Fasihi GmbH Awarded with Grand Prize for Small and Medium Enterprises
Chief executive Saeid Fasihi was delighted to receive the award: "After winning the Innovation Award 2011 by the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate for our software for encrypting and classifying confidential data, we have now won an accolade not only paying tribute to our technical expertise, but also to our responsibility towards society." The Grand Prize for Small and Medium Enterprises is regarded as the most important prize in economics in Germany.
During the prize award ceremony, Eveline Lemke, acting minister and Minister of Economic Affairs of Rhineland-Palatinate, congratulated Saeid Fasihi on the prize by placing special emphasis on the importance of the small and medium-sized businesses: "What is special about the small and medium-sized companies? Motivation, customer focus, commitment, diversity and innovative strength. Therefore it is not surprising that these characteristics are part of the evaluation criteria of the competition," remarks Lemke.
Ministerin Lemke gratuliert Preisträgern aus Rheinland-Pfalz: „Mittelstand ist tragende Säule unserer Wirtschaft“
Other participants at the award ceremony, besides Lembke, were Dr. Gerhard Papke, Vice President of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Parliament; Franz-Josef Mersch-Lense, Head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia; and Jürgen Barke, State Secretary at the Saarland Ministry of Economic Affairs. 500 businessmen and women, as well as numerous guests, followed the award ceremony carried out by the Oskar Patzelt Foundation.
Three Award Winners from Companies of the Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland
Three companies from Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland rank among the 11 award winners. Their detailed company profiles have been published on the Oskar Patzelt Foundation's website pages.
21 companies received an award by the Executive Board of the Oskar Patzelt Foundation, Dr. Helfried Schmidt and Petra Tröger, for being "Finalist". 11 companies were awarded the coveted prize of the "Prize Winner Trophy". 1 local community (from the Rhineland-Palatinate) and 1 bank (from Lower Saxony) have been honoured each as the most business-friendly institutions of their region. They all have come out on top against 234 competing candidates on the "Jury's hit list".
In 2014, nationwide more than 1,400 institutions from 16 federal states nominated a total of 4,555 small and medium-sized enterprises as well as banks and communities for this competition. Compared to 2013, that was a significant increase and at the same time a new record in the 20-year history of the competition, organized by the Leipzig Oskar Patzelt-Stiftung (Oskar Patzelt Foundation) once a year.
Large Response to the Competition
No other economic competition in Germany has reached such a large response lasting over so many years as the one offered by the Leipzig Oskar Patzelt Foundation since 1994, even though there is no remuneration for this prize. The only reasons for companies to participate in this competition are purely a question of honour, public recognition and acknowledgement for their achievements, without being offered any financial incentives.
Among the companies participating in the competition, there are both newcomers, who have started their business only in the last five years, and companies already existing for over 150 years, which have mastered numerous crises, currency reforms and even survived several wars.
The Five Criteria for the Nomination for the Prize:
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The overall development of a company
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The procurement and safeguarding of jobs and vocational education
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The company's strategic orientation as regards modernization and innovation
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Its commitment in the region
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The service provided, its closeness to customers and its marketing strategy
Excellent performance is required in any of the five criteria.
According to the host of the competition, only those companies are nominated steering a course which is characterized by strong values, a clear strategy and high flexibility. Among them are companies having gathered experiences in coping with crises and structural upheavals over several generations, and they have done so with great innovative strength. These companies distinguish themselves by their commitment to people they work with and in doing so, they certainly contribute to stabilizing their region.
The prize is intended to improve the image of small and medium-sized companies in public, to raise public awareness regarding the relationship between a "healthy Mittelstand - strong economy - more jobs", the popularization of success stories and the promotion of networking in medium-sized companies.
"Already its nomination for the competition qualifies a company, in a clearly recognizable way, to be part of an elite in Germany. However, the competition does explicitly not ask for business results, employment or innovation key figures, but it rates a company as to its responsibility towards society. About only one among a thousand companies in Germany will be nominated for the competition", writes the Oskar Patzelt Foundation on their website.