GEZE receives an award for outstanding innovation management

GEZE is a long-established member of the leading international group of developers and manufacturers of innovative systems in the field of door, window and safety technology. In the last three years alone the company has been granted 108 patents in Germany and 191 abroad.

"Looking at the widest possible range of options is the GEZE formula for producing innovations and enhancing our products and know-how. We do this by observing trends and developments in architecture, in society, and in technological fields, and by testing how we can make use of them to create innovative, marketable products. For example, network technologies and communications standards for the interoperability of devices in home and building systems technology provide us with valuable ideas that in the next few years will allow us to offer systems control the full range of building management systems within the ‘intelligent’ building,” says Florian Birkenmayer, Managing Director Development.

Our latest innovations are interface modules for integrating GEZE products into the system environment for the intelligent networking of building automation and control systems which makes a building a smart building. Automated and networked building functions with solutions from GEZE make buildings more comfortable, increase security, reduce energy consumption and create new visual possibilities.

GEZE received the award from Top 100 mentor and science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar at the gala evening of the third German SME Summit held at the Colosseum Theatre in Essen. The evening was hosted by ARD newsreader Judith Rakers.

Optimal R&D conditions for innovation

With the continuous optimisation of its product development processes and its modern tools GEZE provides the ideal conditions for its intensive research and development activities. Over the last two years ‘ideas management’ has been expanded and it is now fully IT-supported. The new product development process (PDP) ensures that employees from any area of the company can contribute their ideas for new products and business models simply and efficiently, and as part of a short process. The new platform optimises networking within the company and ensures that all the important experts and aspects are included from the outset so as to bring innovative products that offer every prospect of success to market as quickly as possible.

Important inputs are provided by the ‘pre-development’ unit which offers a dedicated space away from day-to-day work where GEZE technicians, in cooperation with the strategy team and the product-specific developer teams, can work on issues and solutions which don't have to lead directly to a marketable product. Once the decision has been taken to transform an idea into a product or system, the marketing experts are brought in. They find out how much added value the new solution provides for the end consumer or installation company in the national or global markets so that these can be served in the most appropriate and targeted way possible.

New development centre lays the foundation for the future

GEZE is also expanding its development capacity in order to enable it to undertake research and development in the best possible way – not just from a methodological perspective – in the ever-growing and increasingly ‘creative’ – and increasingly complex – building management systems market of the future. On 20 June 2016 the groundbreaking ceremony took place for a new development centre with state-of-the-art facilities. The new building complements a production hall which came into operation in the summer of 2015, enabling GEZE to also enhance its manufacturing processes and to cater for customers' demands in an even more targeted and flexible way in future. The production hall includes a manufacturing facility for producing specific building solutions, many of which are themselves innovations.

jpg file of the award TOP Innovator 2016

Since 2002, responsibility for scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Nikolaus Franke of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Vienna University of Economics and Business. The main focuses of Franke's research are entrepreneurship, innovation management and marketing. The scientist is one of the leading global experts in the field of user innovation. The project partner of the ‘Top 100’ awards is the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer Society for the advancement of applied research).

compamedia, mentor to the best small and medium-sized businesses

compamedia GmbH was founded in 1993 and organises the national comparison of companies throughout Germany – the ‘Top 100", the ‘Top Job", and ‘Top Consultant’ competitions. The organisation has also established the ‘Ethics in Business’ alliance to promote ethical business practice. Through the alliance, it supports and rewards small and medium-sized companies which deliver outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, personnel management, consultancy, and corporate social responsibility. compamedia collaborates with renowned universities on all its projects.

More information on the Top 100