Inspiring the future - how Körber is driving tomorrow's technology solutions

To do this, the team uses Future Induced Innovation (FI²), a method that looks at least two decades into the future to describe as realistically as possible which issues will affect our everyday lives and in what ways. "We are currently trying to place ourselves in the period from 2040 to 2050," says Jürgen Dick. "The two characters Joe and Anissa, for example, perfectly illustrate what our lives might look like in the future.

Product development based on futurology

As a global technology group with market-leading positions in numerous sectors, Körber wants to help shape this future - especially in the four Business Areas in which the company is active: Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain and Technologies. This requires more than just foresight. "For us, it's crucial to identify technological solutions trends that will benefit customers so that we can derive concrete applications that do not yet exist on the market in this form," says Jürgen Dick. "Then there is the question of what products, goods, and commodities our customers in the various industries will need in the future. And: what a company like Körber has to do today to meet its customers' needs and requirements in 20 years."

Scenarios like Joe and Anissa's help. They are based on research into the influences of megatrends, which describe highly complex dynamics of change. They draw on research from universities, futurologists, and renowned consulting firms. But they are also based on the analysis of developments and changes that are already happening elsewhere. For that, broadening one's horizons and looking at the world from perspectives other than one's own is essential. Or as Jürgen Dick puts it: "If you only ever look at the sky through your own window, you won't know whether the sun is already shining somewhere else, or whether dark clouds are already gathering over the horizon."

So, Anissa is set in Indonesia for a reason. The current capital, Jakarta, is subsiding by 20 centimeters a year. By the middle of the century, the entire northern part of the metropolis could be flooded. That's why Nusantara, a futuristic smart city where nature meets hi-tech, is under construction on the island of Borneo. "This scenario illustrates the impact of digital and technological disruption, but also the impact of other megatrends such as urbanization, neo-ecology, health, or demographic and geographic change," says Dick.

Jürgen Dick's team is part of the strategy department of Erich Hoch, a member of the Körber Executive Board and the COO and CTO of the technology group. Körber relies on the strategy of what it calls "control point technology": patented technological solutions that become standard at key points in the value-added process so that current and future customers cannot do without them. "We claim to lead the market by leading the technology," says Erich Hoch. "We want to continue to live up to this standard in the future." Staying ahead of the curve is crucial to being the first choice for customers in the long run. "Therefore, it's crucial that aside from the daily business, we look closely at future issues and come up with suitable solutions."

Ultimately, it is the individual Business Areas that apply the FI² method. However, the Technology Innovation team provides the decisive strategic impetus. In the form of presentations, workshops, or other formats, employees from all disciplines and hierarchical levels can exchange ideas across the Körber Group. Employees can even set up cross-national and cross-divisional think tanks and exchange groups on specific topics. The collected information and findings are available to all employees as downloads in Körber's own Expert Net. It is also used to broadcast and post live events and video recordings.

Understanding societies to understand markets

Although Körber operates in the B2B segment, FI² is based on observing end consumers, which ultimately means all of us. After all, if you want to understand how markets work, you have to understand what makes society tick, according to Dick: "We're interested in how people will use future products from companies that buy our machines and solutions," Dick says. "Based on this, we predict what our customers will want us to do in the future.

For product managers and developers, that means staying on top of cultural and political shifts, societal trends, and technological disruptions. In pharmaceuticals, for example, one dramatic disruption is research into vaccines delivered as capsules or coated tablets. Jürgen Dick explains: "Until now, many regions of the world have had little or no access to liquid vaccines because the cold chain cannot be maintained." On the one hand, this would mean a massive increase in the market for solid vaccines. On the other hand, the demand for packaging equipment for liquid vaccines would decrease.

Ultimately, two factors are decisive for such future-oriented developments: the strength of a trend and the speed with which it takes hold. Recognizing both in good time and acting accordingly is very much in the spirit of Kurt A. Körber, the founder of the Körber Group. For him, it was not about being the first to market with something new but the first to do so at the right time.

You, too, can meet Joe and Anissa virtually in the Körber Xperience.