Translated with DeepL
On behalf of the federal government, the SATW carries out early detection of disruptive technologies, known as foresight in technical jargon. Stefan Scheidegger, research associate at SATW, introduced the participants to the Technology Outlook, the biennial early warning report. He compared Foresight to a visit to a restaurant and asked the participants about the menu for the upcoming dinner. A seemingly simple question, but the answer depends on many factors. It is the same with foresight: it is an iterative process from the development of a target image to the collection and analysis of information sources and the setting of impulses.
If we stick with the comparison mentioned at the beginning, the SATW is a possible restaurant and the Technology Outlook is its menu. The quadrant presentation is the main course: it shows the importance of individual technologies for Switzerland as a centre of thought and work. Showcases, lighthouse projects from Swiss industry on the topics of artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing and the life cycle of batteries, are available for dessert. This gives companies the opportunity to put together their own menu.
Stéphane Follonier, Head of R&D at Ivoclar, showed how the 100-year-old family business based in Liechtenstein has managed to play a leading role in the dental products market thanks to in-house innovation. The company strategy is compared annually with the technology push from the technology radar, the market potential of the selected technologies and customer requirements (market pull). This results in an innovation roadmap that maps the life cycle of products from technology through planning, development and introduction to the maintenance and phase-out phase.
Foresight plays a central role in the process of creating such roadmaps. The technologies identified in the foresight process move through the innovation roadmap and ideally lead to new products or open up new business areas. Stéphane Follonier explained the process using the example of point-of-care testing (POCT), a technology from the Technology Outlook that is relevant to dentistry. The technology push, reinforced here by developments in the field of artificial intelligence, contrasts with the market pull in the form of telemedicine and rising healthcare costs. For Ivoclar, the use of this technology could lead to the new innovation field of "oral health monitoring". However, as there are still critical gaps in development, POCT has been placed under observation by Ivoclar.
Lukas Bürgi, Head of R&D Sensor Innovation at Sensirion, presented the company's multi-stage internal innovation process. Innovation is in the DNA of the company, a spin-off from ETH Zurich: around 20 per cent of turnover is invested in R&D - a remarkably high amount. Sensirion distinguishes between the further development of familiar technologies for familiar markets and innovation in new fields of technology or new markets.
For the latter, the tried-and-tested development process is preceded by a pre-development process, which leads from the product idea via literature search and pretotype to prototype. Right from the start, an engineer and a business developer work closely together. A review of the technical feasibility and market situation takes place every eight weeks, during which a decision is made on the further realisation of the project idea. The product ideas arise from customer needs, originate from corporate development, which is based on market and trend analyses, or are presented by employees at the annual internal innovation conference, for example.
In the subsequent Q&A session, the participants were interested in how a company can create a culture that promotes innovation. An innovation-friendly culture does not create itself and must be actively promoted by top management. Both small and large steps are needed. Innovation conferences are an example of the latter. The conclusion: foresight and innovation are not easy to combine. It requires a clear strategy, expertise and experience in adapting technology radars to one's own needs as well as an innovation-friendly corporate culture that is practised across all hierarchical levels.
Raphael Markstaller, Head of Technology Transfer at the FHNW, thanked all participants and pointed out that the FHNW offers easy access to expertise from various institutes in order to support companies with their innovation projects.
Claudia Schärer
