This textbook provides an in-depth portfolio of case studies of globally operating and market leading medium-sized companies, mostly based in Germany. Students in the field of strategic management, family business management, information technology, and engineering may comprehensively explore the success factors of these hidden champions. Assignments and discussion sections help to dive deeper into the topics of innovation, internationalization, and leadership. Practitioners may gain valuable insights into growth trajectories and strategic decisions for achieving and sustaining market leadership. All case studies have been developed in direct cooperation with the companies and tested in teaching.

Part 1: Spearheading Innovation

Hidden Champions: Strategic Logic of Innovation
Customer-Centric Innovation Marketing for IntelliSens by Huf Hülsbeck & Fürst
Creating a High Performance Culture for Innovation at Autoneum
The Next Level of Value Generation: Smart Services for Industry 4.0 by ifm electronics
Speed as Competitive Advantage: CoMaTec enters the New Mobility Market
Part 2: Leveraging Global Growth
Suddenly Hidden Champion? A Study of Internationalization Patterns
Determinants of Hidden Champions: Evidence from Germany
Management by Opportunity as a Guideline for International Expansion at Dolezych
Schalker Eisenhütte: Keep your business on track in times of transformation
Entrepreneurial Growth: Opportunity Driven Strategy Development at Elmos
Part 3: Orchestrating Resources for Sustainability
The World is (not) Enough: Future Through Digitization at GEA
Orchestrating internal and external drivers for global growth at GEA Farm Technologies
Sustainable Transformation at Theben - 100 years of pioneering in building automation
Handling Growth as a Complexity Driver at Faymonville
Roots to Grow: How Kahmann & Ellerbrock benefits from Local Embeddedness with Hidden Champions
Stepping into the spotlight: Active sourcing strategy of Harting Technologies
Case Study Types
Case Study Profiles.