Lothar Späth awards Top 100 seal of approval to HSM Salem, southern Germany

Salem – HSM GmbH + Co. KG is one of the 100 most innovative small and mediumsized companies (SMEs) in Germany according to this year's nationwide Top 100 corporate bench-marking competition. Now in its 15th year, the aim of this competition is to seek out outstanding examples of innovation management in Germany's SME sector. Lothar Späth, former state premier of Baden-Württemberg, awarded this prestigious seal of approval to HSM at an official ceremony at the Phönixhalle in Stuttgart on the 22.06.2007.

As patron of the SME project he will be recognising HSM's success in the five key categories of "Successful Innovations", "Climate of Innovation", "Innovative Processes and Organisation", "Innovation-friendly Senior Management" and "Innovations Marketing". The company, which supplies document shredders, cutting machines, cardboard shredders and complete disposal systems, achieved its highest ranking in the "Innovations Marketing" category. If it is to live up to its corporate ambitions – greatest possible customer benefit and highest quality – HSM has to keep its finger on the pulse. It makes frequent use of customer and employee surveys as well as market research studies to determine future trends. Regular company-wide product and innovation planning meetings are held and interdepartmental working groups are set up to organise inhouse innovation projects. Senior managers are always members of the project teams to ensure that projects have a high probability of implementation. The new SECURIO range of document shredders proves how successful this innovation process can be. Dealers, buyers and users drew up a wish list of features: quiet operation, low energy-use, easy handling, high efficiency and elegant design. HSM developers and an acclaimed design company took this wish list to heart and the SECURIO range is setting new technical and visual standards in office technology.

Top 100 seeks out and encourages small and medium-sized enterprises with outstanding innovative capabilities. The search is carried out by experts in innovation from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, led by Professor Nikolaus Franke. A first questionnaire is used to record the innovative potential of entrants, then a second questionnaire is used to as-sess key aspects of their innovation management. Prof Franke summarises the results for each winning company in a comprehensive benchmarking report. "This means that the award has a practical use for us, as well as enhancing our image", enthused Hermann Schwelling, managing director of HSM GmbH + Co. KG. "The SWOT analysis enables us to further optimise our innovation management on the basis of a sound scientific evaluation."

The Top 100 project is organised by compamedia GmbH, Überlingen, Germany. All 100 companies are featured in the book "Top 100 – the 100 most innovative companies in Germany's SME sector" introduced by Lothar Späth. Further details about the companies are presented on the website at www.top100.de and they are provided with basic PR and press support. Furthermore, as Top 100 award-winners they automatically belong to the network of top innovators and benefit from meetings and contacts with the other 99 finalists. Overall more than 280 companies entered the Top 100 competition this year. The next round of this prestigious competition for SMEs begins in September 2007.

Patron, partners and coordination

The project's patron is Lothar Späth. Partners in the project are: Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research, the German Centre for Productivity and Innovation (RKW), the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI). The media partner is the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. The project is coordinated by Professor Nikolaus Franke of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.