Dear readers,
June is always a special month for RWTÜV. There are many meetings and appointments, such as committee meetings or the publication of annual reports. This allows us to intensively review the past year, but above all, to look forward.
With this look ahead, we have focused on two other important matters: First, we have expanded the RWTÜV Group through investments in two highly innovative and exciting companies.
One is isn – innovation service network, already known to interested parties as our partner for the RWTÜV Campus or the innovation competition ‚Innovation inside‘. The other new one Group member This is the young company House of Plasma. Attentive newsletter readers will also recognize this as the winner of the startup award presented by RWTÜV in the 2022 anniversary year.
On the other hand, we attended the get-to-know-you meeting of the ewa participants who began their advanced training as cybersecurity experts in May. And last but not least, an important signature was made: From July 1, 2024, RWTÜV will be a member of the EWMD - European Women's Management Development initiative. You can read what this is, as well as further details on the topics mentioned above, in the following newsletter. Enjoy!
Your Thomas Biedermann and Fabian Fechner
Pioneer
For about three years, RWTÜV has fostered an active innovation culture, including an annual internal innovation competition. This is intended to drive the continuous development of the company itself and its subsidiaries. This process is supported by the Austrian company isn – innovation service network, in which RWTÜV is now acquiring shares. „We have found a competent and experienced partner here that has been providing services and tools for innovation-intensive players since 2001. Together with isn, we have established our innovation management for the entire group in a short time with expertise and a digital innovation platform,“ explains Thomas Biedermann, Chairman of the Management Board of the RWTÜV Group.
Through strategic investments in innovation-oriented startups and companies like ensun or critisLAB, RWTÜV regularly creates future-oriented value. Now the group wants to drive further innovation: „There is a high need for innovation in several industries at the Germany location,“ analyzes Fabian Fechner, Managing Director of RWTÜV. The innovation services, from which RWTÜV benefits, are now to be brought closer to customers. „We are thereby promoting economic dynamism, and that in turn is good for RWTÜV,“ Fechner plans. For their part, the RWTÜV Group expects direct access to innovation trends from the cooperation, in order to continue to play a pioneering role in the evaluation and promotion of technological innovations.
Plasma process
Since May 2022, after House of Plasma won 70,000 Euros and the RWTÜV Startup Prize, the RWTÜV management has been in regular exchange with the founders and managing directors Dr. Moritz Oberberg, Maria Schnober, and Geoffrey Mellar.
The Metrology Multipole Resonance Probe from House of Plasma allows for a significant improvement in the quality of manufacturing processes for plasma surface treatments. Industrial applications include, for example, the surface treatment of solar cells, eyeglass lenses, camera lenses, PET bottles, or electronic devices.
RWTÜV will now empower further scaling with an investment: „We were enthusiastically able to observe the successful development. We believe in the team and the idea, and now want to pave the way for further growth,“ commented RWTÜV Managing Directors Fabian Fechner and Thomas Biedermann.
„RWTÜV stands for innovation as well as for safe and reliable high-tech. That suits us extremely well,” the House of Plasma team also rejoiced about the new partnership.
Equality
The goals of making qualified women in leadership positions more visible and encouraging them in all areas and organizations, as well as increasing the quality standard in management and enriching the management culture through more women and greater diversity, could be taken from the RWTÜV Group's catalog of values.
In this formulation, however, they originate from EWMD – European Women’s Management Development, an international network founded in 1984 by women for women and men in management.
The idea for joining came from an internal RWTÜV competition on the occasion of International Women's Day in March. With the signature for membership starting July 1, 2024, the management not only proves its strong commitment to equality and diversity once again, but also demonstrates consistency and speed in its implementation.
Career change
The ewa research project, funded by the RWTÜV Foundation and the NRW state government, focusing on the further training of career changers as cybersecurity experts, is also gaining momentum. On June 8th, the eleven participants met for their first joint workshop and introductory session in Bochum at the premises of ewa partner R.iT GmbH.
Following a video message from NRW Minister of Economic Affairs Mona Neubaur and a personal welcome from RWTÜV Foundation Board Member Thomas Biedermann, participants worked through the content of a first learning module, which had already been prepared online and through self-study, in presentations, Q&A sessions, and tandem work periods. The aim is to impart key competencies through an explicitly practical approach, which are urgently sought by companies in the job market in times of increasing digital threats.
Thomas Biedermann was enthusiastic about the atmosphere in Bochum: „It's great to finally see the long-planned, but until now abstract, project come to life and to experience the motivation of the participants. The concept seems to be fully working!“ A second group of women will start the course as early as August, after which it will be certified and offered commercially.
Workshop
How can interest in the innovation competition be maintained? How can more employees regularly participate in CI? How often and through which channels should the RWTÜV Campus team communicate? The RWTÜV Campus is the group-internal online platform that hosts the intranet and the innovation platform. It features news, direct chats, expert groups, the CI pipeline, and much more.
At the end of last month, the RWTÜV Community engaged in an open workshop on the topic of the innovation platform. The agenda included an assessment of the campus's acceptance and processes, as well as considerations for process optimization and broadening the user base of the innovation network.
In the four-hour, varied workshop, featuring short lectures and discussions in differently composed groups in breakout rooms, topics were openly discussed, criticized, analyzed, and planned.
The remote meeting was led by Reinhard Willfort, Managing Director of isn – innovation service Network, who developed the RWTÜV Campus together with the team of Kim Tran and Natascha Winter, and who continues to support the establishment process. He assessed the meeting very positively: „You can feel in every workshop how the innovative strength of RWTÜV is increasing and the internal innovation network is growing stronger and stronger! All participants are highly motivated and focused on precise innovation questions; it is great fun to moderate this joint process!“
Fabian Fechner, Deputy Managing Director of the RWTÜV Group, also praised: „We see that our efforts are bearing fruit. Interest and willingness to get involved are growing. Word is spreading that companies and their employees personally benefit from this commitment. We'll keep at it!“