IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club: Recent Episodes
IAA Mobility, Messe München, Force of Disruption
The IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club is your gateway to the world of leading mobility visionaries. In several episodes we talk to exciting experts about the metaverse, circular economy, charging and the best startup trends in the mobility world, which you should definitely pay attention to. Look forward to weekly new episodes full of insights, trends and some new insights. You can find the videos of the episodes on our website or on our social channels.
Host: Sarah Harman Knowledge Partner Boston Consulting Group Director: Tim Benedict Wegner Producer: Force of Disruption GmbH Copyright: VDA / IAA MOBILITY
Newcomer meets industry leader: opposites attract
Start-ups and the big names in the industry: As different as the cultures in the companies are, cooperation can be particularly fruitful in the automotive industry - if both get involved with each other. What and above all how newcomers and industry leaders can learn from each other is the topic of the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club.
Some are agile, others process-driven. Some go for full risk, others are more cautious. Some act quickly, others thoughtfully: the cultural differences between start-ups and established companies are obvious - but yet, in this case, seem to apply more and more often: Opposites attract. Cooperation programs between young and established companies are gaining in popularity in the DACH region, for example, as the consulting firm mm1 notes in its "Start-up and Innovation Monitor 2022." According to the report, the number of cross-company cooperation programs in particular stands out. Compared to the previous year, this number has risen by 14 to 57 among the companies surveyed.
In the automotive industry, too, newcomers and top dogs are moving closer together. For Dr. Michael Schlotter, Director of Applied Research - Innovation Networks at Schaeffler, this comes as no surprise. After all, he says, these partnerships are often very fruitful. The magic lies precisely in the different attitudes toward mistakes and risks. "Fail often, fail fast" - large companies could benefit from this often quoted start-up motto. "Start-ups can tackle crazy ideas and make mistakes - that is so impossible for large companies in their structures." Fear-free startups here, risk-avoiding corporations there - "these two attitudes need to be brought together to enable breakthrough innovations."
More trust for greater innovation potential The only question is: How can this be done? First of all, with the right attitude, says Schlotter: "In research and development, internal solutions are often trusted more than external ones. That has to change. We need to trust start-up technologies more, because they offer great innovation potential." Startups, on the other hand, need a clear plan - and realistic expectations, says Dr. Nicolas March, CEO of Vathos. The start-up specializes in software for industrial robots, and March knows that "you should be clear about how you want to tackle a specific task together with a large company - and not expect the company to do everything for you here." Ideally, "you're working together as a team and on a real problem rather than an academic finger exercise - a problem that you can make money solving and scale," March says.
Barrier to entry for investment No reward, no effort, and accordingly, successful collaboration demands a lot from both sides - more speed from established companies, for example. Startups need to move quickly, and accordingly it would be important for the major partners to make decisions quickly and speed up their processes, according to March. In terms of decisiveness - for example, about a possible investment in a promising startup - Germany still lags behind the United States. The climate for startups has improved in this country, but money doesn't flow here just for a good idea, March said. "Here, a technology and a business model first have to prove themselves." That's often a problem, he said, especially for deep-tech innovations that dare to take on big technological challenges, because getting an idea ready for proof of concept takes time - and money.
Agile, focused, creative: Start-ups as innovation drivers in the automotive industry
Who is shaping the future of mobility, innovative start-ups or the established automakers? Ideally, they are joining forces. The journey is heading toward partnership - why and how this can become a driver of innovation is discussed by the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club in its latest episode. It is the prelude to a summer special dedicated to the topic of start-ups.
Volkswagen does it. Porsche does it. Mercedes does too, as do BMW, Continental and Bosch. This list could go on and on. Hardly any manufacturer or major supplier in the automotive industry wants to do without programs such as incubators or accelerators, with which the established players seek out promising mobility startups, promote them and ideally integrate them into partnerships. This also involves corresponding investments: for example, between the beginning of 2020 and the summer of 2021 alone, automotive manufacturers have carried out private financing rounds with a total value of more than 9.6 billion U.S. dollars, calculates an analysis by the news portal Crunchbase.
