In April 2016 the Federal Agency for Civic Education published an essay on start-ups in Germany. Its authors, Nancy Richter and Thomas Schildhauer, wrote: Aber man muss wissen, dass die deutsche Innovationsmentalität eher inkrementelles Wachstum und damit die Verbesserung von bestehenden Produkten, Services, Prozessen und Geschäftsmodellen unterstützt. (But one must know that the German innovation mentality tends to support incremental growth, and with it the improvement of existing products, services, processes and business models.) Incremental innovation, they noted, needs investments whose use and results can be planned fairly well. According to the innovation reports, Germany is very well positioned in it.