Competition based on scientific selection process / Honoured by Ranga Yogeshwar in June
Excellent innovation work: IST METZ GmbH & Co. KG from Nürtingen has convinced the 29th round of the TOP 100 competition as a think tank. It has been awarded the TOP 100 Seal 2022 for this achievement. Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies are awarded this distinction. On 24 June, IST METZ will also be personally honoured for this achievement by the competition's mentor, science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar.
The core of the TOP 100 innovation competition is a scientific selection procedure that the participants have to undergo. On behalf of compamedia, the organiser of the comparison, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team examined IST METZ on the basis of more than 100 innovation indicators from five categories: Innovation-promoting T op- Management, Innovation Climate, Innovative Processes and Organisation, External Orientation/Open Innovation and Innovation Success. Basically, the TOP 100 analysis is about the question of whether a company's innovations are just a product of chance or are systematically planned and thus repeatable in the future. Special weighting is given to the question of whether and how innovations and product improvements succeed on the market.
IST METZ is one of the T op Innovators for the second time. For more than 40 years, the family-owned company has been producing systems that cure print products and coatings by means of UV irradiation. One of its most important customer groups is the printing industry. This industry in particular has had to face up to digital change in recent years.
IST METZ has not only adapted to this change, but has also transformed itself in the process: Consequently, the top innovator has expanded its business field to include, for example, the coating of touch displays or UV air sterilisation. The UV technology developed for the displays is also used by the medium-sized company to finish wooden surfaces. IST METZ has also developed a new curing solution that makes it possible to dispense with photoinitiators in the curing process.
One of the managing directors, Tim Sterbak, explains that a good climate of innovation and a lot of leeway for employees are important for working at the cutting edge. Here, the Nürtingen-based company relies on employees with an inventive spirit when recruiting staff. Such self-starters benefit from the 280-person company's great freedom in realising projects. The families of the employees are also taken into consideration: In the
In the "parent-child office", employees can work during childcare bottlenecks while their children play in the same room at the painting table or in the craft corner.
"To what extent is a company oriented towards innovation? How consistently do its structures follow this goal? At TOP 100 we examine this," explains Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, the scientific director of TOP 100. "The most innovative medium-sized companies receive the seal. It shows that they are excellently equipped for future challenges."
On 24 June there will be a second cause for celebration: then the T op innovators of the 2022 cohort will come together in Frankfurt am Main for the award ceremony at the German SME Summit to receive congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar. The science journalist has been mentoring the innovation competition for eleven years.
