organization, innovative top management as well as innovation marketing.
All German companies with up to 5.000 staff may take part in the event. Application fees amount to 400 Euros plus VAT. Applications, which starting from September 15th may also be submitted online, should arrive no later than October 31th 2006. 