Новости

Press Release

Betek Acclaimed as Top Innovator

Lothar Späth awards 'Top 100' seal of approval to the Aichalden-based toolmaker for its outstanding innovation management

Aichalden - BETEK Bergbau- und Hartmetalltechnik Karl-Heinz Simon GmbH & Co. KG is one of the 100 most innovative companies in the German SME sector. That was the finding of the latest study conducted as part of the nationwide, cross-industry 'Top 100' business comparison survey. In this 17th running of the prestigious business initiative, it was Betek's made-to-measure innovation management that truly impressed. Lothar Späth, retired former Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, will be handing over the cherished 'Top 100' award to the company at a ceremony this Friday evening in the Gästehaus Petersberg in Königswinter.

In so doing the mentor of this SME initiative will be honouring Betek's achievements in the areas of 'Pro-Innovation Top Management', Innovation Climate', 'Innovative Processes and Organisation', 'Innovation Marketing' and 'Innovation Success'.

The SME business, which has 162 employees, is receiving the award in particular for its success through innovation. In 2008, the manufacturer of tungsten carbide consumable tools for road construction, rail track construction and specialist foundation work generated a turnover of around €104 million. At Betek forming innovative processes means collaborating closely with partners, suppliers and clients. Just how successful the industrious Swabians are is shown by the fact that the company now has over 50 active patents, as well as by the fact that the technologies concerned frequently get copied in Asia. The Aichalden-based business expends €4.5m on the development of new products. One of its greatest innovative successes of recent years has been the round shank cutter bit based on the so-called R-system. It rotates permanently about its own axis and keeps automatically sharpening itself as it penetrates into the asphalt. Equally successful is a system that was jointly developed with Munich Technical University and has now been in use for over a year and a half. It utilises optical recognition technologies in order to better shape the collaboration of man and robot. "Whenever we've developed something new, we don't sit on laurels, but consider instead how we can make it even better," says Karl Kammerer, Betek's managing director.

In order to gain this honour the metalworking company had to come through a strict, two-stage procedure run by the University of Economics and Business in Vienna. "Our findings show that the 100 top innovators approach challenges with great vigour and thus, for example, are well equipped for the current economic situation. At most of these companies innovation has boardroom-level priority," remarks Professor Nikolaus Franke, the study's academic director, commenting on the analysis. The award-winning companies consequently generated two thirds of their turnover with innovations and innovative improvements of the past three years - while in a comparative group of German SME businesses the figure was no more than 30%. Furthermore, through process innovations the top 100 companies were able to save a full 12% of their costs, while 'average SMEs' saved just 4%. As a result this year's 'Top 100' include 54 national market leaders, 22 of which are even number one worldwide in their field of business. Karl Kammerer is delighted by the company's success: "Our innovative prowess is now proven to be amongst the best that the German SME sector has to offer. That enhances our credibility and generates confidence amongst staff, partners and, of course, clients. There can scarcely be a better way to face tough economic times." In total 319 companies took part this year in the 'Top 100' initiative.

All of the 100 top innovators are featured in a book being published by Späth, 'TOP 100 - Die 100 innovativsten Unternehmen im Mittelstand' (Top 100 - The 100 most innovative companies in the SME sector), and online at www.top100.de. The initiative is organised by compamedia GmbH of Überlingen. Interested companies can apply as of now at www.top100.de. The closing date for entries is 30th October 2009.

Mentor and partners

The project's mentor is Lothar Späth. The project partners are the Bayern Innovativ Gesellschaft für Innovation und Wissenstransfer mbH (Innovative Bavaria Society for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer), the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. (Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research), the RKW - Rationalisierungs- und Innovationszentrum der Deutschen Wirtschaft e. V. (German Business Rationalisation and Innovation Centre), the Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik (Electrical Engineering, Electronics and IT Association) and the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (Association of German Engineers). The project's media partner is the 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' newspaper.

Academic leadership

The academic side of the project is led by Dr Nikolaus Franke, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna. His research work focuses on the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation management and marketing. He is one of the world's leading experts on user innovation.

The organiser: compamedia GmbH

compamedia specialises in the organisation of benchmarking projects for the SME sector and on developing SME networks. The agency's focus is on providing the projects with effective media support. Expert partners in the relevant fields look after the academic implementation. In addition to the 'Top 100' project on innovation, compamedia also runs two other prestigious projects aimed at promoting the SME sector: the employer benchmarking 'Top Job' project under the mentorship of Wolfgang Clement and 'Ethics in Business' with Ulrich Wickert as its champion.