Treasure 97 – Digitalization & Courage

How far apart is the engineering world and the digital world? How do you solve the shock of digitalization? What costs causes lack of courage? A treasure chest for reflection, developing ideas and controversial discussions.

Nugget # 1 is an article on digitalization by André M. Bajorat. Oh no, not again about digitalization, you’ll think. Do not worry, the article is not the usual bullshit bingo, but offers many impulses for developing ideas. I would like to pick up three ideas for thought here:

  • “Wide parts of our competence lie in the more classical engineering art” – Are the engineering world and the digital world really so far apart? I say no. Semiconductor chips are nothing more than code translated into hardware using software. In mechanical engineering a 3D printer translates code into a piece of hardware. Thus, in the hardware world, a daily build is not utopia.
  • Development cycles of several years are a thing of the past. User centric design requires fast iterations. Chinese OEMs like NIO have cycles of several months instead of several years. Tesla makes regular firmware updates of its vehicles. Both in the automotive industry and in mechanical engineering, too little brain power is used on how to shorten development cycles and thus iterate faster.
  • The article also speaks of country borders. Take as an example the introduction of the EURO and how much it has made payments easier in the european union. What if we dissolve borders between companies? In my article Misifts, I talked about removing barriers in the field of personnel.
    (8 min, text, German)

Warum es Innovationen aus Deutschland in der digitalen Welt so schwer haben

Helen Orgis also sees difficulties in digitalization in the German economy. In Nugget # 2 she diagnoses a shock. She encourages the leadership team to lay the foundation for digitization. For example, she recommends:

Get fresh impulses from outside and enable a change of perspective. Offer regular staff events on innovation and invite external experts.

In recent years, I have organized a number of such events called Innovation Sparks. If you want to know more about it, read the article Sparks. With which measures do you encourage digitalisation in your companies? (5 min, text, German)

Stell dir vor, es ist Digitalisierung, und keiner geht hin

Courage is also a topic in Nugget # 3. I got to know Sonja Tangermann through the initiative #Mutland. #Mutland is an activity that I started in frustration about the constant doomsday scenarios on Twitter. In the article Sonja writes about how to promote courage in organizations. I would like to pick up on this idea. In many organizations, a lot of effort is spent on cost control. But I do not know a company that checks what costs arise by taking no risk. Maybe controllers do follow this blog. How about measuring “missed opportunities” or “cost of delay”? I think that would open many eyes.
(10 min, text, German)