As part of the final conference of the consortium benchmarking "Driving Innovations" on March 18, 2026, the Machine Tool Laboratory WZL of RWTH Aachen, in cooperation with the Complexity Management Academy GmbH and a high-profile industrial consortium, awarded the five best companies that have successfully increased their international competitiveness and innovation capability through systematic innovation management. The goal of the benchmarking project was to identify particularly successful strategies, tools, methods, processes, and structures for systematic innovation management. For their outstanding achievements, the companies Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, CLAAS Self-Propelled Harvesters GmbH, HÜBNER GmbH & Co. KG, Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG, and Wilo SE were honored as "Successful Practices 2026".
"The five Successful Practice companies have demonstrated how innovation capability, when managed correctly, can contribute to long-term success on the global stage," said Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt. Ing. Günther Schuh, WZL of RWTH Aachen.
The identification of the "Successful Practices" was carried out in collaboration with a jury of experts from successful international companies, who also constituted the consortium of the project. Members of the consortium included the companies Endress+Hauser SE+Co.KG, Karl Mayer Textile Machines GmbH, Siemens AG, Syntegon Technology GmbH, Vaillant GmbH, Viega GmbH & Co. KG, and WAGO Contact SA.
At the beginning of the project in May 2025, the Machine Tool Laboratory WZL of RWTH Aachen, in close collaboration with the Complexity Management Academy GmbH and the consortium, initially worked on the current challenges in the field. These challenges formed the basis for a detailed written questionnaire study. The companies surveyed in the study provided answers regarding their current status in terms of their innovation management. In particular, the focus areas of strategic planning and systematic trend analysis, procedural and organizational anchoring, as well as the tools and methods used were examined.
A total of over 100 companies participated in the benchmarking. A comprehensive screening of 19 top performers identified the nine most promising candidates, which were presented anonymously to the consortium partners during the "Review Meeting" in November 2025, in order to jointly select the five sought-after Successful Practice companies. The consortium partners visited the selected companies in January and February 2026 and discussed their strategies, tools, methods, processes, and structures for systematic innovation management on-site.
During the final conference on March 18, 2026, the project findings were presented in the form of 12 core theses for successful innovation management. Examples from the five Successful Practice companies, which received their awards in this context, demonstrated what successful implementation in practice can look like.
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