Innovation to the moon
Under the label "Innovation Labs – Your Roadmap to the Digital World", Süddeutsche Verlag Veranstaltungen dared to tackle a new topic on 24 and 25 October in Berlin. The experiment proved particularly worthwhile.
The aim of the conference was not only achieved, but rather surpassed: to facilitate a close exchange of experience between speakers and participants. The interaction was extraordinarily lively, refreshing, entertaining and above all goal-oriented, because it was practical.
Innovation drivers from a wide range of companies such as BMW and VW, Deutsche Bahn and Klöckner, Microsoft and SAP, Media Markt/Saturn and Evonik, among others. spoke openly and impressively about the working methods of labs, incubators and accelerators, their respective experiences and best practices in digital transformation. The key question was again and again, and in very different facets: What must an Innovation Lab do for the company to be perceived as successful? The answers to this question were manifold and complex.
The range of topics was comprehensive and covered both practical and strategic issues, including the impact of disruptive technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence on society, politics and business; the need for effective and efficient collaboration between different stakeholders such as research and development, public authorities, industry and start-ups; or the prospects of a symbiosis of human creativity and empathy with artificial intelligence, the expected implications of the fourth industrial revolution.
Practical reports showed how robots can help with shopping; how Augmented and Virtual Reality change the shopping experience by visualizing what does not yet exist or cannot be physically presented; how searching and finding with the support of artificial intelligence works well even offline.
The experiences with the role of the lab as a driving force for digital transformation in the automotive industry were also exciting to learn. Here, software experts from car manufacturers (OEM) and Tier 1 suppliers work together with international, external software specialists on a digital ecosystem that offers new mobility services and services for the connected car.
Impressive how agile start-up work, design thinking and a radically customer-centric approach promote digital change in the steel trade or chemical industry; how science and technology companies place their innovation labs directly in the heart of corporate headquarters and thus keep the distances to decision-makers short.
A special "smash hit" was the "Mission to the Moon" by Robert Böhme and his team of PT Scientists. A whole bundle of innovations is supposed to enable him to bring robotic vehicles to the Apollo 17 landing field on the moon and to use them for research purposes within a year.
Conclusion: Innovation Labs are today an elementary building block of the digitization strategies of German corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises, to design and accelerate their own innovation and digitization process in a goal-oriented manner. Since there are still many more questions regarding the strategic planning, organizational design and operative operation of an innovation lab as answers or even best practices, the direct exchange of experience between innovators is important in the future. Süddeutsche Verlag Veranstaltungen is therefore already planning to continue in the autumn of 2018 in Berlin.