Technology and Innovation Management Conference 2017

Informative program full of fascinating lectures

Professor Dr. Frank Piller thinks, that it is “great, being a Professor for Innovation in Aachen”, like he said during his keynote “Managing Breakthrough Innovations”. So right at the beginning of the conference he explained why Aachen is the perfect spot to organize a conference concerning Breakthrough Innovations. Professor Piller gave an exciting overview, showing which innovation types are existing and introduced an exercise to make the audience think about how innovative their product development is.

After Prof. Piller´s keynote the guests were attuned to the following presentations. Dr. Ulrich Hermann, Executive Board Member of the Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, dealt with the change of digital business models in a conservative environment by showing the six most important steps into the digital future. Marco Tomsu, Head of Business Development and Innovation at ZTE Germany, conveyed rudimentary knowledge of differences between the culture in China and Germany, which is the necessary base for a cooperation between companies from the different continents. A different view on innovations and the way of business management was shown by Benedikt Böhm, extreme athlete and international director of the brands Dynafit and Silvretta at the Oberalp Group. He was able to consider innovative action from a business angle and also from an athlete’s point of view, which enables him to say, that speed is the most important fact to avoid risks in each case. Who wants to reach the (mountain) peak like Böhm, should not take too much time, or else a competitor might be first.

Networking

All in all, 13 exciting lectures were held at the 11^th Technology and Innovation Management Conference at the Quellenhof in Aachen. The different topics gave a lot of conversation issues during the coffee breaks.

The conferences culmination was the presentation of professor Dr. Günter Schuh concerning agile companies, including his experiences with the electronic car e.GO, which enjoys great popularity.