VARTA Microbattery: Producing at the Right Place

In this chapter, we present a medium-sized company with an intelligent strategy of producing in Germany (state-of-the-art products with flexible delivery) and in the Far East (standard products, and labor-intensive assembly), in a way that makes the whole system stronger. But this intelligence is not all that makes this company special - cutting-edge technology innovation has made this small company one of the world market leaders in microbatteries (delivering, for example, to Apple as well as hearing aid companies), and a charismatic leader has energized the organization to contribute to innovation from multiple sources.