According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the automotive industry is “dramatically overshooting its estimated carbon and resource budgets.” Automotive manufacturing is a major contributor to a global industry that requires the extraction and processing of more than 100 billion tons of materials every single year, which causes 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress, and about 70% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. 

Moving from a linear to a circular economy will reduce this burden on the planet’s resources, minimize waste, and give the most pioneering manufacturers a competitive advantage. The WEF predicts that circular economy will yield up to USD 4.5 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.  

However, to benefit from the circular economy, automotive manufacturers need to get ahead of the curve on future regulations, sustainability goals, and customer expectations.  

The circular economy replaces the traditional extract-create-dispose linear economy with a regenerative model, built around recycling and re-use of natural resources. By maximizing the lifetime of finite resources, it reduces consumption and waste. This is particularly relevant for the automotive industry as it moves to replace the internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) with battery electric vehicle (BEV). 

As the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes, BEVs require more than six times the mineral inputs of ICEVs. Considering the need to electrify the world’s existing stock of
1.3 billion ICEVs by 2050, with the total global vehicle stock projected to grow to 2.2 billion by 2050, such resource requirements are neither sustainable, nor any longer bearable.  

But the imperative to move to a circular economy is not exclusively an environmental one. Global supply chain challenges have created shortages in semiconductors, leading to sales losses of more than 30% for automotive manufacturers.  

Further pressure is approaching in the form of EU regulation. Brussels is set to impose minimum material recovery rates for battery raw materials such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper in 2025, with increasing mandatory minimum levels taking effect in 2030 and 2035. According to the Nickle Institute, “Any company placing batteries on the EU market will have to comply with the manifold requirements in the regulation, independent of whether they operate in Europe or elsewhere in the world. All players will have to ensure that their upstream processes in mining and refining the materials, chemical processing, conversion into cells as well as assembling the batteries comply with the targets and requirements set by the legislation.” 

Manufacturers should not wait to implement circularity. The circular economy offers a means of gaining a significant competitive edge in a market where nearly two thirds of customers are willing to pay more for sustainable products. 

The time to kick off your journey towards circular economy is now. Buckle up. It may be a bumpy ride.  

By offering traceability through data transparency, digital transformation will provide the means to achieve true sustainability in automotive manufacturing. However, to achieve actual business value and leverage digital solutions in the best way, some key imperatives must be considered.  

1. Creating full transparency over your vehicle’s lifecycle  

Assets like the digital product passport, as introduced by the European Commission’s European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, will be essential tools for developing resource-efficient and environmentally friendly products in the future. These product passports will need to incorporate a wealth of data about how a product is built, used, and maintained, and how it may be altered throughout the different phases of a circular car’s lifecycle.  

Automotive manufactures must collect data from every aspect of the value chain to create data maps and a connected digital ecosystem. This will give manufacturers and other stakeholders a fully transparent view of emissions, resource use, and sustainability. 

Creating full transparency and traceability throughout the vehicle lifecycle with, for example, a digital vehicle twin will be vital in not only complying with regulations but also in reaching carbon net zero and in enabling new business models. To get there, organizations must capture digital twins for both their vehicles and the respective components and parts materials. This will help functions within an organization to extract the relevant data needed for R&D, compliance, procurement, and strategy to maximize the individual impact and make well-informed decisions.  

2. Innovating new and profitable ways to recover strategic materials 

The industry needs to find new ways of securing primary materials so that demand can be balanced, and materials are readily available. Shortages of semiconductors, magnesium, and wire harnesses have been exacerbated by recent challenges in the global supply chain, and they serve to highlight the difficulties that exist in guaranteeing the quality, security, and reliability of strategic materials.  

The way to overcome future shortages of strategic materials is to act within an ecosystem. Partnerships with downstream players, such as dismantlers, recyclers, or shredders, can help to secure components and materials for product manufacturing by increasing the ratio of secondary materials. If automotive players work together within their ecosystem, they can create digital solutions that enable efficient dismantling and recycling processes.  

Digitalization and automation have the power to transform the dismantling stage to enable product lifecycle extensions, as well as innovative strategies for remanufacturing, repurposing, or recycling. In short, these actions will help create closed loops of components and materials manageable on digital marketplaces, thus embodying the very idea of a circular economy.  

3. Identifying and implementing circular business models 

Companies need to evaluate both the opportunities and dangers of transforming into new business models. While circularity can help automotive players tap into new business, changing the mechanics and performance KPIs of revenue generation has its pitfalls and can often meet resistance within an organization. For that reason, automotive manufacturers must carefully design their transformation to circularity. 

The design must consider the entire lifecycle of the vehicle to identify new perspectives on value which requires increased transparency. Innovating your business model requires defining future customer profiles in detail as well as respective monetization details. In a next step, businesses need to evaluate what aspects within the business ecosystem can move towards a circular business model. New revenue streams might arise through extending the vehicle lifecycle, by building networks in platform models, or from “as-a-Service” (aaS) models to increase the usage of a single product. Extended vehicle lifetimes, for example, can help drive different perspectives across an organization. Assessing the effect of circularity actions on existing business models can help identify new opportunities to create value for customers across the automotive ecosystem. Partnering with organizations that offer access to existing circular business models and aaS models can be a good starting point when it comes to analyzing which new business opportunities make sense for customers. Automotive players can then prioritize use cases and define a respective roadmap.  

As an example of what’s possible, Chinese automobile manufacturer NIO has already pioneered the battery-as-a-service model through battery swapping. Under this model, customers don’t own the battery but pay for electricity and battery use either on a pay-as-you-go basis or by subscription. This means that increased battery range – by itself environmentally undesirable and more costly – is no longer an issue and opens the market for more economical and environmentally friendly BEVs.  

