Lothar Späth awards "Top 100" quality seal to Herdecke family-run company

Together with its four subsidiaries, Ewald Dörken AG is one of the 100 most innovative German companies in the medium-sized segment. In the 16th edition of the renowned "Top 100" comparison of companies the firm distinguished itself with its systematic, well thought-out and consequently successful innovation management. Lothar Späth, former Prime Minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg, awarded the Herdecke-based company the coveted "Top 100" seal of approval in a ceremony held at the Düsseldorf Meilenwerk on 04 July.

With this gesture, the mentor of the medium-sized company project acknowledged the performance of the Dörken Group in the five central categories of "Innovation-promoting top management", "Innovative climate", "Innovative processes and optimisation", "Innovation marketing" and "Innovation success". With sales of some 250 million euros in 2007 and a corporate history dating back 115 years, the family-run company is a producer of laminated construction sheets, building paints, paint paste systems and microlayer corrosion protection systems, with the name standing for a medium-sized company with a long tradition. Distinction went in particular to an especially effective innovation management system, in which continuity and change do not contradict one another. The company is active throughout Europe, even worldwide in a number of business segments. The largest share of turnover in 2007 was achieved with improved products and innovations, such as a high-performance corrosion protection system for the automobile industry.

Leaving nothing to chance
"We multiply our innovative ability with the number of employees, because each one of us is an innovation scout," says Dr. Gerhard Reusmann, Managing Director of Dörken-MKS-Systeme GmbH & Co. KG. This strategy has served the up-and-coming subsidiary well, with impressive developments achieved in the field of surface coating technology over the past 30 years. One example for this is DELTA-PROTEKT® KL 105, a particularly economical solution that brings with it savings in material, time and energy. The material is intended for the coating of screws and other fastening elements, offering secure protection against corrosion and low spread of friction coefficients with just one product in two layers. This concept was already acknowledged in 2006 with the award of the German Material Efficiency Prize 2006, presented by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

In the international exchange of information and experience and the exploitation of possible future projects and innovations Dörken MKS-Systeme - as with all other subsidiaries and of Ewald Dörken AG - uses a specialised database that orients itself closely on the customer in the form of customer surveys, trade fair visits and literature and patent research. In addition, on-site communication of the "global player" via international trade conferences and own technology centres, such as in China, Japan or Korea, serves to test the waters in the respective markets before developing new - often tailor-made -  product ideas.

Beyond this, the management at Dörken Group also operates a standing innovation committee comprising members of the Board of Directors and Board of Management and temporary innovation teams drawn from the various departments as a further measure to promote innovation.

A long journey
Before it could receive the "Top 100" distinction the family enterprise had to first successfully negotiate a strict, two-stage process developed by the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke assesses the innovative energy of the applicants and selects the best 100. This year's "Top 100" includes 49 national market leaders and 17 global market leaders. The results in other fields also document the exceptional nature of the "Top 100", as a comparative study of the Vienna researchers shows. According to this, the "Top 100" are almost twice as successful in their innovative efforts as the medium-sized companies from the reference group. They have achieved 67 % of their profit with innovations and innovative improvements over the course of the past 3 years - in the sample with the same structure the figure is 35 %. So-called internal venture capital, i.e. money that employees can use to pursue their own innovative ideas, is utilised by 58 % of the "Top 100" and just 2 % of the "average medium-sized companies" surveyed. "I found this figure highly impressive, if  unsurprising. After all, a certain degree of risk is unavoidable if one intends to implement radical innovations and be successful with these," says Professor Franke.

There is all the more pride in Herdecke in being amongst the "Top 100", as Karl E. Dörken, Member of the Board of Directors of Ewald Dörken AG confirms: "We are now one of the most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany. This is an indication that we are on the right path."

Info
All 100 companies are presented in the book "Top 100 - The 100 Most Innovative Medium-Sized Companies", published by Späth, as well as on the website www.top100.de. The medium-sized company initiative is organised by compamedia GmbH of Überlingen. This year saw a total of 342 companies apply for the "Top 100". The next round of this renowned medium-sized company prize will commence in September 2008.