Digital transformation paving the path to innovation

What are your biggest challenges at the moment and what are the resulting expectations for your innovative strength?

We have amazing customers in strongly growing sectors. The poor availability of materials is currently putting us in a precarious situation. What’s more, we plan on proactively strengthening our relationships with our customers in order to double our growth rate to around twenty percent. This is what ambidexterity is all about: consistently expanding our core business efficiently and flexibly and systematically exploiting opportunities for the future. IT plays a central role in this.

What consequences does this have, firstly, for the IT infrastructure that must be behind it, and secondly – and at least as importantly – for the issues of leadership and corporate culture?

We act in the typical cascade of vision, mission, strategy, goals, results, and values. In this context, not only agile methods, but also agile organizational structures, including the company’s own Innovation Lab as a separate limited liability company, are of great importance. IT reflects that, but honestly sometimes even goes beyond it. Similar to technology, technical possibilities encourage us to try previously unimagined paths. Ideally, the result is a culture of innovation that makes new things possible like a magic, invisible hand.

What obstacles have you already successfully overcome – and above all, how did you do it?

We redesigned our core development process to incorporate agile elements, including coordination loops with key customers. Our Innovation Lab did not know how to use the new freedom properly at first. By systematically deriving trends that are relevant to us, we can provide more guidance in coming up with ideas and searching for start-ups. Finally, we became increasingly aware of the importance of a multi-year strategy. To this end, we have set an ambitious growth target, which has released a tremendous amount of energy. This dynamic now needs to be molded into suitable processes and organizational forms and clearly communicated to our team. IT has its own challenges. For example, we have successfully brought heterogeneous data structures together using software tools.

Digitization is not an end in itself: There needs to be a tangible benefit for users, especially for manufacturing companies. Which one or ones would that be for you?

In a narrower sense, digitization means rethinking processes and mapping them digitally. This increases efficiency and employee satisfaction. In a broader sense, however, digitization must go far beyond the process. I emphasize the term Digital Products because I want to build new, orderable products from data that generate relevant revenue. For example, startups usually work with this method because they think primarily in digital terms, with fantastic scaling opportunities and virtually no marginal costs. For us as “hardware guys”, there are hurdles to overcome, not only internally, but also with skeptical customers. Communicating the benefits associated with data is the key to success here.

What usually stands in the way of IT innovations? Are there any typically “German” problems or obstacles here?

Typically, German fears include those of change itself and of the use of data. This prevents us from sharing in the great innovations of our time. You create a supposedly safe, tranquil island while overlooking the tsunami that will come and sweep everything away. Courage and risk have been lost. Today, everyone walks around with belts and suspenders.

What are the most urgent tasks for IT decision-makers and CEOs now and in the medium term?

IT executives move strategically closer to the CEO, and in the best case become flankers in the innovation game that is crucial for advancement. We know that this is difficult in practice because it requires a change in thinking, especially among IT managers who operate in the traditional way. For mid-sized companies, which are often located in more rural areas, attracting the best talent to their companies is challenging. An office in a large city with many IT specialists can help, as we have started in Dresden, for example.

What are the three most important insights of your professional career, your career? And is there anything you might have done differently with the knowledge you have today?

I think I also owe my career to immense diligence. The price was definitely high, so I may have overemphasized this aspect. I have a wide range of interests and, like a driven person, I like to try things out, even if the benefits are not immediately apparent. This opens up an incredible network for me, but sometimes makes me temporarily lose focus. In terms of career and life itself, I think phases of exploration and implementation alternate, similar to the two phases of diverging and converging in design thinking. Recognition and rhythmic timing are essential for personal progress. Looking back, I wouldn’t do anything fundamentally different, other than maybe put more emphasis on friendships and relationships outside of work. Musicians and painters inspire me the most.

[Source: DSAG members’ magazine "blaupause" [blueprint], 1-2022 issue]