4. Leveraging Design-for-Circularity for products 

There is little doubt that a combination of future regulations and customer expectations will steer companies in the direction of secondary material quotas. This can only be achieved by reassessing existing product design and architecture.  

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) must analyze the impact and footprint of a vehicle along the entire product lifecycle to gauge the current circularity of their products, components, and materials. Such an analysis of product lifecycles can help manufacturers formulate a product vision, value proposition, detailed product circularity requirements and future product concepts. 

By implementing a modular architecture for vehicles, manufacturers can enable efficient maintenance and dismantling processes encompassing reuse, remanufacturing, or recycling, all of which are prerequisites for a truly circular approach. The dismantling of components and the separation of materials – for example, from wire harnesses and interconnectors – will be facilitated by standardizing material compositions, which is likely to deliver higher quality secondary materials. 

It is worth remembering at this stage that innovations in product design and architecture have an impact across entire organizations, so senior management must lead the process for it to be successful. This leadership includes providing close support for changes in skill sets and job descriptions. Outside of an organization, these innovations also impact the whole lifecycle and, therefore, require cross-stakeholder partnerships with all partners and suppliers within the ecosystem. 

From what we have seen, circularity has the power and potential to deliver enhanced resilience and represents the key to a sustainability success story within the automotive industry. 

A circular model can provide value chain resilience and offer protection against the sort of supply chain dangers that have hit the industry so hard. Increased resilience will enable organizations to mitigate operational risk and business interruption by designing new strategies for sourcing material resources and components. Keeping recycled resources within the automotive ecosystem frees manufacturers from resource dependency and shields operations from the inevitable future scarcity of raw materials. 

The circular vehicle approach can deliver competitive advantages too. First movers will take a pioneering role in automotive manufacturing and will be in a position of thought leadership when it comes to use cases and business models in the automotive ecosystem. They will be more successful in attracting and retaining forward-thinking talent, and their improved sustainability will help to attract investment. Furthermore, circularity will allow manufacturers to develop new circular business models, access new markets, and diversify customer segments. 

A circular approach allows for a sustainable business set-up putting first movers ahead of the curve when it comes to future regulations around emissions and material use. Slow movers risk non-compliance and potential fines. 

It can also drive concrete business target setting and performance while giving OEMs the ability to leverage long-term visions to steer and monitor the relative success of circularity models in different business functions and regions. 

OEMs, suppliers, and ecosystem players need to make strategic choices to mitigate future obligations and disruptions. But they are well advised to take full advantage of the immediate and long-term benefits of transitioning towards a circular economy that digitalization can unlock.  

The goal is to close the end-to-end loop and maximize the full business potential of reusing materials and components, and to minimize industry’s impact on the planet. But to mitigate the risk, effort, and cost involved in something that has a deep impact on every aspect of a company’s operations, OEMs can kick off their transition to circularity by focusing on specific components or materials and building upwards from there. 

Right now, external momentum and stakeholder requirements are dictating the future of the automotive industry. Players still can shape their position in the race towards a sustainable future. A holistic circularity mindset is key to taking a proactive and progressive role and maximize societal and business value.  

Now is certainly not the time to apply the brakes.  

Additive Manufacturing and 3D printing are key enablers for more sustainable production, supply chains and services. In fact, the global additive manufacturing market is projected to grow by almost 24 percent between 2023 and 2025, and the market for 3D printing is expected to almost triple in size between 2020 and 2026. With everything from airplane parts to hearing aids created through additive manufacturing, it is clear that this technology is special and has the potential to dramatically impact business practices and address sustainability demands. 

Before looking more closely into how additive manufacturing is driving a more sustainable tomorrow, it is good to take a step back and examine current manufacturing challenges. At the core of the need for improvement is that customers want everything faster and with more flexibility in quantity, which puts a strain on traditional development, production, and distribution channels. Meanwhile, the business leaders need to balance that demand with a clear need for sustainable practices and processes. In general, taking care of resources, providing greater efficiencies throughout the entire supply chain, and developing a more circular economy are all things the manufacturing sector must pull together to achieve sustainability success.  

In addition, the new CO2 certification process in Europe puts additional pressure on manufacturers and supply chains. Paying for CO2 emissions clearly changes the cost-change paradigm. Producing emissions while manufacturing as well as shipping a product around the globe will become an expensive game. Tackling this issue will require a radical rethinking of the whole value chain.  

To dramatically overhaul the value chain, address customer demand, and reach sustainability goals, manufacturers must undergo a digital transformation. Connecting the real and the digital world provides manufacturers with the data and insights needed to make well-informed decisions on how to optimize processes and increase efficiencies.  

Digitalization offers multiple opportunities to gain a competitive advantage by improving product design, factories, supply chains, and after-sales services (spare parts) with digital twin solutions. By mimicking the product or whole supply chain in the digital world, manufacturers can simulate, test, and predict scenarios in real-time while optimizing production processes and operations. Digitalization creates the necessary transparency for better decision making through access to data. Consequently, digitalization is the foundation of many of the sustainable manufacturing processes that are already in use today – everything from low-energy robotics to modern additive manufacturing methods. 

Additive manufacturing is known to be a technology which is “digital by nature,” meaning that the process itself would not work without digital technology connected to it. At the process level, 3D printing has the power to alter production, supply chain, and post-sales support practices throughout the manufacturing sector.  

The sustainable importance of additive manufacturing is more obvious in some areas than others. Here are a few known benefits of this technology: 

1. Improving Resource Efficiency During Production Processes 

A key advantage of 3D printing can be experienced during production. Digital methods save natural resources through more efficient processes. The parts 3D printers produce are close to their final intended shape. Barely any material needs to be removed in contrast to grinding or milling production methods.  

The accuracy of today’s digital printing methods means that products are made right the first time with little need for rejections or modifications post-production. Since there are no molds or other tools required in 3D printing (compared to on-demand technology), the requested order size is made without any overproduction, waste, or additional storage costs. 

