LMT Tools Awarded with the Title of Innovation Champion
Schwarzenbek, June 28, 2024 - Recognition at the German SME Summit: Ranga Yogeshwar congratulates LMT Tools on being awarded the TOP 100 seal. Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies are honored with this award. The award ceremony at the Summit will take place on Friday, June 28, in Weimar for all SMEs that received the TOP 100 seal at the beginning of the year. The science journalist is accompanying the innovation competition, which is being held for the 31st time, as a mentor. In the scientific selection process, LMT Tools was particularly convincing in size category C (over 200 employees) in the “External orientation / open innovation” category. This is the second time that the company has been one of the top innovators.
On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the competition, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and his team examined the innovative strength of all participants on the basis of more than 100 criteria from five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. “Are the companies able to create new products, new services, new processes and new business models? And are these achievements just coincidences or the result of a structured and targeted approach? These are the questions we examine at TOP 100,” says Nikolaus Franke, explaining his approach to the review. It is also important how and whether innovations and product improvements were able to establish themselves on the market.
LMT Tools prevailed in the scientific selection process and is one of the top innovators for the second time.
Wilhelm Fette founded a workshop in Hamburg-Altona in 1908 and built the first hobs, productive machines for gear cutting work. The company was later taken over and today belongs to LMT Tools, a manufacturer of precision tools and special machines. Its innovative strength makes the medium-sized company with around 1,000 employees successful worldwide. “Innovation is an extremely structured process for us,” says Managing Director Daniel Ehmans. A strategic development meeting is held four times a year. Representatives from Sales, Marketing, Research and Development, Production, Supply Chain and the CFO discuss innovations. The specialists also cooperate with universities and research institutes worldwide. Cooperation with manufacturers and customers is also valuable when it comes to innovations. “Wind turbines are becoming more and more powerful,” explains Daniel Ehmans. “The larger the diameter of the rotors, the greater the mechanical load, so you need bigger and stronger bolts - and we have to respond to that.”
TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. The scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke since 2002. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The mentor of TOP 100 is the science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW. The magazines manager magazin and impulse accompany the company comparison as media partners, ZEIT für Unternehmer is a cooperation partner. More information at www.top100.de.