Innovate as a Global Team: Porsche International Innovation Manager Meeting 2020
At Porsche, the passage from tradition to future sometimes only takes only 15 minutes — or even less. Symbolically, it leads us from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen to Porsche Digital in Ludwigsburg. Our museum displays the innovations of past decades, more than 70 years of sports car tradition. In Ludwigsburg, we work on business models for the future of mobility and research into the smart technologies of tomorrow.
We visited both places in February with almost 30 Porsche Innovation Managers from all over the world. Colleagues who are working together on topics of the future, but who always keep an eye on the Porsche tradition and our values. Four days of workshops, two days in Stuttgart, two days in Berlin, including APX, the accelerator from Porsche and Axel Springer. In the coming weeks, I’d like to share our experiences with you here and highlight the different perspectives of the individual markets on innovation.
Why innovation management is so versatile
What does an Innovation Manager do at Porsche? My colleague Andy Grau has written about his work here. We manage innovations, but what makes this task challenging is that there’s not one correct way of doing it. Managing innovations can include the development of new products and services in order to conquer new markets. It can consist of enhancing existing products and services to be better than the competitors or improve internal processes to strengthen the company from the inside and to save costs. Developing new business models to leverage new revenue opportunities can also be part of it. Innovation management is very versatile.
This not only applies to the type of innovation, but also to our customers around the world. A small workshop in Zuffenhausen has grown into a global company, so it is all the more important now to incorporate global perspectives into our corporate transformation.
During the workshop, we brought all these perspectives together in one physical space: the Digital Experience Foundry of Porsche Digital in Ludwigsburg. A large hall, with a rolling gate and crane, with a huge digital touch screen and a wooden seating grandstand. Our digital workshop of the future. Unique in the automotive industry. Our key question: How do we create value for our customers in different markets all around the globe?
Different countries, different challenges
Our innovation managers know their markets and their customers best — in China, the USA, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. Each market has its own challenges, mentalities and conditions. What do our customers expect from Porsche? What innovations do they anticipate in the future? How will infrastructures develop within the countries? What external factors are there to drive innovation? These are all questions we thought about, exchanged ideas and discussed together, during the workshop.
The most important learning for me: innovation is teamwork. The workshop with our colleagues from all over the world is very important to me because it strengthens the personal connection between the many innovation managers from all over the world and it allows us to learn from each other. In this way, we can initiate joint projects across continents and turn the many ideas into marketable products.
I invite you to take a look at the Porsche Tech Blog in the coming weeks and get more insights into the reports of my international colleagues!
Philip Ruckert is Manager Strategy & Innovation at Porsche AG.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