Overall, resource efficiencies are ensured thanks to a combination of simulated printing processes before production runs, optimized print pathway automation, and the potential to use digital warehousing techniques to validate which parts are – or will be – most in-demand.  

2. Saving Emissions By Reducing Supply Chain Lengths 

Supply chain length reduction means establishing a less costly and greener supply chain. Additive manufacturing enables the creation of parts and products closer to the end consumer and could even allow for printing in customers' homes. By decoupling manufacturers from global logistical operators, it also helps to make supply chains more resilient and less susceptible to international or weather events, as well as reducing the carbon footprint. The lower supply chain costs of additive manufacturing might even outweigh the higher costs in the location of production. Emissions associated with road haulage and international shipping will be vastly reduced. Localized 3D printing hubs will be able to bundle several production runs to make transportation to end users even more efficient and sustainable. 

Another key to additive manufacturing’s sustainability capabilities is that it produces fewer parts than traditional manufacturing. The thumb rule is that if a conventionally manufactured component consists of 100 parts, the same additively manufactured component can potentially consist of only 10 parts or even less. This shortens the value chain extremely including the complete energy consumption.  

Think of it this way – fewer parts and production steps require less logistical expertise to move goods around the world. Additionally, fewer machines need less space / storage, less resources, and in the end less energy.  

3. Enabling Smart Repairs and Upcycling Options 

The after-sales aspects of additive manufacturing should not be overlooked when considering sustainability. For one thing, additive manufacturing technologies such as cold spraying or laser melting can help to lengthen product lifecycles by reproducing worn-out parts or even worn-down sections of them. For example: With a local 3D printing service, customers can obtain the necessary part and replace it, thereby extending the product's lifespan, even improving the part’s performance, or enabling new features. Maintenance services can be strongly optimized, as parts can be produced whenever and wherever needed, making the process way more effective, saving a maximum of time. 

To enable this process, manufacturers need to have the relevant files available in a digital warehouse that allows end users to select the part(s) needed and print them directly. Since customers can access the parts in real-time, there is no need for warehousing of spare parts.

Most of us can understand how additive manufacturing drives sustainability by improving resource efficiency during production or how it can save emissions by limiting the length of the supply chain. But there is one area where additive manufacturing boosts sustainability that may not be as obvious – the product design and its performance when it comes to energy.  

3D product design can improve energy efficiency of products like no other technology can, not just in production but over the course of its lifecycle. Manufacturers may be surprised how easily 3D printers produce complex structures. This not only saves material resources, but it also saves the energy used to generate the material. With additive manufacturing it is also possible to produce significantly lighter products. Less weight means lower fuel consumption and lower distribution costs. 

The biggest energy savings are achieved through flow-optimized design and maximization of thermal energy absorption capability. This means that, simply by optimizing parts of the bigger product slightly through complex geometries only additive manufacturing is capable to produce, it might already improve its energy efficiency significantly.  

For example, with an aerodynamic part in a turbine produced through additive manufacturing you can manufacture near-shape cooling channels right below the part surface. With the increased efficiency in cooling the turbine can run at a high temperature creating lowering energy costs over its entire lifespan. In this situation, additive manufacturing optimized not only the part but the entire product, in this case the turbine.  

But additive manufacturing can even increase sustainability and energy efficiency for already sustainable technologies. Take the electric motor, for instance: by printing components more precisely, the effectiveness of the engine can grow even more – to new heights.  

A word of caution - leaders should not apply additive technology just to say they can. The technology needs to serve the business needs, solve problems, and entail significant benefits for production processes.  

Here are a few things to keep in mind for successful additive manufacturing: 

It’s not all about technology. While additive manufacturing can dramatically change a manufacturing business’ level of sustainability, it is not all about technology. In fact, the confidence and support of the people in your organization can make or break your success. Leaders are encouraged to remember that there is a human component regarding changes that will be inevitable when moving from legacy production methods to more sustainable 3D printing processes. Good change management programs are essential. 

Optimize and design new part(s) first…based on business purpose and then print the optimized version for actual value. There is no point in copying the initial traditionally produced part. In fact, doing so, might even be more expensive. Instead, the value of additive manufacturing lies in using the right simulation tools like digital twins and Artificial Intelligence to achieve application-optimized geometries and printing them very precisely.  

Invest in the infrastructure. Manufacturing enterprises must invest in the necessary infrastructure to benefit from additive manufacturing processes and the greater sustainability they can generate. Some businesses will inevitably decide to purchase 3D printers and the associated digitalization tools that go with them. However, it is also extremely convenient for manufacturers to outsource 3D printing requirements at a lower cost due to shared resources. Sharing the resources of an expert in additive manufacturing with other organizations means even more sustainable outcomes can be achieved because fewer resources need to be retained in-house for printing products, parts, and prototypes. In some cases, depending on the individual situation (location, ecosystem, and customers), there will be no need for a factory in the first place. 

Shape business strategy around sustainable goals and scale accordingly. Senior managers and executives must reassess corporate strategies if they are to find the success of additive manufacturing. Furthermore, meeting the demands of customers will require the adoption of services in a portfolio more closely aligned to 3D printed solutions. Producing 3D printed product designs is the first step, but manufacturers also need to consider material choices carefully because that will directly impact future sustainability and distribution.  

Additive manufacturing successes and advocates have reframed the story from “the technology reducing machines in production” to focusing on its potential to expand manufacturing opportunities. It may become a competitive advantage for some manufacturers. It may change the rulebook for production. It may be the answer for radically improving your business strategy. It could be the critical action your business needs to address the societal imperative to deliver a more sustainable future. What’s stopping you from finding out? 

