Strategy and Digitization

Define innovation strategy 
Make digitization concrete

Without an innovation strategy that is aligned with the business strategy, a lot of time and money can be wasted. We help to link strategy and innovation, optimize portfolios, realign your innovation process or optimize your technology scouting.

Everyone is talking about digitization and digital transformation. We help your company to integrate them into the strategy and to make them concrete through projects that fit your business.

We offer advice, workshops, project support and tailor-made method training.

Innovation Strategy Workshop

Example Projects

Portfolio alignment in a medical technology company


Problem:

In order to improve the success rate of the research and development projects, the portfolio needed to be realigned. For this purpose, the involvement of market experts from product and sales management had to be strengthened. In addition, opportunities should be sought to involve the customers of the products into the decision process.



Approach:

A scoring system was introduced, with which the various aspects of the project were assessed. The led to a rating of the degree of innovation and a risk level. All projects were presented and evaluated in a joint workshop with research, sales, product management, clinical experts and in-house advice. Swarm intelligence was deliberately used to allow differences in the ratings.



Results:

The results were presented graphically to enable portfolio decisions. It was clearer, which projects contributed to the core of the business, which ones were adjescent or transformative. In addition, some projects were identified whose customer benefit was too low or had to be re-evaluated from a market perspective. Formats were also developed for future customer involvement.



Chart: Degree of risk vs degree of innovation
Concept for the use of robots and 5G in a laboratory environment
Problem:
A new generation of laboratory equipment should be developed. State-of-the-art processes should be used to achieve significantly improved logistics, a revolutionary user concept and greater utility for the operator.

Method:
New technologies such as 5G for communication or robots for optimizing the supply chain were used as well as augmented reality, IoT and other processes. The Trends of Technology Evolution and the S-Curve Evolution from TRIZ were used to derive optimized concepts.

Result:
An architectural concept for the laboratory of the future was developed.

Make digitization concrete: new business model generation

Problem:
The operator of a pharmaceutical site must put his services to the test and ensure that the cost structure of his services is correct and that optimal customer-friendly services are also offered.

Method:
A workshop was organized in which, with the help of the trends of technology evolution, meaningful digital developments of the current services were developed. With the help of the 40 Digital Business Models, they were further developed to design a digital business model.
The 40 Digital Business Models are a further development of the 40 Innovative Principles from TRIZ and represent a unique tool for the development of new data-based business models.

Result:
A number of services have been developed to help make the store viable for the factory operator. Services were designed based on eg chatbots.

Strategy for Innovation 
Problem: A manufacturer of diagnostics faced increasing competition. In addition, several important patents expired. There was also no strategy for new growth markets. 

Method: The core business was strengthened by a number of measures, including through a new development that can be integrated into the existing system landscape. With the help of the Blue Ocean approach, ideas for "emerging markets" were generated. A number of TRIZ workshops also generated new patent ideas. 

Result: Even if not all results are available yet, a number of successes have been achieved: Numerous new patents (see also under "Innovation") protect the new product line. Business in new markets is more successful than ever and the core business is extremely stable.

 Blue Ocean Strategy and Buyer Utility Map 
The Buyer Utilty Map is one of the requirements for developing a Blue Ocean strategy. This makes it possible to discover fields in the customer value creation where you are without competition. Here, all essential elements such as procurement, delivery, manufacture, use and scrapping of a product are examined and evaluated which additional benefits could be generated for the customer. There are several categories here, e.g.
- energy savings
- increased comfort
- sustainability
- safety, etc.
The target is to develop a lasting advantage, which can not be copied easily.
S-Curve
The S-curve is an excellent tool for assessing the current state of a product and deriving the necessary decisions. It helps steer investments in technology and shows when it makes sense to look for alternatives based on the most important parameter of customer interest. Here are the main steps:
1. Define relevant quantifiable MPVs (Main Parameter of Value) that are critical to the customer's purchasing decision. Defining the MPV for the customer is a very important and sometimes controversial step. It may also be necessary to define separate S-curves for multiple parameters.
2. Explore development milestones and associate them with key performance parameters.
3. Discuss the consequences of the current positioning on the curve like
• investment in additional functionality
• start of a new S-curve?
• develop other MPVs?
• hybridize with new technologies?
• differentiation through cost savings, design, ….
Sprint
Sprint or Design Sprint is a method developed by Google Ventures to get from the first idea to a customer-tested prototype in just 5 days. During that time, goals are defined in a very compact form, critical aspects are collected in expert interviews, processes are observed, ideas are collected, decisions are made and, based on this, a prototype is produced that is tested by some customers. The feedback is collected in a structured way and serves for further improvement. It is a very interesting and intensive method to make the so-called "front end of innovation" more efficient. Only a few providers in Europe have experience in this method.
The latest version comes even with only 4 days, as it is often a challenge to keep all the key players in the workshop for 5 complete days.
Trends of Technology Evolution
Based on the history of past system developments, there are technological trends that can predict the future development of current systems. These are fact-based and avoid arbitrary judgments.
Some of these trends are:
Evolution along the S-curve
-Trend of increasing ideality
Trend of system completion
-Trend to transition to the environment
-Trends of increasing Degree of trimming
These can be worked out individually for your product and allow you a risk-reduced investment decision.
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