News

Successful global market leaders in Germany owe their standing in no small part to their corporate culture. 75% of leading companies with above-average profits see it as a crucial success factor. Global market leaders with only average profits draw upon this asset on a far less frequent basis: corporate culture plays a decisive role in only 56% of these companies. And in companies which perform below average, 47% prioritize corporate culture, according to the findings of the current study entitled “Best Strategy 2018.” Staufen, the corporate consultant, surveyed a total of 210 German companies that are global market leaders either in their industry or in their segment.

The rules of the game have changed. Those who want to be at the head of the pack have to keep moving! That’s because the environment we’re familiar with is changing at breakneck speed. New, agile competitors are tackling existing business models at a rapid pace – in almost all sectors. This is the impetus behind the motto for this year’s BestPractice Day, taking place in Darmstadt from July 3 to 4, 2018: “Learn. Lead. Design the Change.”

More than 80% of companies in the automotive industry believe that improving their processes and organizational structures is critical to their future success, according to a current study conducted by the corporate consulting firm Staufen. Converting to electromobility is especially fraught with challenges which cannot be addressed using traditional approaches. Currently OEMs are focused primarily on integration into existing production systems.

This year, according to the current “brand eins” study, Staufen AG is once again one of the country’s leading consulting firms. This is the first time that the renowned sector study by brand eins and Statista has counted Staufen AG as one of the top consultancies in another key sector. Customers wasted no time in awarding them the highest score for the consulting field of organization.

Even global market leaders often complain that their innovations require too much time to attain market maturity: approximately 60 percent of companies took a critical stance when surveyed on the time to market for new products. As a rule, money is not the issue. Eight out of ten companies stated that they were well positioned financially with respect to research and development. On the contrary, structural problems are what delay innovation. These are the results of a current study carried out for Staufen consultancy; more than 200 German companies counting among the global market leaders in their field were surveyed.

Three quarters of German industrial companies are not convinced about predictive maintenance. Their performance capability is not sufficient or, at least still upgradeable. Only 6 percent currently see applying predictive maintenance on the basis of process and machine data as being highly beneficial. These are the results of what is now the fourth German Industry 4.0 Index. Approximately 400 German industrial companies were surveyed on behalf of Staufen Consultancy.

Effectively immediately, Staufen has added members to its management board. In addition to CEO Martin Haas and COO Wilhelm Goschy, the board of the corporate consulting company will now include Michael Hahn and Markus Riegger as well. Hahn’s new position entails responsibility for consulting operations and HR development. Riegger will assume management of the international consulting business, in-house qualifications and the Staufen Academy.

Digital transformation, the platform economy, artificial intelligence – in 2018, these topics will remain at the very top of the agenda for many companies. But anyone who thinks that they have properly done their homework by simply creating a list of technical specifications is sorely mistaken. For quite some time now, the greatest challenge has not been implementing new technologies: it has been dealing with the dynamics underlying the changes ahead. Helping businesses and their employees adjust their way of thinking to this kind of acceleration is going to be management’s number-one task.

Germany’s top managers have once again named the corporate consultant Staufen the best in the Lean management field, according to the highly-regarded industry study “Hidden Champions 2018.” Dr. Dietmar Fink of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Management und Beratung surveyed over 700 managers at German corporations and mid-sized enterprises. What’s more, Staufen ranked among the finest names in the industry in terms of its expertise in purchasing, R&D, technology management, operating efficiency, shopfloor management, Industry 4.0 and as a specialist for the manufacturing industry.