#Ecosystem Innovation

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the Technical University of Munich, Start-up Investor, Vice President of acatech and member of various supervisory boards and advisory boards of listed companies

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

I work with a lot of very different people from lots of sectors everyday: from business and science to the social sector. Not only do I enjoy this very much, but I also learn a lot through it. Getting to see a topic from different angles and thus understanding it better helps me both as a supervisory board member and as an investor.

Where do you see the opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Diversity has no effect if it is reflected in the structures of an organization but is not experienced across the business hierarchy. An open culture of cooperation is the key to better decisions in a company, more creativity and thus future viability.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

Unbiased openness and an appreciation of other people and their ideas. For me, that is the basis of everything.

Marius Almstedt, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at PatentPlus.io

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

The ecosystem around technology transfer and deep tech spin-offs from research institutions is unfortunately not characterized by much diversity. Only a fraction of all deep tech researchers are women, and most spin-offs are led by men. However, a diverse team increases the chance of success during the startup stage and should therefore be prioritized. Important partners in our ecosystem are investors, company builders, policymakers, and technology transfer offices within research institutions. These stakeholders need to do more to promote a cultural change regarding the fun of entrepreneurship and the avoidance of risk-taking.

Where do you see opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

We clearly see opportunities in providing more venture capital to diverse and underrepresented early-stage founding teams. In long-standing research and the transfer of deep tech technologies from research to industry, people with diverse backgrounds, personalities and skills need to work together. Therefore, we welcome new players to provide courage, motivation, and a cultural shift towards diverse entrepreneurship and applied research, both inside and outside research institutions.

What diversity characteristic do you consider most important to foster innovation?

I don't consider diversity to be a specific characteristic. The benefits of diversity come from people with diverse backgrounds and skills working together, which results in creativity. Creativity in research and commercialization processes fosters new ways of looking at existing structures.

Dr. Sonja Stuchtey, Founder of The Landbanking Group, Nota Bene, Alliance4 Europe and Science-Lab

&

Prof. Dr. Martin R. Stuchtey, Professor of Resource Strategies and Management at the University of Innsbruck, Founder of The Landbanking Group and SYSTEMIQ

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Addressing systemic challenges is complex and multi-layered. It requires creativity and looking at the whole breadth of solutions rather than focusing only on efficiency. In this situation, diversity is a prerequisite for good results – regardless of the tension it often holds. In the Landbanking Group, we work with diverse groups with colorful biographies not least for this reason.

Where do you see the opportunities and limits of diversity in your field?

In the area of the global use of land and sea, which is our primary concerns in the Landbanking Group, we see diversity of flora, fauna and people as evidence of prudent management and responsible decision-making. Diversity is the foundation for good solutions. When diversity is limited, the answers available to us shrink. For us, diversity is not an opportunity, but a necessity.

What diversity characteristic do you consider the most important to foster innovation?

New ideas require us breaking out of patterns, which requires diverse backgrounds, and differences in experience and competencies. These can be built up, for example through different educational backgrounds, internationality of the team, diversity of age groups. No matter how this diversity is created, it is important to maintain the principle of responsibility. Every team, regardless of its composition, must be aware of its responsibility for the lives and wellbeing of future generations. We are convinced that this is easier to achieve through challenging discussion in diverse teams – even if this can be controversial.

Dr. Christos Chantzaras, Research Associate in the Department of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich and Managing Director at TUM Venture Lab Built Environment

How diverse is your ecosystem? What symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Very diverse. It ranges from science and start-ups to established corporations, cultural and creative industries, and city governments. From my perspective, physical space, diversity, creativity, and innovation are essential for a sustainable urban society. Companies need to be equally engaged in the urban context to create a city and ecosystem that attracts creatives rather than performers. My ecosystem benefits from the connections that are created between diverse groups.

Where do you see opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

I see opportunity in closing structural gaps. The potential in the creative industries and disciplines like architecture can then be better connected to business and societal challenges. This may not translate as innovation for economic success but could be innovation for a more sustainable society.

What diversity characteristic do you consider most important to foster innovation?

Diversity of perspectives. If everyone argues from a similar school of thought, similar solutions will emerge. Specifically, creative disciplines that interpret and represent information and knowledge differently should be equally integrated and considered.

Christoph Bornschein, Founder and Managing Director of the TLGG Group

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Our work as a consultancy across different industries with different customers and partners and a wide range of in demand skills is very diverse. Accordingly, it is difficult to single out any single characteristics. Most likely it would be the shared will to find new solutions for new and old challenges.

