With this award Lothar Späth, the mentor of the small and medium-sized business project, will pay tribute to the achievements of ZIM in the categories of “top-management promotion of innovation”, “climate of innovation”, “innovative processes and organisation”, “innovation marketing” and “successful innovation”. Located in Markdorf, at the Lake of Constance and in Stade, North Germany, ZIMs main commercial principle, is Innovation.
Only one year ago the ZIM GmbH, which develop, construct and calculate for well-known industries in the automobile technology, paper technology and aviation technology, founded the ZIM FLUGSITZ GmbH and now they belong to the global aviation market as manufacturer and supplier of aircraft seats of their own designed development. An innovative product which brings enormous financial advantages for the airline industry, has made this possible. Their aircraft seats are produced with innovative materials such as high strength aluminium materials with carbon fibre structures.
The result is an economy class seat weighing less than 20 lb (9kg) which is much lighter than the products of well-established suppliers. This difference means a drastic saving in the consumption of kerosene.
With ZIM, planning and development of such products occur electronically, which ensures that all developing steps can be traced back. The employees are partially integrated into different projects, so that synergies can be used.
Nevertheless, a leader who is able to manage this job up to the end is appointed at project beginning. So the most different perceptions and knowledge flow in with the owner-controlled small and medium-sized business company into the projects.
To qualify for the award, the company had to undergo a stringent two-stage process devised by the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. „Our results show that Top100-Innovatores approach challenges powerfully and are well prepared, for example, for the current economic situation. Innovation is with most of these companys a matter of management “, the scientific leader of the study, according to Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke.
In the past three years such awarded companys have been able to generate two-thirds of their turnover from innovations and innovative improvements - compared with 30% SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in their peer group. In addition Top companies were able to save 1 up to 12% of their costs by process innovations. As compared to the average SMEs who saved as little as 4%. The result is as follows: This year the Top one hundred include 54 German market leaders and 22 global market leaders. CEO Angelika Zimmermann is happy about the company’s success. “Our innovation strength is evident and now shows what German SMEs has to offer. This strengthens our credibility and creates further trust with employees, partners and of course customers. During this period of global financial crisis, nothing better could happen to us”. Even the mayor of Markdorf, Bernd Gerber who has suggested the ZIM GmbH for the competition was persuaded from the beginning that the company will score successfully: “We know the company since the foundation and have followed their successful development. Peter and Angelika Zimmermann are engaged employers who develop constantly, study new business segments and take than the right decisions. Furthermore both get involved honorary in the public life of our city”.
Overall, 319 companies participated in the Top 100 competition this year. All 100 TOP-Innovators are featured in a book titled "Top 100 - the 100 most innovative companies in Germany's SME sector" introduced by Lothar Späth, and on the website http://www.top100.de/.
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Mentor and co-oporation partner
The project's patron is Lothar Späth. Partners in the project are: Bayern Innovativ Com-pany for Innovation and Transfer of knowledge Ltd., Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research, the German Centre for Productivity and Innovation (RKW), the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI). Its media partner is the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Scientific Coordination
The project is coordinated by Professor Nikolaus Franke of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. He is one of the worldwide leading experts for user's innovation.
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