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For CEOs of industrial manufacturing firms, one of the biggest concerns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic has been supply chain disruption. One study put the average cost to large businesses (those with revenues above USD 1bn) at around USD 184m in 2021.

Throughout 2020, the number of organizations experiencing 20 or more supply chain disruptions increased by a factor of six, according to the Business Continuity Institute’s 2021 Supply Chain Resilience report. This ranged from the Suez Canal blockage to container pileups in Shanghai and other major ports. If this wasn’t enough, ongoing climate change issues as well as geopolitical changes were the missing cherry on top. The same report found that the proportion of senior management showing a medium or high commitment to supply chain risk rose by nearly 10 percent to 82.7%. This goes to show that these global influences have the effect of transforming supply chains into revenue assurance drivers rather than cost reduction pillars.

Faced with this increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the number one priority for sector leaders is to build resilience into the supply chain. Due to the pandemic leaders’ priorities shifting to business continuity and their realization that connectivity is the golden ticket, the challenge lies in a successful way to accomplish this.

The global supply chain market is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 11.2% from 2020 to 2027 – a market value surge from USD 15bn to USD 37bn. With the added speed bump of supply chain disruptions, it’s time to build resilience into your supply chain, and business leaders are reaching for plentiful and readily available technological developments to do so. Currently, the IIoT-based solution showing the most potential when creating a resilient supply chain is the use of digital twins to mimic supply chains and productivity networks.

In recent years, the digital transformation of supply chains has made them increasingly dynamic and complex. Catalyzed by the pandemic and other previously mentioned supply chain hurdles, manufacturers have sought out new ways to optimize supply chains to ensure transparency. To do so, in-depth understanding and visibility of the entire end-to-end ecosystem of suppliers and customers – their needs, strengths, weaknesses and potential risk factors – is the Holy Grail.

This ideal of a fully connected ecosystem providing real-time data starts by connecting your own supply chain. Only once you have complete visibility of your own end-to-end operations, connection with the wider ecosystem can be achieved, enabling you to create a holistic overview and transparency from customer to supplier.

Based on this holistic overview, you need to decide on your own business goals and adjust your digitalization strategy accordingly. Easier said than done? Not necessarily. The important thing is not to drown in the ocean of possibilities and to keep your eye on your business goals, letting them dictate the level of detail your digital solution requires.

It’s estimated that up to 93% of all IoT Platforms will contain some form of digital twin capability by 2027. So what exactly is a digital twin? And how does it tie in with a connected supply chain? To put it simply, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical product or process. By feeding it with data, it can be used to model the current situation in real time, test ‘what if’-scenarios for the future and, in some instances, even provide ‘best practice’ to the modelled disruption. As such, it provides predictive insights, highlights areas of weakness or potential failure and enables timely preventative action.

By incorporating the latest technical innovations (eg multi-physics simulation, AI, data analytics and machine learning), digital twins can demonstrate the impact of usage scenarios, environmental conditions and other variables to improve the resilience of a supply chain. The digital twin is therefore the ultimate goal in connecting your supply chain, yet you need to learn to walk before you can run. Start by determining the digital journey most adequate for reaching your business' set goals and drivers. Luckily, there are a few maturity levels you can reach before chasing the Holy Grail of the digital twin, and there is likely a data solution for every organization and budget.

To provide visibility and transparency on an operational level, applying a digital map or model might suffice, as it provides basic insights into your operations. However, if you want to leverage data to simulate and explore various possible scenarios and the effects of changes before implementing them in the physical supply chain, a digital shadow might be the best approach. However, only a digital twin can create enough insights to enable real-time connection and provide concrete simulations for operational, tactical as well as strategic decision making.

The key to realizing this ideal scenario is leveraging the correct data in the correct way by the correct people. However, as with any form of digitalization, there are several factors to consider when starting the journey to executing a digital twin.

Firstly, it’s crucial to always have your goals in mind: the business outcome you want to achieve should be the foundation for your decision as to which data model to use. For certain organizations, it may not be necessary to apply an end-to-end digital twin at the very beginning of your digital transformation journey. Trying to navigate through the buzzwords and promises from solution providers and staying true to your core needs is therefore an important first consideration. Applying technology just for the sake of applying technology is never the solution!

Secondly, a digital twin is only as good as the data it gets fed. Therefore, you need to gather useful data and that’s the tricky part. When creating the digital twin, connecting your internal data is advised, as this is the data that’s readily available to you. However, it’s important not to fall into the trap of data overload, which can result in too many insights slowing down and clouding the decision-making process. Once you have an internal connected supply chain in place, you can start reaching out to your ecosystem to further increase connectivity. It’s essential to take the time to understand relevant data management solutions for your business goals and ecosystem.

Everybody knows that data is the new gold in business, and companies are often reluctant to give it up lightly. This results in a potentially complex process of connecting your full ecosystem, as you need to convince all stakeholders about the joint value that can be created through sharing knowledge and creating transparency. As soon as they’re fully connected and sharing their data, you can collectively create the most detailed digital model possible, which will benefit everybody along the chain.

However, in reality it’s unlikely that every member of your ecosystem will share the data needed to simulate a complete supply chain digital twin, but that does not mean the end of the line for your digital twin journey. The good news is that there is a sophisticated workaround to help you overcome this particular roadblock: artificial intelligence (AI). Through AI, it’s possible to model the missing data and thus fill in gaps in your data lake. Furthermore, other data sources can be fed into AI to derive expected impacts to the supply chain from striking events, for example the news of a flooding in a particular region in the world can be overlaid with your supplier base and the digital twin can preempt potential impacts and solutions.

Now that your data is in place and connected, the true benefit of a digital twin emerges. Real time connection and seamless data flow will enable direct transparency of your data, and customized visualization, dashboards and alerts will allow for rapid decision making. The only question is, will your decision-making processes be able to keep up with this increased speed of knowledge?

