A detailed study from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organisation (IAO) delivers new empirical insight into what enables some firms to navigate transformation successfully, whereas others face difficulties. The Fraunhofer Transformation Index (FTI), based on the evaluation of 250’000 scientific papers, industry publications and management studies, identifies 31 success factors distilled into five structural signals. Although the case studies examined in the report are primarily German – Würth, EBM-Papst, Läpple and Schunk among them – the underlying patterns are universal and can be applied directly to Swiss companies. For Swiss corporates, mid-caps and high-growth start-ups, the analysis acts as a mirror; for investors, it provides an additional compass for assessing long-term resilience.
Incentives as the Foundation of Strategic Renewal
One of the clearest findings concerns internal incentive structures. Transformation tends to falter not because of a lack of ideas, but because new and established business models clash. A striking example is the German family-owned firm Würth, whose revenues moved towards €20 billion over the past decade. The company tackled the longstanding tension between field sales and online channels by harmonising commission schemes across all points of sale. As a result, sales teams became advocates of digitalisation rather than opponents.
A similar logic is visible in Switzerland. ABB, the global provider of electrification and automation technologies, is steadily shifting capital towards software-based services and digital control systems. The SIG Group, which manufactures carton packaging and filling equipment, is directing investment towards more sustainable and digitally optimised production processes. Bachem, a leading producer of peptides and oligonucleotides for the pharmaceutical industry, is expanding its automated biotech capacity to meet rising global demand in research and therapeutic development.
The lesson is straightforward: companies that channel capital into future sources of value creation structurally increase their speed of transformation.
Partnerships as Accelerators of Renewal
A second major signal concerns the role of external partners. The German company EBM-Papst, a manufacturer of fans and drive technology, illustrates how integration into innovation networks can accelerate development. The firm works closely with start-ups, software specialists and research groups to advance new solutions – particularly in cooling systems for data centres – faster than would be possible through internal development alone.
Switzerland’s innovation landscape operates on much the same principle. Pharmaceutical group Roche bases its research and development agenda on a global network of biotech firms, academic groups and data companies. Climeworks, one of Switzerland’s most prominent climate-tech start-ups, scales CO₂-removal projects in collaboration with energy producers, chemical companies and international research consortia. Young technology companies such as LatticeFlow and MaxWell Biosystems co-develop products with industrial partners because complex AI and life-science applications can only reach market maturity in collaborative frameworks.
For Switzerland, this leads to a familiar yet strategically relevant conclusion: the country’s mix of universities, industrial clusters and internationally oriented firms favours transformation wherever partnerships are understood as an integral component of the business model.
Leadership as the Decisive Factor
The Fraunhofer analysis identifies leadership as the most powerful lever among all success factors. Leadership is not a symbolic force but a structural one: it determines how consistently change is defined and implemented, how much momentum a company can build, and how quickly resistance can be reduced.
The German example of Läpple Automotive demonstrates this clearly. The company renewed its leadership model across several levels, shifting away from traditional hierarchies towards more coaching-oriented, coordinating responsibilities. The transition was supported by systematic leadership training that focused less on technical or process knowledge and more on change management and cross-functional thinking.
Comparable dynamics are visible in Switzerland, albeit in different contexts. The integration of Credit Suisse by UBS was, above all, a leadership project rather than a technological or market-driven one; its success can be measured in coordination, communication and stability. At On Holding, the internationally expanding manufacturer of running shoes and sportswear, early professionalisation of the management team enabled global scaling. At the TX Group, the media and digital company, leadership roles were redefined to embed data-driven decision-making more firmly within its core platform businesses.
The overarching insight: leadership is not an accessory of transformation but its central engine.
Structural Flexibility as a Feature of Modern Organisations
Another signal concerns internal mobility. The Fraunhofer analysis uses Spotify to show how long-lived a model of autonomous product teams can be when it is embedded in clear roles, responsibilities and knowledge-sharing structures. Such models enable faster development and strategic adjustment without slipping into operational disorder.
In Switzerland, organisational flexibility is particularly evident among technology-oriented growth companies. Beekeeper not only operates in an agile manner itself, it also exports this logic to industrial clients. Scandit uses a modular organisational model that tightly links product development with market orientation. At Zurich Insurance, new units have emerged in recent years that bring digital products to market far faster than traditional structures allow. Even the Swiss Federal Railways have gradually replaced conventional IT project methodologies with agile release architectures – a sign that large organisations can accelerate when processes are deliberately redesigned.
The structural finding is clear: organisations transform not despite flexibility, but because of it.
Technological Maturity as a Measure of Competitiveness
Technology becomes transformative when it is embedded deeply within business models. Schunk, the German machinery manufacturer, is a case in point: the company introduced digital twins across its entire value chain, allowing development and production processes to be simulated long before physical steps occur. The productivity gains were substantial and contributed to revenues rising to €600 million within a year.
In Switzerland, technological maturity is one of the clearest differentiators. Schindler, one of the world’s largest lift and escalator manufacturers, uses AI-based maintenance systems to reduce downtime. Holcim, the global cement and building materials group, is digitalising supply chains and CO₂ tracking under pressure from regulation and market demand. ANYbotics, an ETH spin-off, builds autonomous robots for industrial inspection tasks, replacing traditional processes entirely. And young firms such as Haya Therapeutics deploy AI directly in research workflows, significantly shortening development cycles.
The broader conclusion holds: technology used as an add-on is inefficient; technology used as a structural principle is productive.
What Switzerland Can Take from the Five Signals
The analysis can be condensed into three observations for Switzerland. First, future readiness is less a question of industry than of organisational structure: an industrial firm may be more transformable than a software company if its internal signals are aligned. Second, start-ups and young technology firms often fulfil the five signals intuitively, as they operate without legacy constraints; their proximity to research and international networks acts as an accelerator. Third, Swiss corporates with strong global integration benefit from structural openness – the ability to absorb and utilise external impulses consistently.
Relevance for Investors and the Role of Platforms such as Capiwell
For investors, the analysis provides an additional dimension that goes beyond conventional balance-sheet and market metrics. The five signals – incentives, partnerships, leadership, flexibility and technological maturity – correlate strongly with a company’s ability to grow resiliently in periods of economic and technological acceleration. They function as an early structural indicator.
Investment platforms such as CapiWell, which enable multi-asset allocation across sectors, regions and company sizes, offer a way to translate these signals into investable strategies. Whether through Swiss large caps, international mid-caps or high-growth start-ups, transformation capability can be expressed through diversified investment vehicles. In this sense, structural change becomes not only observable but investable.
Fraunhofer Transformation Index
- Who stands behind it
Fraunhofer IAO is part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe’s largest organisation for applied research. For decades, the institute has examined how technology and organisational design shape the evolution of companies. - What the study shows
The analysis draws on 250’000 scientific publications. From this corpus, researchers identified 31 recurring patterns of successful transformation, grouped into five signals: incentives, partnerships, leadership, flexibility and technology. - How to interpret it
This is not a ranking, but a tool that explains why some companies manage change systematically, regardless of their size or sector. - Relevance for Switzerland
Many Swiss companies reflect these mechanisms. As a result, future readiness becomes more measurable. - Investor perspective
The index complements traditional financial metrics with a structural lens on corporate change. Platforms such as CapiWell can make these signals usable across different asset classes. - Access to the full report
The report is publicly available at https://www.iao.fraunhofer.de (Research → Transformationsindex)
References (APA, translated)
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