Where do you see the opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Diversity unites different perspectives and thus enables completely new solutions and ideas. The limits of diversity always lie where diversity of inspiration does not translate into concrete solutions or increased potential and instead diversity is considered an end goal in itself.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

Curiosity is not a diversity characteristic in the true sense of the word, but it is the clear driver for true diversity. Even groups and networks which are diverse in terms of all kinds of characteristics can become very homogeneous through similar entrepreneurial socialization and career paths. Genuine curiosity makes the difference here.

Dr. Gesa Miczaika, Investor at Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, Deputy President of Bundesverband Deutsche Startups e.V., Member of the Advisory Board Junge Digitale Wirtschaft

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Our ecosystem is not yet sufficient. The venture capital scene in Germany is still very male-dominated. Diversification would be valuable here, otherwise we are giving away potential.

Where do you see opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

The main opportunities are that founders and innovations could be helped to break through in very different areas. Over time, this would have an impact on the overall economy.

What diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important to foster innovation?

From my perspective, there is no gradation here; all characteristics are equally important. In my personal sphere of influence, the topic of gender diversity is very relevant.

Miriam Wohlfarth, Managing Director and Founder of Ratepay and Banxware

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

My personal ecosystem is quite diverse. And diverse for me does not just mean men and women. Diverse means that I work with people with different skills to me because that's the only way we can still be successful in five years. For example, people with enormous technical expertise should work closely with data analysts and people who are highly empathetic.

Where do you see the opportunities and limits of diversity in your field?

I don't see any limits, but I think we must avoid giving the impression that men will not be needed in the future and will no longer have any opportunities.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

Diverse teams simply work better. To foster innovation, you need foresight to see what's coming, you need to recognize where you want to go, and then you need motivation to make it happen. It takes courage to change.

Prof. Dr. Malte Brettel, Professor of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship at RWTH Aachen University, Co-Founder of AbeBooks as well as, among others, Adhesys Medical and academa

&

Marius Rosenberg, Managing Director of the Excellence Start-up Center at RWTH Aachen University, Business Angel Investor in the Life Sciences Sector, Member of Bionorica SE’s Supervisory Board

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

The Aachen ecosystem combines cutting-edge research in the field of high technology from RWTH Aachen University, FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences and Forschungszentrum Jülich with the entrepreneurial spirit and digital competence of students and researchers. Major players in the ecosystem are the DigitalHUB Aachen, RWTH Innovation and the Collective Incubator, as well as seed investors TechVision Fonds, Earlybird UNI-X and many more.

Where do you see opportunities and limits of diversity in your field?

In Aachen, the curiosity of basic research meets the impact of entrepreneurship. As a technology-driven ecosystem, we try to combine technical expertise with experience in business model implementation.

What diversity characteristic do you consider most important to foster innovation?

First, we want to get researchers excited about entrepreneurship and focus on this often-unknown career option. Above all, diversity in thought and action means breaking new ground and making technological developments available to society.

Rafael Laguna de la Vera, Director of the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations SPRIN-D

How diverse is your ecosystem? What symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/thematic field?

Of the more than 800 project submissions we received in the first two years at SPRIND, less than 10 percent were from women. There is no clearer way to quantify how much potential we are leaving untapped here as an economy.

Where do you see the opportunities and limits of diversity in your field?

Until now, it has been one person with high potential and technical excellence in his or her field who has formed the nucleus of the corresponding SPRIN-D project. On the journey from technology to product to building a company, many other competencies are needed. Putting these different pieces of the puzzle together to form a complete picture is always an exciting task – and it’s a joy when you succeed.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

The high potential individuals we look for and find are characterized by the fact that they are highly motivated in their topic area and would prefer to concern themselves with nothing else. For outsiders, this can sometimes seem a little strange, but for us, there is no doubt that this obsession with an idea or technology also leads to the professional excellence and tenacity it takes for the project to stay on course through numerous failures and reach the goal.

Sascha Bever, Founder and Managing Director of Brains & Confetti GmbH (formerly: The Ecosystem Company)

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/thematic field?

The entire German startup ecosystem is not sufficiently diversified. There are not enough female founders, people with a migration background or people with disabilities. Ecosystems live and grow through diversity.

Where do you see opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Society and business can only benefit from opening doors and breaking down barriers to promote diversity.

What diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important to foster innovation?

In my opinion, there is no such thing, nor should there be. After all, it is this diversity that matters most.