Data digitalization and process optimization need to be harmonized, as data without a process is useless, and a process without data is inefficient. Future supply chains will be a combined learning network of humans and technology, so alongside building your digital twin, it’s important to invest in the creation of a flexible workforce willing to adapt its skillset to facilitate a bionic supply chain. After all, the most powerful intelligent network is still the human mind, and it’s fundamental in deriving and acting on the benefits of a supply chain digital twin.

When applying connected supply chains in the industrial manufacturing environment, it is important to shed light on how their connection to the green, lean, and digital factories of the future will look like. In this specific context, the successful creation of supply chain digital twins depends on the quality of data from every factory, warehouse, or nod within the supply network. This means that it is best practice to successfully develop digital twins of your factory in the first place. This will make the trick for the whole network as data could be provided seamlessly.

At the same time, it is crucial to understand that the factory of the future and its successful operations heavily depend on seamless data flows, processes, connectivity, and agility on a large scale in order to ensure individual productivity, robustness, and delivery excellence. Ever changing markets, customer requirements and supply disruption can only be managed sustainably by building agility and reactiveness into the mix. The supply chain digital twin can be the dealmaker in this context enabling the transparency needed beyond one’s own facilities. In the end, the factory of the future, being green, lean and digital in nature, is both enabler and benefactor from the creation of a supply chain digital twin. Seamlessly, connected supply chain can build the basis for factories and whole networks to decarbonize operations.

Increased connection and digitization open the possibility of creating supply chain digital twins, but it’s not actually the digital twin that creates the value for your business. A digital twin is simply the vehicle you need to enable a fully connected supply chain, and the strategic connection with your individual business goals is the key that makes your vehicle perform. As a result, your entire ecosystem will gain a competitive advantage.

Siemens Digital Industries Logistics (DI LOG) has already paved the way towards a comprehensive digital supply chain twin with their end-to-end resilience solution. This platform helps both Siemens and its partners to proactively manage supply chain and operations based on real time tracking and data-driven alerting functionalities for all involved parties within the network.

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When I was 14, I was thrilled to take on rugby. Despite being small for my age and not particularly strong, I enjoyed the team game and discovered that the physical and mental challenges of it allowed me to push myself in new ways. Due to my physique, it would have been no surprise if my playing experiences had gone wrong, but two years into it, my team and I were participating in both national and international competitions. I wasn’t the fastest or the strongest kid on the field, but I could use my agility to contribute to the team’s success. I almost always got tackled and believe me when I say that my parents were convinced my bruises would never fade. I will never forget what my trainer once said to me around this time: “We have guys who are faster, bigger and stronger than you. Do you know why I am taking you in for the competitions and not someone else? You are a team player. You think for the entire team!” I felt deeply honored. I was very much aware of my limitations, but that sentence has shaped me forever.

Later, as an adult, I realized that rugby taught me so much more than just being a team player. Remembering certain situations on the rugby pitch, I realized that I chose to act with different mindsets. Sometimes I had the tendency to limit myself, and my fixed mindset was holding me back, but often I had the desire to learn and could act on – what I know now – a so called growth mindset.

I had experienced what it took to have a growth mindset on the rugby pitch, but later in life, I found that it could be equally applied to the business world. Nowadays, we all know that in a business sense, the world is constantly changing – just like the shifting play on a rugby field. Therefore, companies need to adapt to meet the needs of their customers and markets. Consequently, organizations must stay curious, resilient, willing to experiment and adapt. Basically, if they don't nurture a growth mindset, they are much more likely to fail.

Looking back on my rugby career, I now see a connection between what I was doing then and what I do now professionally. When I was on the pitch, it was not just about teamwork and self-confidence as a player but something else that led to success. It was the mindset.

Academics have sought to define a growth mindset, take it from Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University. According to her, a growth mindset is based on the belief that anyone's underlying qualities are things they can cultivate through their efforts. “Although people may differ in every which way – in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments – everyone can change and grow through application and experience,” she wrote. As mentioned by Dweck, there are two main mindsets with which we can navigate our way through life: growth and fixed. Both mindsets face challenges, obstacles, effort, criticisms, and responses to the success of others. However, they deal with them in very different ways. People with a growth mindset, for example, embrace challenges and see effort as a pathway to mastery. In contrary, people with fixed mindsets will avoid challenges, give up when they encounter obstacles and feel threatened when those around them enjoy success.

That connects with my business experience today as well. The adoption of a growth mindset is important to me because there is nothing more fulfilling than seeing how people around me are developing on their journey and are helping others develop. I believe that the biggest barrier for change in oneself is very often one’s own mind.

This is something emphasized by my colleague Bettina Rotermund, Head of Strategic Marketing at Siemens IoT: “We constantly need to try out new things in order to succeed and to be ahead of the curve. If you try out new things, then the chance of failing in the first place is quite high, but we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and try something out.”

According to Carol Dweck’s definition, both mindsets face the same characteristics. It’s about how people deal with challenges, obstacles, effort, and criticism. Let’s have a closer look at these four areas to better understand the differences between both concepts.

Challenges

When I began playing rugby, I was smaller than the others on my team. I didn't have their experience or power. However, I was open to what the coaches told me and to finding ways where my physicality wouldn't hold me back. In fact, I used my agility rather than brute strength to help my team gain momentum. In short, I had a growth mindset that embraced the challenge of a physically demanding game where brainpower often counts just as much as brawn.

Had I had a fixed mindset, what would have happened? Most likely, I would have never discovered I could manage on my own towards the ends of games as some of the bigger players tired. I would not have found that my team player status was so valued among my teammates, and I wouldn't have gone on to enjoy so many memorable wins with them either.

