China's car industry: How China's car manufacturer overtake the Germans

Innovations new ways instead of imitation: How China's car manufacturer overtake the Germans

Wolf Ingomar Faecks is a consultant for the digital business transformation of companies with a focus on automotive industry at publicis.Sapient.

Innovation is the drive of the German car industry.But where should inspiration for progress come from when the previous role models weaken?The view goes clearly to the east, where the one-time "plagiarism world champion" China is changing into the leading innovator.

Innovation is a label that is granted every little improvement today.Above all, this applies to the auto industry, which in its current situation has to struggle on two fronts: Firstly, it says to strengthen the weakening core business, on the other hand, new business areas around the future of mobility must be built up.Nobody questions that innovation is no longer being promoted by good old engineering work today.Instead of PS and steel, it's about agility and data.

Progress is now synonymous with the concrete application of new technologies: data analytics for personalized customer interactions, blockchain for vehicle registers, artificial intelligence for autonomous driving.There are many visions and interesting prototype examples;However, market maturity and commercialized solutions from the established car boards are still rare.

Why this is so is obvious: The basic business and organizational model of traditional automotive groups is simply unsuitable for far-reaching innovation in the age of digital business transformation.What is missing: quick and agile decision -making processes, structure and further development of a new partner landscape as well as suitable corporate cultures, personal responsibility and entrepreneurial spirit.Sounds damn after Silicon Valley. Das dachten sich auch Scharen hochmotivierter Auto-Manager, die in den vergangenen Jahren die Pilgerreise an die Westküste der USA antraten, um von Google & Co.to learn how innovation works.

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Sounds logical, where these companies, celebrated as innovation smiths, also fundamentally help shape many of the technologies that define the cornerstones of the new mobility strategies.A jump into the current reality draws a different picture: ice age on the stock market, the otherwise successful tech shareholders are facing hard times.Above all, Apple: formerly under Steve Jobs symbol of radical innovation, today only conformist optimizer.The latest iPhone as a former flagship offers most incremental product improvement, a price positioning far above the competition and a business model that is established, but can hardly be described as innovative.Paradoxically, everything that is currently trying to overcome the car industry in a cramp.

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