Simone Menne, Supervisory board member at Henkel, Deutsche Post DHL, JCI and Russell Reynolds Associates, Director of an art gallery in Kiel and President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

The supervisory board ecosystem is very differentiated in terms of diversity. You can find all types, from very homogeneous boards to very heterogeneous boards. The size of the board is can also vary hugely depending on the type and size of the company. In the German system, I consider the existence of co-determination to be a diversity driver and therefore a very welcome feature. An independent board does not allow for any real symbiotic relationships. However, I could imagine a stronger supervisory board organization in Germany, for example like the National Corporate Director Association in the USA. This would enable a better exchange on common topics and new techniques and technologies.

Where do you see the opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Diversity almost unanimously offers opportunities in supervisory board work because it allows boards to look at topics from different points of view and thus makes the board more sensitive to challenges and risks. A limit would have to be drawn if communication was restricted due to too much diversity, for example, due to overly technical expert language.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

Openness to and curiosity about new things, including others’ ideas.

Dr. Stephan Degmair, Co-Founder and Partner of law firm Stolzenberg (Munich)

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Stolzenberg was founded as a spin-off of several large law firms to be able to make an attractive offer to start-ups. Naturally, as a boutique law firm with a manageable number of staff, we can only reflect social diversity to a very limited extent. However, we live a very open, hierarchy-averse culture, which is very much appreciated, especially in the start-up world.

Where do you see the opportunities and limits of diversity in your field?

We are firmly convinced that diversity in practice can only bring advantages and is therefore very desirable. The limits of diversity for us, as mentioned, are simply maintaining the size of a boutique firm.

Which diversity characteristic do you consider to be the most important for promoting innovation?

From our point of view, there is no single most important diversity characteristic that promotes innovation the most. Rather, we think that it is this mix, i.e. the greatest possible heterogeneity of the workforce in all conceivable dimensions, that most effectively advances the corporate culture of innovation. After all, innovation thrives on as many different perspectives as possible.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Gutmann, Assistant Professor at EBS Business School, Head of the Institute for Technology, Innovation & Customer Centricity and of the Siemens Product Innovation Lab.

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Corporate venture capital (as well as venture capital more widely) is still a men's club. When it comes to female representation, the harsh reality remains that the majority of venture capital firms are led by all-male management teams. In 2019, for example, women made up less than 15% of partners at US venture capital firms. These numbers from the Women in Venture Report are alarming. And while an increase of a full percentage point over the previous year is cause for celebration, we still have a long way to go.

What do you see as the opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Affinity bias is a well-known phenomenon that many investors may be aware of. Affinity bias is the tendency to favor people who resemble us (e.g., male investors prefer male founders). This bias has profound and long-lasting effects on many groups and their ability to access capital. The VC industry should be very aware of this given its own homogeneity.

What diversity characteristic do you consider most important in driving innovation?

In the article "How Diversity Can Drive Innovation" (Harvard Business Review), Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda Marshall and Laura Sherbin provide evidence that diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth. They distinguish inherent and acquired diversity. They also provide evidence that diverse companies (companies whose leaders have at least three inherent and three acquired diversity characteristics) are more innovative and perform better than others. Which diversity characteristic is most important for innovation is difficult to judge, however, it is clear that diversity drives innovation!

Dr. Nils Beier, Managing Director at Accenture Strategy

&

Dr. Christian Betz, Consultant at Accenture Strategy

How diverse is your ecosystem? Which symbioses and synergies with which partners/market players are characteristic or essential for your business model/topic area?

Accenture benefits globally from an extensive network of partner companies with whom we jointly implement technology-based solutions for our clients. In doing so, we create synergies with highly specialized service providers, for example in the fields of cloud engineering, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, automation and IT security. In addition, we work with some of our customers’ partners, which brings additional perspectives and thus additional value for our customers.

Where do you see opportunities and limitations of diversity in your field?

Our increasingly complex environment requires different perspectives to solve problems – this is the only way to achieve holistic and, vitally, value-adding solutions. Different perspectives and innovative ideas require diversity across all levels. However, organizations must also be able to deal with dissent and find ways to resolve conflicts before they become paralyzing.

What diversity characteristic do you consider most important in fostering innovation?

Diversity and different perspectives are central to innovation. One characteristic that seems particularly important here is empathy and the ability to walk in other people’s shoes, because only those who can build bridges between different perspectives can manage to bring together different opinions and ultimately mobilize all the necessary resources together.