Heinrich Arnold

Making University-Industry Collaboration Work - A Case Study on the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories Contrasted with Findings in Literature

The growing competition in consumer as well as business customer markets is forcing industry to explore new ways to foster product and service innovations. To increase the clock speed of incremental innovations and raise the number of radical innovations, university-industry collaborations (UIC) are a powerful means discussed by practitioners as well as by scholars. This paper discusses the approach of the Deutsche Telekom Group (DTAG) of building a UIC by creating a separate organization. This organization consists of R&D personnel both from industry and academia and proves to be effective in channelling innovation potential. Being an organization with its own identity and situated on university premises, the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (DT Laboratories) offer different ways to overcome the cultural, institutional and operational barriers associated with UIC. The case study validates and challenges findings on UIC in literature. The paper closes with practical advices for the establishment and management of UIC and suggestions for further research in this field.

The Technology Radar - an Instrument of Technology Intelligence and Innovation Strategy

This paper analyzes the establishment of a technology intelligence tool of the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories - the technology radar. Goals and method are contrasted to approaches discussed in literature. After the presentation of exemplary findings of the technology radar, the role of the technology radar within the innovation and technology management of the Deutsche Telekom is being discussed. The paper closes with lessons learned, key success factors are being highlighted and recommendations for the introduction of technology intelligence systems are given

Enterprise Architecture in Innovation Implementation

A core challenge in technology-oriented innovation is the correct focus of innovation implementation in highly complex environments, including a fragmented value chain. This section presents a method that helps innovation departments steer innovation implementation in order to decrease timeto- market and improve the quality and alignment of the technology artifacts developed.

Tools for User-Driven Innovation at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories

Users are important actors in innovation projects: The market success of new products and services depends highly on addressing the right customer requirements without overloading them with too many new features and technologies (Lettl and Gemunden 2005; Mason and Harris 2005). Going beyond traditional market research and integrating customers intensively into the innovation process is an important measure of market-oriented innovation management (Ernst 2002; Iansiti and Clark 1994). Deutsche Telekom Laboratories reduces market uncertainties in new product and service projects by applying the concept of user-driven innovation. User-driven innovation is based on innovative customer research tools specifically tailored to four innovation phases: exploration (e.g., day-in-the-life visits), ideation (e.g., lead-user workshops), selection/execution (e.g., user clinics), and commercialization (e.g., field tests). Deutsche Telekom Laboratories applies a variety of these “intelligent”, user-driven innovation tools in order to guarantee a phase-specific, integrated customer orientation. This section gives a methodological overview and examples based on the case study of interactive mobile TV (IMTV).

Business (Lead) Customer Involvement in the Innovation Process

Increasing competition and the resulting shortening of product lifecycles give an advantage to those enterprises that focus their innovation efforts on early involvement with business customers. This section deals with the involvement of business customers in the innovation process at early stages, describes typical requirements for business customer involvement, and outlines the typical involvement of business customers in the innovation process used at Telekom Laboratories.

Venturing for Commercialization of R&D Results

In the current rapidly changing environment of the telecommunications industry – an environment that offers a multitude of prominent directions in technological and market development – it is essential to drive innovation and extend the portfolio of business areas. Deutsche Telekom Laboratories supports the creation of new business fields with a venturing approach that allows for external commercialization of R&D results. In collaboration with a network of external partners, R&D results are spun out, developed externally, and, if successful, spun back in.

Boosting the eco-system and avoiding bit-pipe-only

Eco-system of the mobile Internet is shaping rapidly towards services. Consumers are currently paying for the access, end devices and applications (abbreviated as apps). The market in access is moving towards increasing competition and decreasing revenues. Flat rates are becoming a norm, and also free access through open spectrum is under serious considerations. Furthermore, the fundamental app, i.e., telephony using core switches of operators is under stress, as VoIP is being promoted by interested parties. On the other hand, though still a fragmented landscape, the cost of the devices has not gone down at the same rate as access. In fact, smart devices have started defining lifestyles and are more expensive compared to previous generations. New devices are also making an entry, e.g., iPad, leading to new market segments too. All such changes are once again threatening the heavy investments of operators. Even with such change in dynamics, operators still own various assets, which could provide better consumer experience. These assets also bring forth a window of opportunity for the operators to try novel business models. In this paper, we propose one of the feasible paths that could bring balance in the eco-system and also radically change the business dynamics in the mobile Internet eco-system.

Cross-over Application of Enterprise Architecture and Modularization in Telco R&D

This section describes how a cross-over application of enterprise architecture in telco R&D helps to cope with issues in the early innovation stages – complexity management in view of the choice of alternative technological paths and implementation uncertainty in view of distance of strategic and operational levels. Linking enterprise architecture concepts and early innovation stages, it builds on the modularization of R&D results.

Partnering for Research and Development within an Open Innovation Framework

The increasing stress of competition and technological change reduces the ratio of revenue expectation to internal development costs. As a consequence, more innovation work has to be accomplished for the same funds. Using the external world actively and strategically to enhance one’s own innovation potential provides a solution. An important element is a dedicated partnering concept involving public research institutions as well as industrial peer companies.

Options for Customer Integration in the Open Innovation Paradigm at Deutsche Telekom

The consistent application of the open innovation logic leads to the inclusion of the customer. Open innovation helps to open up company boundaries, promoting cooperation with and integration of external know-how brokers to meet the more exacting innovation ecosystem requirements. In addition to subsidiaries, suppliers, competitors, consultants, as well as private and public research institutions; first and foremost, the customer plays a decisive role (Eurostat 2007).