+++ How innovative is Germany? +++ German car manufacturers are drivers of innovation +++ Austria's growth champions 2018 +++ The future in the fast lane +++
This is how innovative Germany is
Germany is among the most innovative countries in the world. In last year's Global Innovation Index, the Federal Republic ranked ninth – Switzerland was number one. One indicator of a country's creative performance is the inventiveness of its inhabitants.
German corporations, companies, universities, and inventors in the fields of mechanics, machine and tool engineering, and transportation are responsible for roughly one-third of all patents granted by the European Patent Office, as our infographic, originally created for manager magazin , shows. Germans are significantly less innovative in the areas of telecommunications and digital communication.
In 2017, 67,707 patents were filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. This corresponds to 58 patent applications per 100,000 inhabitants. The highest number of patents was filed in Baden-Württemberg (132/100,000), while the lowest were in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (8/100,000 each).
Where Germany is a driver of innovation – and where it isn't – can be clearly illustrated using data from the European Patent Office. For example, 34 percent of granted patents in the field of "Mechanical Elements" went to Germany, as the Statista graphic shows. German inventors also lead in other, more traditional categories such as machine tools and civil engineering. In contrast, the picture is rather bleak in future-oriented fields like "Audiovisual Technology" and "Telecommunications."
German car manufacturers are drivers of innovation.
Car doors that lock when a bicycle approaches from behind, or connected vehicles that share available parking spaces with each other – these kinds of innovations from car manufacturers are making driving safer and less stressful. As the infographic from Statista, based on data from the Center of Automotive Management , shows, German automakers are particularly innovation-driven: Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler rank ahead of Toyota and Tesla in the index. To determine the index value, innovations are evaluated according to various criteria, such as maturity, originality, and customer benefit. Innovations rated particularly highly were found in the Audi A8, BMW 5 Series, Cadillac CT6, Mercedes S-Class, and Tesla Model S 100D. The latter boasts the longest range of all production electric cars, at 632 km.
Austria's Growth Champions 2018
Which innovations and business ideas are taking off? And which companies are managing to achieve particularly high revenue and employee growth with them? For the first time, the independent market research institute Statista and the Austrian magazine profil have investigated who is leading the way in these areas in Austria. Based on a comprehensive data collection, they identified "Austria's Growth Champions 2018," which are now published in profil (issue 47, on sale November 20, 2017). The result is a unique list of 150 Austrian companies that are experiencing significantly above-average growth.
Overall, many companies on the list come from the IT and e-commerce sectors. Particularly striking, and a uniquely Austrian feature in international comparison, is the strong representation of the manufacturing sector in the 2018 ranking of Austria's growth champions. Furthermore, the list offers a showcase of innovative, innovative business models and high-growth ideas.
The future in the fast lane
Just 19 days after Pokémon Go was released on July 6, 2016, 50 million people worldwide were engrossed in their mobile phones, running through red lights, bumping into street signs in confusion, and besieging public squares in search of the strongest monsters.
When Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin founded the first commercial airline in 1909, laying a cornerstone for the interconnectedness of our world, it took 64 years before the 50 millionth passenger boarded an airplane. Our graphic illustrates that no matter how relevant an invention may be to humanity, other factors are more decisive for the spread of innovations. Crucially, it depends on the size of the network in which an invention is disseminated.
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