RAPA receives TOP 100 Innovator Seal 2022

Excellent innovation work: The family-owned company RAPA from Selb has convinced as a think tank in the 29th round of the TOP 100 competition. 

RAPA has been awarded the TOP 100 seal 2022 for this. Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies are awarded this distinction. On June 24, the competition’s mentor, science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar, will additionally personally honor RAPA for these achievements.

From left to right: RAPA board members Dr. Roman Pausch and Karin Wolf; Oliver Henkelmann-Mattheus, Division Manager Sales & Marketing; Rocco Kemnitz, Predevelopment Manager; Stephan Meixner, Division Manager Human Resources; Dr. Jochen Endrejat, Division Manager R&D.

The core of the TOP 100 innovation competition is a scientific selection process that participants must undergo. On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the comparison, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team examined RAPA based on more than 100 innovation indicators from five categories: Top Management Promoting Innovation, Innovation Climate, Innovative Processes and Organization, External Orientation/Open Innovation and Innovation Success. Basically, the TOP 100 analysis is about the question of whether a company’s innovations are just a product of chance or are systematically planned and thus repeatable in the future. Particular weighting is given to the question of whether and how new products and product improvements establish themselves on the market (further information on the test criteria can be found at www.top100.de/pruefkriterien).

RAPA is a prime example of how innovations throughout the company’s history, which now spans more than 100 years, ensure its continued existence and open up new markets. As a technology and system partner to leading companies in the automotive, medical technology and industrial fields, RAPA is strong in customer-specific developments – such as motor pump units and damper valves for cars or high-precision solenoid valves and micropumps for medical devices.

Recently, the Selb-based company – with sites in the U.S. and China – strengthened its competencies in electronics and software in order to gain an even stronger foothold in the future market of autonomous driving/electronic control units. Innovation management is organized systematically at RAPA: Innovations are anchored in the strategy process of all RAPA units and are decisively driven forward by those responsible there from the Research & Development team.

Everything happens in a company culture that explicitly motivates and challenges every employee to become a little better every day – in the spirit of the company founders August Pausch and Hans Rausch, who laid the foundation for the RAPA success story in a small workshop in 1920.

To ensure that all applicants have equal opportunities, the seal is awarded in three size categories: up to 50, 51 to 200 and more than 200 employees. A total of 436 SMEs applied, 294 of which were successful and thus belong to this year’s TOP 100 (maximum 100 per size category).

To what extent is a company focused on innovation? How consistently do its structures follow this goal? That’s what we investigate at TOP 100,” explains Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, the scientific director of TOP 100. “The most innovative medium-sized companies receive the seal. It shows that they are excellently equipped for future challenges.”

There will be a second cause for celebration on June 24, when the top innovators of the 2022 cohort will gather in Frankfurt am Main for the awards ceremony at the German SME Summit to receive congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar. The science journalist has accompanied the innovation competition for eleven years as a mentor for eleven years.


TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. Scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke since 2002. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. With 25 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the leading innovation researchers internationally. The mentor of TOP 100 is science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW association of small and medium-sized enterprises. The magazines manager magazin and impulse accompany the company comparison as media partners. More information and registration at www.top100.de.

More information as well as general picture material on the TOP 100 competition can be found on the Internet at www.top100.de/presse or by sending an e-mail to presse@compamedia.de.


RAPA Automotive
RAPA Automotive is a wholly owned subsidiary of RAPA Holding and a globally qualified engineering and technology partner as well as system supplier to the automotive industry. Key customers include leading first-tier suppliers and manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar-Land Rover and Tesla.
The service portfolio includesvalves and components for the chassis and transmission area as well as mechatronic system developments in the vehicle. RAPA Automotive is the largest and best-selling division of the group, contributing about 90% of sales. The division is managed by Dr. Roman Pausch and Karin Wolf. In addition to its German headquarters in Selb (Bavaria), RAPA is also represented through branches in North America and China. About 900 employees work in the division; worldwide, the medium-sized group with international sales employs nearly 1000 people.

For more information, visit www.rapa.com

 

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