Corporate Technology - Rolf Hellinger

Editorial
Driving Tomorrow’s
Innovations
In this age of global competition, the definition of
the “innovator as a creative entrepreneur,” which
was coined almost a century ago by Austrian economist
Joseph Schumpeter, is more relevant than ever before.
However, developing a successful innovation today involves
far more than developing new technical solutions
and hoping that the market will shout “Hurray!” Today’s
creative entrepreneur must not only know what is
technologically feasible but also what customers want
and how the worldwide value chain can be optimized
in a way that enables new solutions to be implemented
quickly and inexpensively.
Increasingly, the essence of many innovations lies
in a mastery of the connections within a complex network
of knowledge concerning applications and domains.
For example, those who deal with decentralized
energy supply systems must understand sources such
as wind, sunlight, biomass and cogeneration plants —
as well as associated control systems, energy storage
systems, and communication interfaces. Those who
control this range of variables most effectively will be
the winners. In another example, the miniaturization
of the analytic devices that are used for process automation
and laboratory diagnostics addresses the
interfaces between biology, chemistry, physics, electronics
and data processing. As a result, innovations
in this area require a mastery of interdisciplinary and
cross-departmental knowledge.
What can we conclude from this? First, that the days
of closed doors in the laboratory are over. Research on
almost all promising issues is being conducted worldwide.
Consequently, the overriding aim is to bring together
the world’s best minds in order to create innovations.
Intelligent brains don’t have more nerve cells
than average ones; they have more synapses. By anal-
2 Corporate Technology
Prof. Dr. Hermann Requardt is CEO of Siemens’ Healthcare Sector,
Chief Technology Officer and Head of Corporate Technology,
and a member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG.
ogy, today’s innovators need synapses connecting
them with colleagues within their companies as well as
with universities, research institutes, key customers,
and start-ups. This intensification of “open innovation,”
in addition to its own research activities, is one of the
key tasks of Corporate Technology (CT) at Siemens.
Second, an integrated technology company such as
Siemens must also aim to promote interdisciplinary
activities, exploit cross-sector synergies, utilize shared
platforms and standards, and attain a leading position
in the areas of technology and patents — and here too,
CT plays an important role.
And third, today’s innovators should not overlook
the fact that new markets bring new challenges with
them. In the future, emerging markets such as China
and India will take on leading roles in the global economy,
but these countries’ requirements are different
from those of today’s highly industrialized countries.
Above all, products in these countries must be robust
and reliable, simple to use and maintain, and priced in
line with consumers’ buying power.
At Siemens, we call these solutions “S.M.A.R.T.
products,” and the development of these products is a
major focus of our researchers at CT. Above all else, the
creative entrepreneurs of our time must be open to the
world, interdisciplinary, and market-oriented. They are
characterized not so much by an obsession with detailed
professional or process knowledge as by their
courage to explore new paths, develop bigger ideas
and, above all, take a hard look at major problems that
demand solutions. The crucial questions they ask
themselves are: “How can I do this better? And what
must I do in order to become better myself?” That’s because
here, as elsewhere, the operational motto is: “If
you stop getting better, you’ll soon stop being good.”