Profi Engineering Systems AG has been awarded the 'Top 100' seal of approval for the twelfth time in a row. "We give employees the freedom to pursue their ideas in a targeted manner and drive innovation forward," explains CEO Lutz Hohmann. Ideas can be submitted via an online form and sent to a central e-mail address. Three innovation teams from different company segments gather further information on the project and then present the proposal to the Portfolio Management Board. Following market and competition analyses, initial discussions with customers and an assessment of the opportunities and benefits, the idea is forwarded to the Management Board, which decides whether to implement it. The employees are allowed to use 20% of their working time for further training and lateral thinking and can spend up to twelve months as interns in departments of the business partner IBM.