EU names Fiege as an Open Innovation Challenger

Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), an initiative of the European Commission, has distinguished Fiege – which has developed a tyre logistics specialism during the last 10 years – as an Open Innovation Challenger. 24 corporate partners are listed in this annual ranking, including multinationals like Amazon, Dell or Google.

“It is a very special honour to be included in the same line-up of such renowned enterprises”, said Andreas Pott, who as the Director Corporate Development has been driving Innovation at Fiege. “Our cooperation with start-ups has proven to add enormous value to our company. It makes us question our own process flows and thinking. On the other hand, Fiege has reinvented itself multiple times before as a business and therefore has a treasure trove of experience which we are happy to share with young start-ups.” Pott represented Fiege during the event held in Brussels at the end of November.

This year Jyrki Tapani Katainen, the European Commission Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investments and Competitiveness, presented the awards to the Corporate Startup Stars and shared his experience during a keynote address. Members of the selection committee which included Bindi Karia, Candace Johnson and Isidro Laso Ballesteros, also participated in the ceremony.

“Collaboration between established companies and start-ups can bring tremendous benefits to both. Start-ups have the opportunity to access resources and market insight to help them scale up, while such a collaboration can become a strong driver of innovation for the established business – and can bring about even more subtle advantages like cultural change”, commented Vice President Katainen. “However, it is hard to get it right. We believe that the organisations doing this well should be recognised as trailblazers, and hope that they inspire others.”

“Expectations and the potential are crucial to Open Innovation and corporate start-up collaboration”, added Alberto Onetti, Chairman Mind the Bridge and co-ordinator of Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), who moderated the award ceremony. “But a lack of the real understanding of the term is a key barrier to adoption. That’s why we decided to recognise the companies that are active in this area. Showcasing concrete cases and results is worth a thousand buzzwords.”

Leading tyremakers including Apollo Vredestein, Bridgestone, Continental, Falken, Hankook, Nokian, Toyo, Trelleborg and Yokohama have all used Fiege for tyre logistics. For its part, Toyo also uses a B2B e-commerce platform developed by Fiege.