tmax Honored as TOP 100 Innovator

tmax Germany GmbH has been honored with the TOP 100 Seal for the first time in 2021. This award is bestowed on the most innovative companies in the German small firm sector each year. The prerequisite for the seal was the successful completion of a scientific selection process in which tmax was able to prove its innovative strength.

On behalf of compamedia GmbH, which has been organizing the TOP 100 innovation competition since 1993, the innovation researcher Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team investigated the innovative strength of tmax. The researchers established about 120 test criteria from five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. At the core of this process lies the question of whether innovations are the result of a planned approach or a product of chance – in other words, the repeatability of innovation performance. And whether and how the related solutions are established on the market. Due to the current situation, this round also included a special part in which the entrepreneurial response to the coronavirus crisis was examined. 267 of the 389 companies who applied for a place in the fall of 2020 received the seal.

Under the leadership of Thorsten Thom, Chairman of the Management Board of the tmax Group, and Dr. Jesco Gumprecht, Corporate Development Manager, tmax has significantly professionalized the area of innovations and thus increased its innovative strength.

“The TOP 100 innovator award is particularly important to me,” explains Thorsten Thom. “It emphasizes the high priority of innovations at tmax and clearly shows our efforts and success in the implementation of an efficient innovation management.”

“Without innovations, no future.” Thorsten Thom is convinced of this and explains: “That is why it is crucial for us to stay on the cutting edge, to detect and take up future topics and to approach them systematically and with agility. The focus is always on the customer benefits, on the additional value which the innovation offers to our customers.”

tmax completely overhauled its innovation management in 2020. An internal cross-functional team in which the company management plays a key role is operating under the name tBrain 2.0. Because, as the CEO adds, “Innovation is a matter for managers.” The team picks up on trends, evaluates them and develops solutions in close cooperation with customers. The agile approach enables tmax to quickly evaluate ideas and implement prototypes with minimal effort to rapidly get feedback from customers or the market.

This is how Thorsten Thom explains tmax’s commitment to innovation and sustainability: “We are currently focusing on the topics of electromobility and hydrogen drives. With our solutions, we’re actively contributing to the technology shift in mobility.” High-temperature insulation from tmax helps improve the fire protection of battery-operated electric vehicles (BEV), increase the efficiency of hydrogen engines and control temperature in fuel cells. This way tmax ensures effective protection of humans and machines as well as increased efficiency while making an important contribution to the reduction of emissions.