Date: 31.07.2023
BEULCO is Top Company 2023
Employees rated BEULCO with a 100% recommendation rate and 4.3 out of 5 stars on the employer rating platform Kununu.
The result: BEULCO was honored with the "Top Company 2023" award. Excellent innovation work: BEULCO GmbH & Co. KG from Attendorn has impressed in the 29th round of the TOP 100 competition. It has been awarded the TOP 100 seal 2022.
Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies receive this award. On June 24, BEULCO will also be personally honored for these achievements by the mentor of the competition, science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar.
At the heart of the TOP 100 innovation competition is a scientific selection process that participants have to undergo. Innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team examined BEULCO on the basis of more than 100 innovation indicators from five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success.
"We have undergone enormous change in all areas in recent years. The focus is on production, products and processes - but above all on our employees. The digital transformation and the associated cultural change are at the heart of our corporate strategy," explains Managing Director Jürgen Christian Schütz.
BEULCO is one of the top innovators for the second time. The company is based in the metal industry and focuses on products, systems and services for drinking water supply.
Since 2019, the company has been pursuing a consistent cultural change towards an agile organization. "To remain competitive in the long term, companies need to rethink. This also includes having the courage to try out new things or to show a willingness to question their own business model, which has often worked well for so long," says Schütz.
The agile organization helps BEULCO to react faster and more flexibly, even if this is not always easy.
"Agility is the core. Handing over responsibility and trusting employees. We work as a team without hierarchies. As Managing Director, I sometimes have to allow myself to be overruled. This way of working is incredibly powerful and motivating," explains Schütz.
BEULCO set up its own business division back in 2019, which focuses on the digitalization of water supply - including digital products and services. Based at the Digital Hub in Dortmund, the team has direct access to selected infrastructure, service and consulting networks of the Fraunhofer Institutes for Material Flow and Logistics IML and for Software and Systems Engineering ISST and TU Dortmund University.
"The new digital possibilities and the expertise based there enable us to come up with innovations that are not yet available on the market. We rely on new methods such as design thinking," explains Martin Lange, Sales Director and Site Manager of the business division.
In the field of water supply, there is enormous potential through innovations driven by digitalization. For example, water quality analyses or information such as water pressure and temperature, which are detected by sensors, play a central role here. This allows optimization opportunities to be uncovered - including more effective water pressure control or the avoidance of water losses.
But even in extreme situations, BEULCO's agile organization framework enables it to act quickly and seize opportunities where other companies might already be resigned. This is how the family business from Attendorn made it onto the shelves of dm drugstores across Germany with the "BEULCO Clean" brand within just 8 weeks.
BEULCO has been selling disinfectants for drinking water and drinking water systems on a biological basis for years - this was quickly developed into a surface disinfectant and certified. However, it was clear from the outset that this would become a long-term business model and would not be seen as a short-term crisis management measure. As a result, this business area has been successively expanded so that the BEULCO Clean brand now offers a wide range of sustainable and biological disinfectants and cleaning agents - all in the interests of the environment and drinking water protection, i.e. where BEULCO has its roots.
Resilience in the crisis was one of the main criteria in this year's TOP 100 round. In just a few weeks, BEULCO has created another mainstay and was able to open up completely new segments and markets with a new business model.
"The coronavirus crisis was a litmus test for us. We broke away from old ways of thinking and structures and embarked on resilient innovation paths together," explains Schütz.
"Change is always an opportunity, however far-reaching and difficult it may be. The trick is to find the positives and make the most of them. In challenging times, you need a lot of courage and determination to drive change and innovation and not stick to the status quo, says Hans Dieter Ufermann, responsible for Research & Development."
There will be a second reason to celebrate on June 24, when the top innovators of 2022 will come together in Frankfurt am Main for the award ceremony at the German SME Summit to receive congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar. The science journalist has been mentoring the innovation competition for eleven years.