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[Mr.Index]

The innovation is like life line for modern technology companies. In these days, if you cease to invent, you will cease to exist. If you are a tech company, and have a lot of magics in your sleeves, you are safe for few months only. You cannot reap the benefits for ever -you need to come up with something new very soon. Otherwise, consumers will turn to the company that is giving them new gimmicks.

It is difficult to measure innovation. However, there is a tool that is popular among people. The number of patents can show , to some extent, how good a company is innovating. I would like to share a table that shows the number of patents awarded to some leading German companies like Volkswagen, Daimler, Siemens, Bosch, Continental, Schaeffler. These companies also have very good collaboration with the academia. For example, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Gutzmer is member of the Schaeffler Executive Board and responsible for Research and Development and at the same time he is involved with Institute für Technology (KIT) at Karlsruhe. The research groups in Bosch, Siemens, etc. can seek direct consultation from many renowned professors from academia. There are many professors who have joined the industry at the later part of their career. Many of the professors are actually coming back to industry as they started their career in industry and then moved to academia. This bidirectional interaction has brought benefit for both stakeholders.

Here is the table showing the patents awarded to some German companies.

Company	Volkswagen	Daimler	Siemens	Bosch	Continental	Schaeffler
Patent	730	2,014	1,910	3.602	424	1.832