René Rohrbeck

Opening Up for Competitive Advantage – How Deutsche Telekom Creates an Open Innovation Ecosystem

When, on 21st September 2006, ‘The Economist’ compared incumbent telecommunication operators with dinosaurs that could soon face extinction, most readers were ready to agree. The mixture of declining revenues and fierce competition was believed to shake the market and soon to dethrone former national champions. However, there are ways to fight that extinction and one way is to open up for competitive advantage. This paper reflects on a case study at Deutsche Telekom, the German national telecommunication operator. The aim of this study is to analyse to what extent the open innovation paradigm has been embraced inside this now multinational company. Using empirical evidence from 15 in-depth interviews, we identify 11 open innovation instruments and detail their value contribution. We can show that Deutsche Telekom has successfully enhanced its innovation capacity by opening up its traditional development process and embracing external creativity and knowledge resources.

Harnessing a Network of Experts for Competitive Advantage: Technology Scouting in the ICT Industry

In order to identify discontinuous technological change and develop appropriate action, companies are increasingly building technology foresight (TF) practices. This paper explores how, using networks of experts, TF capabilities can be built. On the basis of three case studies and 43 interviews, it is shown that building foresight systems through networks of scouts yields several benefits, including the support for sourcing external technologies. Using insights from the three major telecommunication incumbents in Europe, the paper describes and discusses (1) what can be achieved by technology scouting, (2) how a process can be set up, (3) what is important in the design of a scouting network, and (4) the characteristics that should be aimed for when choosing technology scouts. The paper contributes to the methodological base of corporate foresight, to the technology management literature, and to the understanding of how companies can increase their open-innovation capabilities by extending the intertwinement with their environment.

Collaborative Business Modelling for Systemic and Sustainability Innovations

Sustainability innovations are characterized by a systemic nature and require that multiple organizations act in an orchestrated fashion. To jointly identify opportunities and plan sustainability innovations, new methods and approaches are needed. In this article we describe a case study where 8 firms have collaborated to envision and create new business models in the energy industry. After describing this collaborative business modelling (CBM) approach, we discuss its strengths and limitations and compare it to two alternative methods of strategy and innovation planning: scenario technique and road mapping. We find that CBM creates a powerful platform for jointly identifying economic and societal value, defining value creation/value capture systems, and planning of complex and uncertain future markets.

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

Sourcing innovation from your customer: how multinational enterprises use Web platforms for virtual customer integration

Integrating the customer in the innovation process is believed to be a powerful means to reduce failure rates and to increase the revenue from new products. Although many companies have launched programmes to enable such integration, the understanding of the mechanisms behind successful programmes remains limited. Furthermore, the benefit of integrating customers in the innovation process has to be weighed against the costs. Virtual customer integration has been discussed as a way to limit these costs and bring the benefits of potentially unlimited scalability. Using a sample of the Euro Stoxx 50 companies, we shed light on the various types of virtual customer integration platforms, their limitations, their benefits and the mechanisms that have to be put in place to make them succeed. Results indicate that only a limited number of platforms go beyond the sourcing of ideas. Especially the integration of the customer in the execution phase of the innovation process remains largely limited to digital goods.

Virtual customer integration in the innovation process: Evaluation of the web platforms of multinational enterprises (MNE)

Integrating the customer in the innovation process is believed to be a powerful means to reduce failure rates and to increase the revenue from new products. Although many companies have launched programs to enable such integration, the understanding of the mechanisms behind successful programs remains limited. Furthermore, the benefit of integrating customers in the innovation process has to be weighed against the costs. Virtual customer integration has been discussed as a way to limit these costs and bring the benefits of potentially unlimited scalability. Using a sample of the Euro Stoxx 50 companies, we shed light on the various types of virtual customer integration platforms, their limitations, their benefits and the mechanisms that have to be put in place to make them succeed. Results indicate that only a limited number of platforms go beyond the sourcing of ideas. Especially the integration of the customer in the execution phase of the innovation process remains largely limited to digital goods.

Trend Scanning, Scouting and Foresight Techniques

Corporate foresight comprises all activities that are aimed at identifying changes on the basis of early signals in trends, creating a consolidated future outlook, and using these insights into the future in ways useful to the organization. These activities include developing a strategy, creating innovations, managing risk, and exploring new markets. The author identifies five challenges that companies may face when developing corporate foresight, which include the detection of signals that yield a competitive advantage, the detection of change when terminology is unclear, and the selection of an appropriate foresight method as well as the successful use of foresight methods in the highly iterative front end of innovation. Monitoring and scanning are two ways of conducting the search, with intelligent data mining and scouting networks as possible approaches. Foresight methods can be divided into methods suitable for exploring the future on the market side and methods more suitable for the technology aspect. Thinking in scenarios is a good choice when direction and rate of change are unknown.

The role of corporate foresight in exploring new markets – evidence from 3 case studies in the BOP markets

ABSTRACT We examine to what extent successful business-development activities in uncertain environments can be classified as corporate foresight (CF) and to what extent they have been intentional and systematic. Beginning with identifying successful cases of new-business development in Bottom of the Pyramid markets, we use various data sources to reconstruct timelines and map CF activities. We selected the cases to maximise their heterogeneity in firm size, industry, nature of the product and ownership structure. Our findings suggest that the probing (experimental search) phase is particularly important in unknown and uncertain environments but that perceiving and prospecting (cognitive search) activities are necessary to find distant opportunities. In addition, we find that successful business-development activities rely on multiple iterations between perceiving, prospecting and probing. Our findings emphasise that CF should include activities that encompass both experimental and cognitive search elements.

Strategic Foresight at Deutsche Telekom AG

Strategic Foresight (SF) systems enable companies to identify and react to opportunities and threats in their environment and anticipate future changes. This paper reports on a case study on SF practices of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG). The foresight system of DTAG includes continuous scanning and issue-driven foresight activities. These SF activities generate value for DTAG in terms of reduction of uncertainty and the exploration of new business fields.