#ActBeyond with Vera Schneevoigt I CDO at Bosch Building Technologies

When I thought about who to interview for my personal learning journey about innovation ecosystems, six names immediately came to mind. Vera Schneevoigt was one of them! Vera is a mentor at Encourage Ventures, winner of the Edition F Prize 2018 and the Emotion Award 2020. She was awarded with the Inspiring 50 DACH Award 2019 and currently is Chief Digital Officer at Bosch Building Technologies. Her enthusiasm for tech and innovation, her strong autodidactic capabilities, her belief in people and trust-based leadership power make Vera one of the leading tech executives in Germany.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Vera end of April after her return from #TechTourIsrael. She and other innovation enthusiasts, like Andrea Steverding, kindly shared exciting insights on social media during their trip through the Israeli tech and innovation hub. I couldn't have been more excited about this interview! Let's follow us on a little journey :)

Vera, could you share the story behind #TechTourIsrael and which facets of Israel's innovation ecosystem particularly fascinated you?

The idea had been in my head for quite a long time. I've always wanted to travel to Israel because of its culture, but more recently also because I'm more intensely involved in cybersecurity topics. So during the pandemic, I had the idea for a Female Tech Tour and just did a shoutout on Twitter to see if the idea resonated. And it did! Among others, Jenny Havemann got in touch! Jenny had founded the German-Israeli Innovation Network (GIIN) just before the pandemic and offered to help me with the planning, which we then did together.

Finally, twelve people of my personal network set off for Israel in April. One personal conclusion of our trip is clearly that women should be more engaged with deep tech. And that we should better understand how innovation ecosystems are created. Of course, the example of Israel is quite unique because it is a rather small state, in geographical terms, with a high population density. With its 9.5 million inhabitants, Israel is a huge melting pot that is in a constant threat situation. You could say that people in Israel are forced to think big and internationalize everything they launch from the start because there is no real domestic economy.

In other words, it is precisely here that people think in terms of strategic partnerships from the very beginning. I have found the ecosystem in Israel to be very energetic and the founders to be especially bold. This goes so far that ideas created in the army, for example, do not become the intellectual property of the state, but remain with the individual. Unthinkable in Germany! At the same time, incubators and accelerators do not focus solely on the pure product or technology, but see themselves as holistic enablers. In doing so, all players strive for joint goals and collaboration. To my surprise, everyone meets at eye level. Ideas, competition and empowerment can be found at every corner. For me, the key success factor of Israel's innovation ecosystem is the strong interconnection among all its players.

This leads me to my final conclusion: there must first be a fundamental understanding among all stakeholders for an ecosystem to be successful. The state and public administration, academia and business in Israel share a strong common set of value and direction. And all this in a country where ideas can be tested courageously and quickly with relatively good social security and where competition takes place in a friendly manner with a deeply rooted purpose.

The greatest pleasure, however, was the intense shared learning experience resulting from the profound discussions and reflections within our small group. You learn not only from what happens during the tour, but also from conversations with the people in your network.

As CDO at Bosch Building Technologies, part of your job DNA is to keep an eye on latest trends and technologies. Could you share your source(s) of inspiration?

At Bosch Building Technologies, I'm lucky to be able to focus on one division. This way I have a clear focus, something tangible. In the real estate industry, these are, for example, intelligent building technologies, regional craft structures, but also safety and security. You should know that I am not a trained tech person, but an autodidact. Because of my nature and experience, I can quickly empathize with clients and partners, but also effortlessly dive into latest trends or exceptional market situations like the pandemic or the abrupt switch to remote working models, simply because it reflects my own life.

Compared to other industries, the real estate market is relatively slow due to its complexity, but no less interesting. Inspiration and ideas come from regular interactions with clients and partners and reflecting on current technology trends, considering questions like "What new business models could evolve?", "What are clients willing to pay for?", but most importantly, focusing on data and questions like "How can I harness data?" and "How can we ensure its security?". I am therefore also in constant exchange with internal specialist departments, such as the CTOs, Bosch Corporate or the R&D department.

Personally, I can say that the technical aspects excite me at least as much as the commercial ones. I automatically connect business topics with technology and vice versa. That has always been the case. I am less interested in fully immersing myself in a subject, but rather in understanding how it is applied and how a company can benefit from it. However, I only feel comfortable as a generalist if I understand a subject to a certain degree, which requires a lot of self-learning. A growth mindset. I like to look at the big picture, as I never want to look at a topic in isolation. Actually, I immediately think in networks, connecting the dots. That's just how my brain is wired. So I would really say that my default mode is "constantly inspired and curious". 

What significance do strategic partnerships have for your work and the innovative capacity of a company?

For me personally, this is an absolute no-brainer. I, but also a company, could never manage a complex task in isolation and alone. In all areas, internal and external, but also private and professional, it is always important to combine knowledge and skills in a complementary way. I would even say that the ability to enter into and develop strategic partnerships is one of the TOP 3 success factors for companies - and also whether established companies survive the next few years. 

I believe that in a world of infinite possibilities, focus wins. For this reason alone, partnerships are necessary in order to be able to react more quickly, but also more securely, to dynamic market changes.

To this day, specialization and engineering culture are important, but are still practiced too much as a clear artifact of the old world. The German economy must do its homework faster.

How would you describe companies or leaders that are more likely to embrace ecosystem thinking?

If you look at companies that internalized the ecosystem idea early on or have even perfected it, you can say that their corporate culture is geared towards transparency and openness. An acute risk for established companies is to constantly revolve around themselves. Personally, I would provide an incentive for managers above a certain level to get involved externally - be it in customer forums, technical communities, or associations and interest groups. 

Companies will simply have to make a decision at one point: collaborate or die.

After all, the speed of international markets and disruptive trends are presenting companies with increasingly fundamental challenges. I believe that stereotypes, biases and the German Angst of "everything outside my company walls is potentially harmful" must be overcome in order to remain relevant. If I work in a well-oiled ecosystem where mistakes or errors are welcome, the learning curve is immense, which means the ecosystem is likely to work on a suitable solution faster and with more impact. 

Last year, I facilitated change workshops for my team which could be used for any topic, personal or professional. That's when I realized how valuable the invested time was. Creating space for self-reflection opened up untouched potential for collaboration and innovation. I even took time for myself to show my team how serious I was with these workshops. As a leader, if you are able to reflect your own mindset and accept your own shortcomings, you are more likely to build good relationships with your partners. Why? Because you then don't see knowledge carriers or people with strong competencies as a threat per se, but recognize the potential in working them. Innovation ecosystems are also the result of great leadership.

Thank you, Vera! Note: If you are interested in one of the next #TechTourIsrael, feel free to reach out to Vera or Jenny Havemann.