LEHNER Maschinenbau GmbH was voted one of the top 100 most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany for the first time this year and presented with the Innovator Award 2025. On June 27, all the top innovators of 2025 will come together at the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz for the awards ceremony as part of the German SME Summit. We have already received the Top 100 Glass trophy and certificate.
Thomas Renz says: “This innovation award is a great acknowledgement of our team’s creative and forward-thinking work. Our culture of curiosity and our courage to break new ground drive us every day. We are proud not only to promote innovation, but to actively shape it.”
TOP 100 is based on a scientific selection process led by innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 27 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the leading innovation researchers internationally. On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the competition, he and his team analyzed the innovative strength of the participants on the basis of more than 100 test criteria, which were divided into five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success.
At its core, the TOP 100 analysis is about whether innovations are the result of structured innovation management in companies – or whether they arise by chance. “Innovation means acting instead of reacting,” says Franke, ”it means actively shaping the future instead of hoping that nothing will change.”
The TOP 100 seal has been awarded for 32 years and always in three size categories: up to 50, 51 to 200 and more than 200 employees. Only a maximum of 100 companies from all over Germany are honored in each size category. 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 association for small and medium-sized enterprises.