Obstacles

As Dweck points out, how you handle obstacles is a key part of differentiating a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset. Overcoming obstacles, as opposed to avoiding them, is key to demonstrating a growth mindset. One of the growth mindset characteristics I found I developed as a rugby player was derived from the fact that I was often too aware of my limitations as a player. An obstacle I faced on the pitch every time I played was tackling a bigger player coming my way. However, by learning the right technique and using his body weight against him in contact, I was able to learn how to overcome this obstacle.

With a fixed mindset, I'd have failed. I could have opted for what I knew was comfortable and put in a poor attempt at a tackle, of course. However, that would have meant another player on my team having to take responsibility on my behalf and double up the defense. That's the consequence of a fixed mindset that sees obstacles as insurmountable. It's something I hear in business: that things cannot be done. However, with a growth mindset, there is no obstacle that cannot be overcome.

Effort

In rugby, work rate, or distance covered by a player during a match, counts for a lot. Teams that have more tackles tend to win, especially in close games. The try scorers and kickers may get the plaudits, but the team effort is what counts. Anyone who has played the game rather than just watched it knows that. As the American Football Coach, Vince Lombardi, once said, “Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes a team work.” Lombardi went on further, saying it is also what makes companies and even entire civilizations work.

Looking back, it now seems obvious to me that this was a behavior of a growth mindset. I'm glad I put the effort in because, without it, I'd have not seen the benefit of a team working together and, perhaps, played for individual glory. Rather like the Gestalt theory of mind, we need to see the big picture rather than micro-managing our own efforts. In short, we're greater than the sum of our parts, but with a fixed mindset, you may never realize this truth.

Criticism

As a rugby player, our coach had some open and honest conversations with my teammates and I about what we were doing wrong collectively and what we needed to change tactically. As a kid you don’t like to hear about what you are doing wrong, that’s for sure. Of course, I tried to use the feedback that my coach gave me, but was I feeling good about it? Not really, and sometimes I couldn't take the criticisms that came my way, which affected my game. A classic example of a fixed mindset.

Had I had a growth mindset back then, I would have been able to deal with constructive criticism. I would have been open to it and even have encouraged it. That being said, the experience shaped me. I now see that players with growth mindsets don't take such critical conversations personally, and this is a quality common to most highly successful athletes, not limited to rugby.

I realize now that a fixed mindset affects us all to some degree. Staying in your comfort zone often means thinking you know what’s best for you, which you might! However, without a growth mindset, you will never know for sure what else you could have learned from a fair and valid critique of your work.

The Success of Others

Let's face it, winning is great. Playing in front of your family, friends and teammates as a kid and then winning is one of the greatest feelings of happiness and motivation. Losing on the other hand, that hurts. When I was a kid, I couldn't bear losing, and I could think of enough reasons why the other team didn't deserve to win or why it was just a close call that made them win. Now I know that this is a prime example of a fixed mindset, and I was not able to acknowledge the success of others because of my jealousy and my inability to draw anything positive from it.

Instead, playing in a team with a growth mindset, I should have been able to enjoy the success of those around me. Through failure we should support each other, both other teams and other teammates, and acknowledge the sacrifices others make to get to where they are today.

This is just as true playing team sports as it is working for a forward-thinking organization like Siemens Advanta. Corporate culture means adopting a growth mindset, and this helps everyone to enjoy each other's successes and savor the contributions we, as individuals, have made.

At Siemens Advanta, we have a mindset to be proud of. Of course, not everyone and especially not every individual has a mindset that is 100% and always that of a growth mindset, but our company’s focus currently is to encourage each employee to work on himself and herself and to develop constantly. Without it, the organization would not be the versatile innovator it is. Furthermore, with a fixed mindset, the various teams wouldn't enjoy each other's success to the same degree. That would be detrimental for the entire ecosystem of professional cooperation and, in the end, the commercial resilience of the company. Enjoying the success of others isn't just about a pat on the back, but also ensures organizations can change and adapt to meet all future challenges.

In sports, being able to embrace challenges, overcome obstacles, put in the effort that is required, take criticism and use it as positive feedback, and take delight in the success of others yields results. Especially in team sports, having each of these growth mindset characteristics means being able to get more out of the activity than previously expected.

Sure, a growth mindset in a team game can bring about more success on the field, but it goes further. Look at my story: Through rugby and other valuable life experiences, I have learned and have developed a growth mindset – but how do I apply that mindset today? The answer is I try to apply it to everything I do professionally. I've taken that growth mindset and continued to use it throughout my career, encouraging others to do so and step out of their comfort zones along the way.

Through my personal story and the deep dive of the individual five characteristics of the two types of mindsets – growth and fixed - it should become clear what significance a growth mindset can have for success in life, in work and, ultimately, for a company. For me, being eager to learn about curiosity in personal development is something that I am constantly learning over and over again. Especially as a leader, it’s so important to help others develop, help them to be open and curious, and to acquire new skills to constantly nurture their growth mindset.

By investing in partnerships and ecosystems as Siemens does, it is possible to develop a growth mindset that will lead to prolonged business success. As my colleague Bettina puts it, “Our markets and our environments are changing so rapidly and our innovation circle has become so short, we constantly need to try out new things in order to succeed and in order to be ahead of the curve.”

If you dare to dream, then you can step out of your comfort zone as well. I know many people will have fixed mindsets, and it is also important to accept this. No one should be unnecessarily critical of a fixed mindset if there is the willingness to change. For some, it may come easier to switch to a growth mindset than others; change is a process, not an end result! Set achievable growth mindset goals for yourself that allow you to step out of your comfort zone and to experiment with new ways of doing things. After all, experimentation is part of what it takes to obtain a growth mindset and shift away from a fixed one.

Remember that it doesn’t happen overnight, nor can one completely maintain one type of mindset only. We're all a blend of the two to some extent. As rugby players know, sometimes you need to tighten up your game while in other situations, you need to take more risks to overcome the opposition.

