Germany’s Transformation Champions

The Corona crisis has made many German companies painfully aware of how poorly prepared they are for disruptive change. In these trying times, companies must not only realign their core business but also develop new growth areas.

This presents leaders with a challenging task – both processes must happen simultaneously, often under cost pressure, and have different requirements and sometimes even contradictory goals. At Innosight, we call the balancing act of reposting the core business while creating new growth engines “Dual Transformation”.

Largely unnoted, several German firms have already risen to this challenge. The Innosight German Transformation Champions study highlights eight such organizations that have been driving dual transformation successfully by moving into entirely new business models or new markets while strengthening their core.

Innosight identified the 8 Transformation Champions by screening 400+ German public and private firms along the following selection criteria:

• Strong new growth: How successful has the company been at serving new markets / customer segments and creating new business models?
• Repositioned core: How effectively has the company adapted its established business to unexpected changes and disruption in its markets, giving its legacy business new life?
• Exceptional financial performance: How strong was the company’s financial and stock market performance relative to its peers?

Based on company performance across these criteria, we created a shortlist of 14 companies. A jury of business experts reviewed this list and selected the final 8 German Transformation champions. These Transformation Champions illustrate on a small scale what the German economy and industrial system might have to do on a large scale – drive dual transformation.