German enterprises impress jury with successful design management

On 22 November, 18 companies in six categories received an award for their successful design management in the red dot design museum – among them five German companies: Loewe, Festo, BoschSiemens Hausgeräte and Walter Knoll as well as the drinks manufacturer Bionade in the Newcomers category. Duravit, Zapp and Lamy received an honourable mention. In total almost 240 companies, institutions and organisations from 21 European countries had followed the DME Award’s (Design Management Europe Award) call for entries.

The DME Award is part of the ADMIRE project supported by the EU Commission. 19 partners from twelve European countries have teamed up to strengthen successful design management and thus innovative ability as well as competitiveness of European companies and organisations. The winners were determined with the help of a three-phase evaluation procedure, the so-called red dot method. Among the prize-winners are companies and institutions from Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, the UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia and Turkey. The results are currently presented in an exhibition in the red dot design museum running until 30 December.

Around 350 guests from all over Europe came to celebrate the winners of the first Design Management Europe Award in a festive award ceremony. In his speech, Oliver Wittke, Minister of Construction and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, highlighted the importance of the competition: “The DME Award is an important part of the European Commission`s project ADMIRE. I am impressed by the large number of participants from all over Europe. This indicates the importance of design management for companies.” Reinhard Büscher, Head of Unit, Innovation Policy Development Enterprise and Industry DG, European Commission, confirmed the work of the ADMIRE Team and encouraged them to proceed with their work in the future. Innovation would not be based on scientific work but on the interaction and the exchange of ideas.

“As one of the German partners of this ambitious EU project, we are particularly proud that in the face of the strong competition the German companies have had such great results,” said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, President of the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen and creator of the red dot method. “Especially in the ‘large enterprises’ category, where three German companies – Loewe, Festo and Bosch Siemens – took the first three places. All three of them are companies, where the targeted use of design as a competitive factor has a long tradition and enabled them to position themselves as global players. This once again highlights the great role successful design management can play in company development.”

 
About the competition
The Design Management Europe Award is part of the EU project ADMIRE (Award for Design Management Innovating and Reinforcing Enterprises). With this competition, eighteen partners from 14 nations, among them also the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH and the design office NOA as German partners, want to contribute to strengthening design and the international awareness of design and design management as essential economic factors.
 
About the evaluation method
The award-winners were determined with the “red dot method”, a multi-stage evaluation method, which was developed by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen based on its many years of experience from running the red dot design award, one of the largest and most important international design competitions. The final stage of the evaluation process consisted of a meeting of experts to which design and business experts from all over Europe came together in order to evaluate the submitted company concepts with regards to the use of design and design management.

The results of the Design Management Europe Award are available here:

>>Overview results