UdZ 01.21

UdZ 2-2021 / 15 On the one hand, this brings economic benefits for companies, while at the same time strengthening Germany’s competitiveness, as Dr. Jana Frank from FIR at RWTH Aachen University , co-author of the study, explains: “In this way, innovation and ongoing business processes are integrated in a self-reinforcing value creation system that brings new solutions to market in very short cycles – and not just the domestic market, but globally as well. Anyone who wants to survive in the dynamic market of the digital world must inevitably have such know-how.” This is a captivating vision indeed. But it cannot be implemented with purely technological and organizational strategies alone. In Germany in particular, the logic of the industrial age is still firmly entrenched in people’s minds. People typically think in terms of machines and devices that require constant optimization and that also provide the dominant basis for the service society. This deeply ingrained mindset must fundamentally change, warns FIR ’s managing director, Professor Volker Stich: “It’s not a matter of turning a knob here and there in Germany and we’ll be among the leading economic nations of the next decades. For our economy, what is needed is a fundamental, research-led reorientation towards a value-added mentality consistently oriented towards services. What we need to implement is nothing less than a service revolution that fundamentally changes the character of German innovation culture and value creation philosophy. This revolution has important technological and structural aspects, of course, but quite crucial to ensuring that these aspects can be adequately addressed is a revolution in the minds of people.” Such a service revolution would join the growing number of transformation processes – or paradigm shifts – that have become known as “turns” or “transitions” in recent years, such as the mobility transition, the production transition or the energy transition. In each case, the characteristic feature is that it is not just a matter of applying technical solutions or organizational concepts, but of adopting a new way of thinking based on fundamental findings (such as from the environmental and climate sciences, a holistic view of value creation, new business model philosophies, etc.) which pursues innovative approaches to solving economic and societal challenges, almost all of which can only be implemented with the help of digital technologies. The position paper of the DL2030 researchers provides a scientific answer to the basic characteristics that the new way of thinking – the new mindset in the service sector – must have. There are Essentially Four Main Outcomes: 1. Consistent Customer Orientation through Digitalisation In the service society, it is not technology as such, and not the attractiveness of a product or solution, that should be the driving force behind innovation, but exclusively customer value. Only what customers consider valuable is true value creation. All services must therefore be customized: configuration, delivery option, usage model, and cost structure will in future be tailored individually with the help of digital technology. Every service is fundamentally scalable and can be flexibly adapted to new circumstances and paid on a usage basis. 2. Digitalization Enables Interactive Value Creation When value creation partners share resources such as expertise, skills, etc. in a mutually beneficial process, this is known as “interactive value creation.” This type of collaboration – enabled by digitalization - is indispensable for an economy that is optimally geared to customer needs, beyond mistrust and petty competitiveness. It is not just about the functionality of the services, but also about emotion, which has a decisive influence on customer satisfaction. 3. Everything as a Service – Discontinuous Value Creation I n contrast to traditional value creation with its relatively rigid product and service life cycles, the short-cycle/ rapid-fire innovations of the digital world appear to be discontinuous and disruptive. Digital services can, in principle, be reinvented within minutes. With increasing digitalization, this pace of innovation is transferring to numerous other industrial and economic sectors. Key digital elements such as Internet platforms or cloud services enable the adoption of service models for a large number of areas of value creation, even in non- digital environments, and thus increase efficiency and profitability. Mastery and control of the digital components in the value network is thus becoming a decisive competitive factor.