Convincingly innovative: MEYLE honored with TOP 100 Innovation Award
- Germany based automotive spare parts manufacturer MEYLE convinces jury
- TOP 100 seal honors special innovative strength and extraordinary innovation successes of German medium-sized companies
- Innovation: an integral part of the company DNA at MEYLE
Award-winning innovation: MEYLE AG belongs once again to the most innovative companies and has been awarded the coveted TOP 100 seal 2021. On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the TOP 100 innovation competition, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team examined the innovative strength of the nearly 400 participating companies. The researchers used around 120 test criteria from five categories as a basis: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. In addition, measures relating to the corporate response to the Corona crisis were examined and evaluated.
MEYLE was particularly convincing in the categories “Innovation-promoting top management” and “Innovative processes and organization” at TOP 100. Among other things, the company was able to score points with measures and processes related to digitalization and demonstrate innovative strength, especially under exceptional circumstances regarding corona: MEYLE reacted extremely quickly and ensured to successfully accompany customers with individual offers such as MEYLExperience, as a digital alternative to the Automechanika industry trade fair, also with online trainings and customer visits. The rapid corporate response to the Corona pandemic also underscores the high level of digitalization at MEYLE: For example, flexible mobile working time arrangements were implemented for employees and converted to almost exclusively digitized processes within a very short time – including comprehensive technical set-up in relation to MS Teams as well as SharePoint. “Corona has also shown us: Digitalization goes a long way!”, summarizes Dr. Karl-J. Gaertner, CEO of MEYLE AG. “We were able to implement ways of working and digital processes and maintain our daily work routine at almost 100% despite contact restrictions – and all thanks to the great commitment of our employees to switch to the digital way of working from one second to the other. Therefore, a very big thank you also goes to all employees at MEYLE.”
Results of the excellent innovative strength are also the product lines MEYLE‑HD, MEYLE‑PD as well as the MEYLE‑KITS. “Especially with our MEYLE‑HD product line, we show how innovative we are and what added value there is for our customers and independent workshops,” affirms André Sobottka, Board Member Sales – Marketing and Communications. Already in 2018, MEYLE convinced the jury of Automechanika Frankfurt with the MEYLE‑HD slotted bushing kit and was pleased to receive the Innovation Award in the category Repair and Maintenance. “The TOP 100 Award is also a strong signal that absolutely corresponds to our claim for better parts, solutions as well as services. A great motivation encouraging us to continue doing exactly that,” Sobottka is pleased to say.
Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, the scientific director of TOP 100, is impressed by the award-winning medium-sized companies. “The TOP 100 companies have consistently focused on being as innovative as possible,” he notes. The official awards ceremony will take place on November 26, 2021. The winners of the current TOP 100 year will receive congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar, who has been mentoring the innovation competition for ten years, at the 7th German SME Summit in Ludwigsburg.
TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal of approval to medium-sized companies for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success. Since 2002, scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 25 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the leading innovation researchers internationally. The mentor of TOP 100 is science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW association of small and medium-sized enterprises.