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Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): The Society 5.0 concept emerged from the Information Society and was initially expounded in 2016 in the Far East. In Japan, the new societal model was first defined to mean a human-centered approach to the ever-growing take-up of technology. Also called ‘super-smart society’, it aims to balance economic advancement more widely across society, for example, as well as create an opportunity to think about how certain social challenges can be resolved by digital technologies such as big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics.

Having a closer look at the Middle East region, digital transformation programs are already in full swing: from oil fields, to manufacturing, to city infrastructure. Leaders in the region are aware of the societal and business demands and are already addressing the emerging challenges to shape the transition into the future.

I’m Oliver Elbracht, Managing Director for Siemens Advanta in the Middle East, and in the context of the event Transformena 2021 in April this year, I had the honor to sit down with several remarkable leaders from corporations in the Middle East to discuss how technology is creating a better tomorrow. Below you can find an extract from my discussion with Neetan Chopra, the CTO of Dubai Holding, Ahmad Aalem, the former Head of Strategy at The Red Sea Development Company, and Abdullah Albalushi, who holds the role of Board Advisor at The Zubair Corporation LLC in Oman.

The answers of these great panelists were certainly quite revealing, as I'm sure you'll agree with this insightful discussion.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): Ahmad, is focusing solely on technological solutions and their implementation enough to achieve the Society 5.0 concept?

Ahmad Aalem (The Red Sea Development Company): The Red Sea Development project is focused on creating a luxury tourism destination, that is based on the sustainable concept of regenerative tourism through a twin approach of person-centered and technological change. We are no longer settling for simply protecting and preserving the environment. We aim to enhance it. Indeed, we are committed to enhancing Saudi Arabia's natural ecosystem by 30 percent over the next 20 years. Crucially, it is technology that will enable this link between tourism, the environment and sustainability. Construction in sensitive areas may mean a modular construction method with manufacturing on-site, which needs to be sustainable, but this means you need people on board with the entire concept, not just the technology itself.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): How can technologies benefit people within the concept of Society 5.0?

Ahmad Aalem (The Red Sea Development Company): A good example would be our adoption of a smart destination platform, that allows guests and workers to monitor the environmental conservation enhancement across our lagoons – up to 2,400 square km of water. One of the best examples of the 52 smart technologies we've adopted is a wearable device for employees and vehicles to help maintain the balance between the environment and efficient construction. This device enhances employee welfare, too, by making sure they are supported by improved security measures, for example, by allowing an SOS signal to be sent. For now, AI and smart tech deployment is focused on our employees as we're in the construction phase, but in the future, it will center on a seamless visitor experience.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): The progress you're making building this unique destination truly amazes me. Now, from a smart tourist destination in Saudia Arabia to a smart city in the UAE. How does smart technology contribute to Dubai's objective to be the smartest and happiest city in the world?

Neetan Chopra (Dubai Holding): From Dubai Holding's perspective, there are two main actions. Firstly, we want to be in the arena, not on the sidelines, getting stuff done. We take action in transformation, innovation, and technology. Secondly, we support the technological ecosystem, which is enabling innovation and transformation. Further, when it comes to digitalization, you need to create magical, memorable experiences for customers – and employees alike. That is critical for the whole transformation journey. You can't be digital in the front-facing part of your business but at the same time keep your back office analogue. That doesn't give you true transformation. Additionally, we've found that investing in new business models as well as forging symbiotic relationships between start-ups and enterprises is crucial.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): How are businesses using digitization to manage large numbers of employees across various industries?

Neetan Chopra (Dubai Holding): Forward-looking organizations recognize that you can't do digital or transformational change without including your employees. It's critical! If you only focus on the customer receiving great digital experiences but forget about your employees that’s not a true digital transformation. The digital platform we have adopted at Dubai Holding connects all 20,000 employees. This offers them the same level of digital experience as our customers expect.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): The scope, scale, and economic impact of technology have been rapidly expanding in the Middle East. How have forward-thinking corporations integrated technologies in the region?

Abdullah Albalushi (The Zubair Corporation): The Zubair Corporation is one of the longest established business conglomerates in Oman. It started its business back in 1969. Of course, the business landscape at that time demanded a very different way of doing things. Then, focusing on building the infrastructure of the country in cooperation with the government was the priority. Only a few corporations were able to meet this challenge. Those which, like The Zubair Corporation, were widely perceived to be part of government and, consequently, to have a lot of social responsibility. The government's 2040 vision expects Omani corporations to continue to meet these social demands in the country, so it will shape our future as well as our past.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): What is your approach to future digitization as Society 5.0 becomes an increasingly felt reality?

Abdullah Albalushi (The Zubair Corporation): We inherited various complex legacy systems, often by acquiring and merging with other companies. Therefore, after 50 years of business a check was needed to re-energize the company. We found that there was a big gap with what the younger generation expects, especially with mobile and digital technology. Given that we had historically dealt directly with the government, we didn't always need any of these technologies. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, everything moved to digital, causing business and social challenges for us. In 2019, we conducted an operational review. Based on that, we developed a digital transformation strategy. We entrusted Siemens Advanta to be our partner in the assessment of our digital strategy, and we are now 50 percent on the way down the road to delivering it. As others have said, the human element in this is creating the biggest challenges, but it also affords us the biggest opportunities. We want to create a truly human-centered ecosystem where all our business units will operate on a single platform, the foundation to innovate and shine.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht (Siemens Advanta): It has been an exciting journey you have been on – not only within Zubair but really for the Omani nation.

I'd love to continue this to experience how you and all of your corporations are making a difference to Middle East societies within the contexts of Society 5.0. I'm excited to see how the Middle East will continue to develop this human-centered, technology-based society in the years and decades to come. It’s fascinating what the upcoming decades will bring and I'm convinced that we can foster innovation that will create a bright future for us and for future generations.

