Worldwide Solutions - February 2008 - (Page 9) GERSTEL Solutions Worldwide Report GERSTEL among Germany’s Top Innovators The economic initiative jury “TOP 100“ has selected GERSTEL GmbH & Co. KG among the 100 most innovative medium-size German companies. It is the second time that this coveted trophy goes to GERSTEL. Bremer, “for every new prods in previous years, participants were uct we are completely focused on questioned in great detail, in orthe customer benefit”. The Mander to develop an in-depth aging Director, responsible for profile. The jury’s attention was R&D and Production at GERfocused on five categories “ sucSTEL adds: ”Customers come to cessful innovation”, “innovative us with their ideas because they climate”, “innovative processes know we can turn them into marand organization”, “support of ketable, real-world products and innovation from top managesolutions”. ment” and “ innovative marketOften industry takes a difing”. The appraisal of the particferent approach: “Traditionally ipating 283 candidates was perin most companies new prodformed by Professor Dr. Nikouct development is focused on laus Franke, of the Vienna Unithe manufacturer”, Professor versity of Economics and BusiFranke writes. Companies perness Administration. form market research to find GERSTEL was selected out customer needs and, among the TOP 100 based on this, generate due to superior pernew products. But typformance in most catically the manufacturegories. “If contamier is the active party, nation of drinking wawhile the customer, who is ter, air or food is a concern – Coveted award for the 5 category chemists most often will re- winners and for the Innovator of the only asked to deliver information, is in a passive role, ly on instrumentation from Year: the TOP 100 trophy the economist reports. GERSTEL GmbH & Co. KG Consequently up to to resolve the issue. The company, based in Mülheim an der Ruhr, sets 90% of products that are launched in the the benchmark for chemical analytical labs market, disappear after only a very short in science, industry and public authorities” time and a large number of innovative projthe organizers of this innovation competi- ects never even make it to market. A lot of the products that succeeded were based on tion stated. customers’ ideas and developments. The Success based on Professor uses the snowboard as an examcustomer benefit ple: It was not invented by a company, some GERSTEL’s recipe for success is a close part- ski freaks were bored with skis and wanted nership with customers: “From design to to try something different. prototyping to serial production”, says Ralf A GERSTEL’s Ralf Bremer finds distinct parallels: “Whether it is the cooled injection system (CIS), the thermal desorption system (TDS) or the GERSTEL-Twister, whenever we turned an innovative idea into a pre-production model, we used customers to properly “beta” test its operation under real lab conditions. Such real world testing provides important information on the product’s readiness for, and relevance to the market.” Ever since its founding in 1967, GERSTEL has worked closely with internationally renowned scientists and users. “Being close to both customers and technical know-how has helped build up the expertise of our company”, the Managing Director says. According to Ralf Bremer, both factors are essential ingredients for the success of the company. In terms of technical know-how, GERSTEL holds more than Ralf Bremer, 100 patents, mostly on Managing products and prodDirector, R&D uct modifications. The and Production, outlook on company GERSTEL growth is rosy as well, the number of employees has more than doubled from 50 to 140 over the past ten years; around 100 are based at the Mülheim an der Ruhr headquarters. The company has subsidiaries in the USA, Japan and Switzerland; and GERSTEL is represented by distributors in more than 70 countries worldwide. GERSTEL Solutions Worldwide – February 2008 9
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