Joy of cooperation as a response to pressure to innovate
The willingness to cooperate is also due to the pressure to innovate that is weighing on the industry and which current challenges such as the switch to e-mobility or advancing digitalization are once again noticeably increasing. "New technologies and new business models are essential for the future of mobility," says Jürgen Bilo in the IAA MOBILITY Visionar Club. Bilo is Managing Director of co-pace GmbH, Continental's start-up program.
So new things are in demand, and innovations thrive particularly well in the world of start-ups: They are small, agile and have a clear advantage, as Stefan Cülter says. He is responsible for start-up cooperations and scouting at Volkswagen subsidiary CARIAD: "They have a crystal-clear focus on a niche and on one problem, whereas a large supplier, for example, has a broad target audience and has to solve virtually everyone's problems." Adding to that focus is access to billions in venture capital. CARIAD itself also invests in startups - and profits. "Watching how they approach and solve problems: We can learn a lot from that," says Cülter.
Fresh cell cure meets financial injection When big names and young ideas join forces, it's ideally a two-way deal: For big companies, proximity to creative startups acts like a fresh cell cure in the best case scenario. The young companies are then innovation hotbeds and pacesetters at the same time. And the start-ups also naturally gain from collaborations with established players - even aside from the financial injections. "Big companies can scale, offer proof of technology, and they have access to huge markets," says Bilo. In addition, a big name on the customer list has charisma with signaling effects for the entire industry.
On the way to new products
To ensure that all sides really benefit from these partnerships, however, a clear focus is necessary, says Cülter, right from the start: "Companies often cooperate with startups just for the sake of cooperation, without it serving any purpose or solving any problems." At CARIAD, on the other hand, the strategy is to identify challenges in one's own company, address them with the help of start-up solutions, and then become a customer of the young company when it fits. The important thing is to know what you're looking for. Bilo also emphasizes this: "We look around for strategically or operationally relevant topics. We're about creating new products, new product portfolios and new strategies." This, he says, has resulted in partnerships such as the one with Apex.AI. With the company's meta operating system already certified, Continental aims to significantly shorten the development cycles of new mobility functions for automated and autonomous driving.
They inspire, think in new ways and increase the pace of innovation: start-ups are a driver of mobility change. Especially in the areas of micro-mobility, shared mobility, but also electrification and autonomous driving, investments are flowing into promising start-ups - and yet: There is still no European Silicon Valley. On the occasion of the fourth installment of the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club, we show trends and shed light on what it takes to promote start-up culture and bring it on a par with the American one. From the need for collaboration, the role of government and the requirement for large companies to position themselves as partners of startups.
The demand for e-vehicles is growing and with it the need for public charging facilities. For the third episode of the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club, we are looking at the charging infrastructure. This must grow quickly, not only but especially in the cities, and must also be able to reliably cover peaks in demand in the future. We are looking into the question of what is holding back, which factors and technologies can accelerate the expansion and how all of our mobility behaviour must and will change when charging has become the norm.
Everyone is talking about it, everyone is waiting for it - but what does the Metaverse bring to the world of mobility? This is the question we are exploring in the second episode of the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club. Even though the three-dimensional digital worlds of experience are still in their early stages, the automotive industry, for example, is already taking a close look at the topic and its significance for the entire value chain. Because it's not just development, production and quality assurance that can benefit. It also opens up a new market - after all, we will also want to move forward in the metaverse. About new digital sales opportunities, digital factories, the current status and the vision of a technology that will not only change the world of mobility. ▶▶ Panel Guests: ▶Gesina Schwengers (Director Digital Products and eCommerce / Mercedes-Benz AG) ▶Bastian Raschke (Director Automotive, Mobility & Travel DACH / META) ▶Tom Westendorp (Business Development Automotive Enterprise Europe / NVIDIA) ▶Kathrin Pannier (Partner / Boston Consulting Group) ▶Florian Albert (Co-Founder & Business Operations AVES Reality)
There is no way around it on the road to sustainable mobility: Circular Economy is more than just recycling. Thought through to the end, it promises mobility that no longer needs to access new resources. What does this paradigm shift mean for the automotive industry, its supply chain and processes - from circular design to circular business models? On the occasion of the first episode of the IAA MOBILITY Visionary Club, we talk about the state of the discussion and thus about potentials, challenges, initial solutions and next steps in the Circular Economy.