Zeppelin University and the "Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation IAO" in Stuttgart have jointly opened the Center for Technology Management (ZTM) at the ZU-campus Seemooser Horn. It is the first location of the Fraunhofer Society at Lake Constance and a trend-setting cooperation of a research institute of applied research with a private university.

Additional Competences in Southern Germany

"Production takes place where it is cheaper: abroad. Research and development are increasingly moving to where production already is. In the high wage country Germany – and especially in Southern Germany – we therefore have to focus on two future competences: technology management and synchronous service engineering around marketable technologies" explains ZU-president Jansen regarding the motivation for this foundation. "Fraunhofer IAO dominates technological development. Zeppelin University focuses on management theories from business sciences, politics and communication sciences – a groundbreaking cooperation of complementary competences for the region is developing."
Also Dieter Spath, head of the Fraunhofer IAO, is happy about the new foundation: "Zeppelin University is the ideal partner for the Center for Technology Management: Our competences in the areas of technology and innovation management, as well as corporate development, are supplemented by the expertise that the ZU scholars have in the areas of business, social and communication sciences und thus they contribute to a solution to our customers` questions."

Not just a hot topic: the future of the high wage country

Therefore, the ZTM will deal with the following in the future: new technologies are changing our world and our every-day life – this applies to individuals just as it does to companies. But how do you shape this change actively? Both science and business have shown over the course of many years that the topic of technology management is not just a fashionable or short-term trend from the area of management theories. Rather, the anticipatory way of dealing with known and new technologies is one of several pre-conditions for the sustainable market success of companies. Yet the complexity of technological possibilities and developments – especially if they still lie far ahead – entails new challenges. Before a company makes a technological decision that it intends to put onto a long-term solid foundation many questions have to be answered: Which technologies are we to rely on in future? Do we know the technologies that are going to have a medium to long-term effect on our business model? Are we still able to consider the multitude of technological developments in the most diverse areas systematically in our decision processes?

Offers of the Institute

With its comprehensive service offer the ZTM supports companies in answering these and other questions concerning the early recognition and evaluation of technological future trends, and consults them regarding the development of technological strategies for tomorrow’s innovations. The task of the center is to consult interested managers and experts in up-coming decisions on the technological future of their enterprises both practically and theoretically. To guarantee this the Fraunhofer IAO and ZU combine their technological, organizational and business competences. One example of the way the center works is the demonstration environment "VisTech" that helps companies gain an insight into the innovative possibilities of decision-making processes for projects of technological planning. By using modern visualization techniques even complex issues in dealing with innovative techniques can be understood intuitively.
With applications and services like these the ZTM promotes the transfer of knowledge and experience from sciences to organizational practice. This way the initiators of the center want to make an important contribution to maintain and further expand the technological advantage of companies, especially also in the region of Lake Constance.


Background

The Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart

The "Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation IAO" addresses current questions dealing with working people. The institute especially supports companies in recognizing the potential of innovative forms of organizations, as well as trend-setting information and communication technologies, in adapting these to their individual needs and using them consistently. This bundling of management and technological competences guarantees that economic success, employees` interests and social effects are always considered to the same extent. Due to the close cooperation with the "Institut für Arbeitswissenschaft und Technologiemanagement IAT" at Stuttgart University the Fraunhofer IAO combines fundamental academic research, application-oriented science and business practice.