Criteria for best performance
FROM SOUTH WESTPHALIA FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
South Westphalia's position as one of the top industrial regions in Germany is due to the large number of medium-sized companies.
Your entrepreneurial success usually results from successfully occupying niche markets. But when is a niche market also a global market? How important must a supplier be in a global or EU market in order to rightly call itself the market leader?
In order to leave no room for doubt here and to stand up to a nationwide comparison, the CCIs are guided by the lexicon of German world market leaders.
The standard work, first published in 2010 by Dr. Florian Langenscheidt and Prof. Dr. Bernd Venohr, contains more than 800 German companies, the latest version from January 2015 even contains almost 1,000 companies, including many from South Westphalia. Market leaders are defined as all companies that are among the top 3 in their market in terms of quantity or quality. To be classified as a global or EU market leader from South Westphalia, the following criteria must be met.
Concrete evidence or comprehensible references as objective proof of a claimed global market leadership were therefore particularly important to the chambers of industry and commerce when determining the market leaders. In most cases, the chambers determined this evidence in consultation with the companies in numerous individual discussions and documented it internally.
A
Classification as a South Westphalian company
The company must be based in South Westphalia, i.e. in the districts of the Arnsberg, Hagen or Siegen Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The company must be independent and the operational management must be based in South Westphalia.
B
Classification as an internationally relevant product or service
Only those products or services that are sold at least throughout Europe are relevant. An exception is made for new technologies that have not yet experienced international distribution due to their topicality, but where such a market is foreseeable. However, a product or service may be irrelevant if the description of the market is too narrow or nonsensical. There is no global market for "Sauerland beer", for example.
C
Market leadership possible according to quantitative and qualitative criteria
In addition to quantity, market leadership can also be found in a qualitative role. There may well be companies that dominate a market in terms of technology or quality and therefore have a decisive influence without generating the highest sales. Here, too, one can speak of market leadership (or quality or technology leadership), although this is more difficult to prove due to softer criteria.
