For the first time, business magazines Bilanz and PME, together with market research firm Statista, selected the most innovative companies in Switzerland. Endress+Hauser placed seventh in the overall rankings and landed atop the industry category Machine, Vehicle and Industrial Technology.
“As one of the drivers of our growth, we actively foster innovation within the company,” explains Andreas Mayr, chief operating officer and member of the Executive Board. The annual Innovators’ Meeting underscores the spirit of innovation cultivated by the Endress+Hauser Group. The Group uses this event to recognise the creativity and engagement of its innovators while providing an opportunity for them to meet and share information.
Incentive to innovate
Endress+Hauser sets aside around 7.5% of sales for research and development. More than 1,100 people work in this area. One programme in particular encourages all employees to register innovations. Endress+Hauser recognises commercially-significant patents and especially creative innovators. There are also awards for process improvements and the reuse of existing solutions. The innovation culture at Endress+Hauser thus extends well beyond the area of research and development.
Input from employees and innovation experts
Statista takes various aspects into account in evaluating the level of corporate innovation. Calls go out to employees, plus specialists such as patent lawyers and business consultants, to evaluate companies with respect to product and process innovations and their culture of innovation. Cooperation partner PatentSight also provides data on the number and technological relevance of patents from Swiss developers.
The analysis consists of a total of 12,000 evaluations. Each company received an overall score, 80% of which stems from the results of the surveys and 20% from an evaluation of the company’s intellectual property portfolio. Statista then compiled a list of 125 companies that achieved the highest overall score.