Building on Germany’s foundation: How to take digitalisation to the next level
An honest take from the Mobilegeeks founder
Digitalisation is not the solution, a culture that supports it is. Or so says award-winning entrepreneur and blogger Sascha Pallenberg when explaining how to create digital transformation in the mobility industry. In fact, Pallenberg felt quite strongly that the buzzword phrase “digital transformation” is a joke.
Find out why in the rest of his interview with FoundersLane below.
This interview was originally conducted for our new book “Das Entscheidende Jahrzehnt”. If you would like to read the full story follow the link and get your version of “Das Entscheidende Jahrzehnt” now.
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Sascha Pallenberg is an entrepreneur at heart. Known as the co-founder of tech blog Mobilegeeks, previously the Head of Digital Transformation at car manufacturer Daimler, and just appointed as Chief Awareness Officer of the sustainability platform, aware, Pallenberg has a unique and experienced overview on digitalisation.
A Surprising Perspective: Germany is ahead of the curve
One perspective that surprised us was his strong statement that Germany is hugely underestimated when it comes to research and development into digitalisation. Pallenberg points out that “when you look at AI patents for autonomous driving, more than two-thirds are coming from Germany, or when you look at patents in battery technology or for electric drivetrains, I think we are very, very well-positioned.”
Pallenberg also emphasizes that it was the German automotive industry that developed the Smart, which “in terms of serious production, was the first modern electric car,” and he disagreed with the notion that the country is somehow “behind.” The push towards electric alternatives, sustainability and carbon neutrality is not new nor is it trivial. In fact, German manufacturers are investing €100 billion into e-mobility transformation. From his tenure at Daimler, Pallenberg can attest that they have “never ever had an investment like this in their 130-year history.”
An Unanticipated Driver of Transformation: COVID-19
Large companies strive to fully adopt digital technology and remodel their business and services in what has been termed “digital transformation.” In “Das Entscheidende Jahrzehnt” we show with examples from Daimler, Siemens Healthineers or Vatenfall how this transformation can work on the big scale.
However, Pallenberg is rather dismissive of this term, labelling it as nothing more than a buzzword and explaining that the biggest driver of transformation so far has nothing to do with any strategic planning. No, the most significant push was sadly the result of a global pandemic.
Rather than C-level executive strategies or innovative apps, unfortunately, “the biggest driver of digital transformation in large corporations was COVID-19.” He expands on this statement, observing that before the first lockdown about 4% of the German workforce worked from home and during the peak of the pandemic this grew more than fivefold to 21%. “That’s digital transformation,” argues Pallenberg.
An Unusual Analogy: The Hamburger
Is it also possible for corporations to drive meaningful transformation?
Pallenberg began answering our question with an unexpected analogy: a hamburger. He compared companies to hamburgers, identifying the most defining characteristic of the burger as a “patty…and the burger doesn’t work without the patty, whether it’s a beef or a vegan or vegetarian patty, without the patty, you won’t have the hamburger.”
What is this corporate “patty”? Senior management, “and that’s the biggest challenge.” The nature of this challenge, in Pallenberg’s opinion, is that senior management is generally conditioned to corporate structures and a “because we always do it this way” attitude. Thus, they’re missing that special ingredient in their “patty.”
“This is all about the transformation of a mindset.”
To really innovate, corporations need more than just a digital environment, they need that missing ingredient: an entrepreneurial mindset, or more specifically the failure culture that accompanies this mindset. Pallenberg asserts that corporations have yet to truly integrate a real culture of failure like those inherent in startups. He articulates that this failure culture is “all about time to market. Let’s be quicker. Let’s make more. Let’s learn. Let’s get more experience. Let’s learn from the mistakes that we make.”
During his corporate experiences, Pallenberg discovered that bringing different voices together to the table was one method of pushing towards a different mindset. The fact that each and every voice at that table could easily use the backward argument of “no, because we always do it this way,” made it clear to everyone that this mentality prevents progress. This communal realization and awareness of regressive corporate culture, however, could incite change:
“This was the very first time that some people really understood this, especially the accountants. That was a huge game-changer in the narrative of getting a different mindset and embracing new technology, new processes, and openness.”
While Pallenberg continues to push progress through entrepreneurial tactics, he still remains critical of the expression: “I think ‘digital transformation’ is one of the biggest bingo buzzwords in the world.” He continues along this line, “I was born in 1971, and the first wristwatch that I got at six years old was a watch from Casio.” His point: Digitalisation already happened, and although there’s a strong foundation, what’s needed now to drive this transformation forward is a culture that actually supports it.
The startup mindset is a critical ingredient in corporate venture building. Check out our book, “Das Entscheidende Jahrzehnt”, to learn how to successfully take this entrepreneurial asset of failure culture into corporate settings and advance to the front line of innovation.
FoundersLane, the leading Corporate Venture Builder for climate and health, was founded in 2016 by Felix Staeritz, Andreas von Oettingen, and Michael Stephanblome. The team develops digital business models in the health and climate sector by combining the agility and the mindset of technology entrepreneurs with the strength of corporations. FoundersLane draws on more than 20 years of experience by the founders in building up new companies.
FoundersLane creates new, fast-growing digital companies in categories that are highly topical and current. FoundersLane counts more than 100 founders, experts and entrepreneurs with great expertise in the fields of medicine, health, climate, disruptive technologies such as IoT connectivity, AI, and machine learning. Clients and partners include SMEs and corporations as well as more than 30 Forbes listed companies, such as Trumpf, Vattenfall, Henkel and Baloise. FoundersLane is active in Europe, MENA and Asia with offices in Berlin, Cologne, Vienna and London.
Felix Staeritz is a serial entrepreneur, investor, founder and CEO of the corporate venture builder FoundersLane, member of the Board of Digital Leaders of the World Economic Forum and book author and is one of the internationally recognised experts on entrepreneurship and digital transformation. Driven by the firm conviction to sustainably improve the world through digital innovations, he has been in close dialogue with the global business and scientific elite in relevant international bodies for around 20 years.
Dr Sven Jungmann is a doctor-turned-entrepreneur. He is a partner at FoundersLane and an advisor to health start-ups and investors. Handelsblatt listed him among Germany’s smartest innovators. Sven has consulted Wellster Healthtech, the D2C health success case in Germany and continues doing so via an advisory board role. Wellster Healthtech has been promoting D2C in health early on.
