Data and digitization

Targeted and efficient progress with the help of artificial intelligence

The basis of every innovation process is the collection and analysis of information. Design thinking or customer journey mapping are examples here of innovation methods that rely on information gathering and analysis. In addition to creativity, promising ideas and inspiration, stringent and valid environment analysis plays a particularly important role in innovation management: in this way, attractive fields of action are defined and linked to the corporate strategy in order to tap into greater innovation potential in the long term during implementation.

In order to make valid decisions in the innovation process, continuous testing, measurement and verification of assumptions is crucial. This is where data, or more precisely Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, come into play. Their use can automate the process of decision-making involving large amounts of data and thus accelerate and improve insight and decision-making in the company.

Innovation question number 1: Where will we win?

The goal is to find out which is the "next big thing" that existing and/or new customers need and in which business area short-, medium- and long-term growth can be achieved. Here, especially trends and new technologies and existing capabilities and strengths in the company are of high importance. Examples of this can be values, lifestyles, laws, taxation, subsidies or trade barriers.

The challenge of identifying fields of action lies in the goal-oriented analysis, specification and finally timing: when is a field of action attractive enough and when does it need to be started? Suitable methods for this are, for example, the scenario technique or the roadmapping .

Not least, the analysis of customer needs offers an important clue for the identification of fields of action. The use of semantic text analysis methods makes it possible, for example, to identify continuously changing market opinions and attitudes of consumers in social media.

Innovation question number 2: How will we win?

In order to be able to serve the prioritized fields of action, a large number of implementation options must now be thought up, discussed and subsequently prioritized. Targeted idea generation, development, aggregation and prioritization plays a central role, as this lays the foundation for innovation.

In addition to more traditional creativity techniques, Open Innovation -based approaches are also suitable for this purpose. This will involve inviting numerous participants from a variety of backgrounds and can be implemented using either simple technical tools such as online questionnaires or email, or can be handled using dedicated software tools." -> "For this purpose, numerous participants are invited to submit ideas on a problem in an idea competition. There is usually a large number of submissions, which are not tradable for individuals or even teams.

For the screening of such huge sets of ideas and the identification of promising ideas, machine learning approaches (e.g., through the fast and automatic identification of similarities) represent a suitable option of support to identify the best approaches faster and more validly.

Innovation question number 3: What will we need to win?

In addition to the technical capabilities to be able to develop a novel product, the timing of market entry is particularly crucial: When will a target group be open and willing to pay for a novel product?

If companies can and want to rely on multiple innovations, timing is essential in so-called Innovation Roadmaps . The innovation roadmap enables an overview of the planned development progress including possible synergies and overlaps in new product development.

To then identify and evaluate the next steps, the existing business model and portfolio must be reassessed. Here, scenarios and simulations support to get better information on uncertainty, risks and success potentials. The key to success lies, among other things, in the continuous execution of such activities and clean data preparation, which enables rapid response to changes in the business environment and in the company itself.