Digitalization for Value Creation

Time marches on into the future. Never stopping, never slowing. It ticks at its own pace, dictating the earth’s rotation and, with it, the gravitational force of the sun and moon. Time is a reliable phenomenon between the stars. Yet still, people all over the world have the feeling that time is racing ahead. But this is an illusion. Measuring equipment may have become more sophisticated, not to mention digital, since the invention of the sundial. Thinking spaces may be filling up with more information than ever before. Data volumes may be exploding and doubling almost every 2 years. But time has remained human to us, which is exactly what it always was on a personal level: an exhaustible resource that gives life a beginning and an end. In between lies an ocean full of possibilities. In the era of Industry 4.0, this ocean is made of data. Data is generated by sensors in machines, by using phones, e-mail programs, bank cards, by driving cars, shopping, surveillance cameras, electricity meters, GPS, with every click online. It flows through our lives in real time, measured in zettabytes, a unit which is difficult for the human brain to grasp given that 21 zeros follow each number. The vast ocean of data is set to reach roughly 40 zettabytes in a few years, “by the estimations of researchers this corresponds to 57 times the amount of sand grains on every beach on the earth” (Jüngling 2013). Mega has already been replaced with giga and tera. Soon we will learn to deal with peta, exa, zetta, and yotta too. Given that data is set to have the economic significance that energy once had, I am tempted to say that the industry’s best times for boosted efficiency and success are yet to come.

Denial is pointless: Digitalization is coming at industry with full force. Everyone is affected, nobody can escape. Unseen by many business leaders, we are in the midst of a change that is questioning the tried and trusted so radically that an industrial turning point is inevitable. At the same time the consistent use of digital technologies is giving rise to new unimagined possibilities nobody could have dreamed of even just a few years ago. The time has come for industry to make the transition into digitized value chains. You have to be in it to win it. Those who delay, hesitate, or wait have already lost.

Digitalization is producing vast amounts of data +++ Why data protection is becoming almost impossible +++ Data is a major source of untapped potential for business +++ Why customer benefit should be the key focus for companies +++ Digital transformation is the key to the future viability of our companies +++

Economic and social change prevails in spite of its skeptics +++ Companies must redefine their role in the value creation chain +++ Why business models can change overnight +++ What freedom means for Industry 4.0 +++ Opening data silos means securing your future +++ Creating a win-win situation for customers and companies +++ The basis for your big data strategy +++

The customer is becoming part of the value chain +++ Why linking up the entire value chain is so important +++ How the role of the employee is changing with digitalization +++ Cooperation is better than isolation +++

A change in values and culture are central to the digital transformation +++ Why performance indicators from the past are irrelevant +++ Map out future scenarios +++ How to use stress to positive effect +++ Change is a question of personality too +++ Why company hierarchies are disintegrating +++ Mistakes are key to progression +++ The new guiding principles of industry 4.0

Put your business model to the test +++ How to make your customers happy +++ The magic power of technology +++ Take staff feelings seriously +++ How open thinking and visualization can help enhance your value creation +++

The role of the manager in Industry 4.0 +++ Joined-up thinking +++ How to counter resistance with hope for the future +++ How organigrams and role descriptions have become counterproductive +++ Why people learn and become more intelligent +++

What might work today may harm you tomorrow +++ Opportunities and risks of German precision +++ How companies evolve digitalization +++ Generational approaches to digitalization +++ Milestones are better than targets +++

What managers can learn from sport +++ No team equals no success +++ Make yourself dispensable—no it is not a paradox +++ How to keep improving +++ Develop a mission with your team +++ How you slip into the role of coach as manager +++ Actively encouraging innovation with the stage-gate method +++

Develop a new mistake culture +++ Why you should reward mistakes +++ Fear is not a good adviser +++ Develop unknown capabilities +++ Better to praise your staff too much rather than too little +++ Trust is good, trust and change is better +++ How to successfully set course for the future with objectivity and emotion +++

How customers shape your business +++ New methods of identifying what customers want +++ Stay honest, become transparent +++ Only make promises you can keep +++ Why it is important to digitize in-house before approaching customers +++ Review your partners +++ Effective crisis management approaches +++ Ethical business as a philosophy for the digital future +++

What Management 4.0 means for you +++ Together, economy and politics can secure the future +++ How to deal with skeptics and grumblers +++ Adaptability is the key to the future +++ The company as a network +++ It helps to talk! +++ How to successfully counter the risk of disruption +++ The first steps on the road toward the digital agenda +++