Valensina Group honored with TOP 100 Award

The Valensina Group has prevailed in the TOP 100 innovation competition and now bears the TOP 100 seal 2025. Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies receive the award. The award confirms the successful promotion of innovation processes within the Group. The driving force behind this is the Business Development & Innovation department, which manages all activities relating to the topic centrally and drives them forward in a targeted manner.

“Our future doesn't just happen. It is the result of everything we do together today!” This is the guiding principle of the Valensina Group and its Business Development & Innovation department. Founded in 2018, the independent department is specifically dedicated to the topics of corporate development and innovation, from establishing innovation processes to involving employees and collaborating with external partners such as universities and start-ups, through to intensive networking. This commitment is now bearing fruit: the Valensina Group has been recognized in the Top 100 innovation competition.

“We are delighted that our work has made it into the ranks of the top 100,” comments Björn Vieten, who set up the Business Development & Innovation department at the time and is now part of the Valensina Group's management team. “At a time when others are concentrating on their core business and stifling innovation, we are actively driving it forward. The award is a great confirmation that we have done everything right.”

Johanna Thoma, who has been Head of the department for five years, emphasizes how essential it is for companies to think outside the box: “I am convinced that a company today must have one skill above all others: the ability to collaborate. We deal with new technologies, creative approaches to solutions and intensively seek exchange - for example with research and teaching, with companies outside of our own industry and with start-ups from all sectors. We are curious and open to anything that offers healthy added value.” Thoma adds that one of the company's particular strengths is its ability to deviate flexibly from rigid processes thanks to short paths and flat hierarchies. This enables cross-divisional and customer-centric work.

Science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar will personally congratulate the Valensina Group on its success at the award ceremony on June 27 in Mainz. He accompanies the TOP 100 innovation competition as a mentor. TOP 100 is based on a scientific selection process. The innovative strength of the participants is assessed on the basis of more than 100 test criteria, which are divided into five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. Essentially, it is a question of whether innovations are the result of structured innovation management in the company - or whether they arise by chance. “Innovation means acting instead of reacting,” says innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, who is in charge of the selection process. “It means actively shaping the future instead of hoping that nothing will change.”