Next highlight in our “Innovation Insights” series 2019: Dr. Roland Busch’s (CTO and COO, Siemens AG) talk on how to turn innovation into strategic advantages

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On May 21st, the Chair’s “Innovation Insights” series continued with another highlight: Professor Voigt and his team had the honor and pleasure to welcome Dr. Roland Busch – Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Organization Officer (COO), and board member of the Siemens AG.

Dr. Busch talked about how Siemens turns innovation into strategic advantages and shared exciting insights with the students. In the first part of his presentation, Dr. Busch pointed out how digitalization (new digital technologies and new business models) changes innovation processes fundamentally.  Thus, new ecosystems occur and replace existing supply chains. In the second part, he explained the most relevant technologies for Siemens and how Siemens uses these technologies to build innovations. Moreover, he mentioned that Siemens is increasingly becoming a software company. Interestingly, Siemens is already among the 10 biggest software companies in the world.

Among other topics, Dr. Busch highlighted the importance of speed in today’s fast-changing environment. Against this background, he talked about Next47, Siemens’ independent global venture firm that combines the speed and agility of an independent investor with the breadth of Siemens’ businesses and technologies.

The whole auditorium listened fascinated to Dr. Busch’s presentation. Rounding up the presentation, many students used the opportunity to intensively discuss their questions with Dr. Busch.

We would like to thank Dr. Busch, also on behalf of our students, for truly captivating “Innovation Insights”! Good news at the end: This was not the last guest lecture by Dr. Busch at the Chair of Industrial Management – he just announced: I’ll be back!