RUD is an official "Top 100" Innovator

The RUD Group is one of Germany's top 100 most innovative mid-sized companies.

Lothar Späth awarded the "Top 100" seal of quality to this world market leader from Aalen.

RUD Ketten Rieger & Dietz GmbH u. Co. KG, one of the official "Hidden Champions of the 21st Century" and one of Germany's top 100 most innovative mid-sized companies. It’s systematic, thoughtful and successful innovation management was fittingly recognized in the 16th Top 100 Company Comparison. Lothar Späth, former Minister President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, presented the company with the much sought-after "Top 100" seal of quality at a ceremony in the Meilenwerk Hall, Düsseldorf.

The mentor of this project for small and medium-sized businesses, Lothar Späth, honored RUD's achievements in the five main categories: "Innovative Environment", "Innovative Processes and Organization", "Marketing Innovation", "Successful Innovation and "Promotion of Innovation by Top Management".

This "Hidden Champion of the 21st Century" achieved sales of around €150 million in 2007. RUD is a world market leader in the technological development and manufacture of innovative round steel chain systems for the widest range of industrial applications.A dynamically growing family business, RUD won this renowned award not least on account of its close relationships with research institutes, universities, suppliers and customers. These alliances keep the company at the forefront of state-of-the-art chain technology and enable it to directly test the marketability of innovations. The entire RUD team is involved in an intensive and ongoing training and instruction program which is run in-house at the "RUD Center for Chain Knowledge". Employee suggestion schemes offer prizes and bonuses to encourage the company’s global workforce of 1000 to keep submitting new ideas.

However the "RUD Idea Hothouse" does not limit its innovation to just products and technologies. As an integral part of the local Baden-Württemberg "High-Tech Network" these Swabian inventors are always looking for new ways of reducing costs and increasing value to the customer. Close coordination and cooperation among the company's employees accelerates the entire internal innovation process which is achieving ever increasing success, particularly in the field of process innovations. Executive director Dr. Hansjörg Rieger, affirmed that "Good brains and quality are more important to our innovation successes than budgets. Continuity is essential if we want to be perfect."

In order to win this award a small or medium-sized company must submit itself to a tough two-stage assessment by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics who must evaluate the innovative strength of the competing companies and select the best one hundred. This year's "Top 100" included forty nine national market leaders and seventeen world market leaders. A comparative study made by Viennese researchers has shown that results in other areas confirm the exceptional qualities of these "Top 100" companies. They found that the "Top 100" were around twice as successful with their innovations as the average small and medium-sized companies within the reference group. Moreover in the last three years they had achieved sixty seven percent of their profits through innovation whereas this figure was only thirty five percent for the reference group - which had been selected to cover a comparable range of companies.

Fifty eight percent of the "Top 100" but only two percent of the average small and medium-sized companies had a so-called "internal risk capital scheme" that involved money with which employees could track their own innovative ideas. Prof. Franke said, "I found this figure very impressive but not surprising. Alter all a certain willingness to take risks is indispensable if you want to introduce radical innovations and achieve success with them."

This has made the RUD family business even prouder of its place in the "Top 100". On behalf of his three sons Dr. Rieger confirmed "As a Hidden Champion of the 21st Century, we're now officially one of the one hundred most innovative German small to medium-sized enterprises. That shows us, that we've set our sails right and are on the right course."