Award-winning innovative strength: ZÜBLIN Timber wins Top 100 innovation award

ZÜBLIN Timber GmbH of Aichach, Germany, has won the 2021 TOP 100 innovation award presented annually by compamedia GmbH, together with mentor Ranga Yogeshwar, to honour Germany’s most innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the award organisers, Top 100 is the only innovation competition in Germany that rewards SMEs for their innovation management. ZÜBLIN Timber entered the competition for the first time this year, going up against many other qualified companies, and immediately proved its innovative strength in the scientific selection process. The company especially impressed the judges with its use of robotics and laser processes in timber construction and through its innovative special formwork system that has been used, for example, to construct the chalice-shaped pillars at Stuttgart’s new underground through station.

The award ceremony will take place at the 7th German SME Summit in Ludwigsburg on 26 November 2021, with all the winners of this year’s TOP 100 awards coming together to receive their congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar, a renowned science journalist who has supported the competition for the past ten years. At the ceremony, three of the winning companies – depending on their number of employees – will also be named Innovators of the Year.
Andreas Amorth, authorised representative at ZÜBLIN Timber, expressed his pride at winning the award: “The competition not only highlights our innovative potential but also shows how much of this potential we have already developed to the point where it is ready for use in timber construction.”

About the competition:
On behalf of compamedia, the organiser of the TOP 100 innovation competition, innovation researcher Nikolaus Franke and his team examined the innovative strength of successful German SMEs based on a scientific analysis of around 120 criteria in the following five categories: innovation-friendly senior management, climate of innovation, innovative processes/organisation, outward looking/open innovation and successful innovations. The core question was whether innovations are the product of a planned approach or the result of chance, i.e. if the innovation performance was repeatable, and whether and how the corresponding solutions succeeded on the market. (More information on the test criteria can be found at www.top100-germany.com.) Due to the current situation, this year’s analysis also included a special section examining the business response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Über den Wettbewerb:
Im Auftrag von compamedia, dem Ausrichter des Innovationswettbewerbs TOP 100, untersuchten der Innovationsforscher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke und sein Team die Innovationskraft erfolgreicher deutscher Mittelstandsunternehmen. Die Forscher legten hierfür rd. 120 Prüfkriterien aus fünf Kategorien zugrunde: Innovationsförderndes Top-Management, Innovationsklima, Innovative Prozesse und Organisation, Außenorientierung/Open Innovation und Innovationserfolg. Im Kern geht es um die Frage, ob Innovationen das Ergebnis planvollen Vorgehens oder ein Zufallsprodukt sind, also um die Wiederholbarkeit von Innovationsleistungen. Und darum, ob und wie sich die entsprechenden Lösungen am Markt durchsetzen (weitere Informationen zu den Prüfkriterien unter www.top100.de/pruefkriterien). Aufgrund der aktuellen Situation gab es bei dieser Runde zudem einen Sonderteil, in dem die unternehmerische Reaktion auf die Coronakrise untersucht wurde.