Thank you very much all of you for joining this discussion.

Interested in watching the full dialog? Click here to watch the recording of the panel discussion: Society 5.0 – The Big Social Transformation.

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By setting free the power of IoT, we will be able to transform our economy – making the way we produce more efficient and sustainable and helping economies reach their ambitious decarbonization goals. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) plays an important role in this context as it acts as a key enabler for sustainable manufacturing, ensuring economic efficiency as well as helping to reach extensive environmental goals.

With the following examples, we hope to give you one or the other inspiration on how you can actually make your manufacturing process more sustainable.

In a world of ongoing change and new challenges around every corner, it is crucial for innovators to always stay one step ahead. What is society concerned with? How are investors and markets adopting to new circumstances? How can I prepare my business for the next big transformation? And how can I prepare for the next digital disruption?

With climate change and scarcity of resources knocking on our doors, there is ample motivation to take action. So let´s explore the issue of sustainability in manufacturing and why it matters for seminal businesses!

React to growing awareness

In recent years, a growing awareness on the environmental impact of our economy can be seen in both public and economic arenas. Especially in the manufacturing world, it becomes clear that due to massive decarbonization goals and limited natural resources, continuing to manufacture in an unsustainable way can only go on for so long. This could particularly affect traditional companies that do not convert to sustainable manufacturing processes, as they run the risk of falling out of favor with public opinion and by that lose the high degree of trust with customers they have built up over many years.

Be prepared for policy initiatives

In addition, Green New Deal initiatives in both Europe and North America will increase the responsibility on all businesses to adopt more sustainability in manufacturing. Supranational decarbonization guidelines are paired with concrete growth and innovation strategies, making businesses that adopt sustainable ways of producing more attractive towards investors and markets. At the same time, businesses unwilling to shift to more sustainable manufacturing processes are likely to be left behind. So be prepared for governmental restrictions and face them as a chance for innovative smart manufacturing processes.

Make your business future-proof

We have now learned that businesses simply cannot turn their heads when it comes to improving sustainability in manufacturing processes. It is a chance to react to the growing environmental awareness of clients and public, contribute to supranational decarbonization goals, and meet new demands of investors and markets. It is also a chance to gain a competitive edge when incorporating smart manufacturing solutions to reach these goals. Why? Let´s find out!

In their 2018 report into IoT manufacturing, the World Economic Forum not only found that the inter-connectedness of manufacturing processes and plants would add some $14 trillion of value to the global economy by 2030 – IoT solutions will also act as key drivers for sustainability in manufacturing as well over four-fifths of IoT deployments in industry are currently addressing, or have the potential to address sustainability goals as set out by the United Nations.

With these promising numbers in mind, let´s explore three steps to increase sustainability in manufacturing by using the power of IoT. As already stated, we are aware of the simplification of the concepts presented in the following. However, we would assume they may be the starting point into your personal sustainable manufacturing journey.

Step 1: Use your data wisely

First of all, you can start treating your data as one of the most valuable resources you have. The main benefit of using IoT and IIoT for sustainable manufacturing lays in collecting exactly this data in order to work with it. Use a thought out, vertically integrated IoT solution including software, automation, and sensors to easily connect, monitor, and analyze your entire manufacturing process. Now you can start to measure, compare, and analyze your current input in order to improve your output, making it more efficient - and greener. Digital Twins of your production and your products may help to run what/if scenarios and decide for the optimum process combining economic and environmental sustainability.

Step 2: Use your energy wisely

In 2018, 37% of global energy use could be traced back to the industrial sector. Looking at the enormous challenges in front of us, it becomes clear that energy efficiency in industrial manufacturing will play a major role when reaching ambitious sustainability goals. IoT-based solutions can help manufacturers optimize their entire energy system, transforming it to become both more efficient and sustainable. As already mentioned, one of the prime advantages of IoT manufacturing is the real-time collection and processing of data. By connecting, monitoring, and comparing this set of information, you can easily identify irregularities and patterns that make your manufacturing process waste or lose energy – and take suitable measures right away. For example, intelligent devices and sensors on machines can independently recognize when they are needed, helping to prevent over- or underuse, and by that, saving energy and actively reducing your environmental footprint.

Step 3: Use your other resources wisely

A thought out IoT manufacturing solution will help connect, share, and analyze all the data running your production process and by that, will help you use your given resources more wisely. By knowing exactly the right number of resources – your raw materials, commodities, and construction materials – you can start using what you have more mindfully. Cutting down on the use of fluids, especially oil and water, is just one sustainable manufacturing example that can be expanded to include many more. Let your IoT solution help you decide which materials or spare parts to use, how to reduce over- or underproduction, or how to reuse resources or waste. This not only means less consumption, it will also run hand-in-hand with longer lifespans for production equipment and tools and make your production line leaner and more productive. Sustainable usage of resources also spans the complete product lifecycle, starting with product design over product operations until decomposition of the product and the recycling of its parts in a circular economy.

There is no doubt that great challenges lay ahead of us. Complex tasks require bold and innovative solutions. This is where IoT steps in. We have already witnessed how the Internet of Things helps us embrace and shape change. Now, we can incorporate IoT manufacturing solutions, in order to transform the way we produce in many ways, making our manufacturing process smarter, more sustainable, and compatible with ambitious and necessary decarbonization goals.

Smart manufacturing solutions thereby deliver the concrete technology to do so, resulting in various sustainable manufacturing examples, like the mindful and economical use of valuable resources like material, energy, or water. Introducing IoT into our economy also allows us to make it future proof by reacting to new societal and political requirements while also securing economic growth.

Now it´s time to face the challenges ahead of us. Luckily, we have just the right toolset to do so. So let´s embrace digital transformation, unlocking the full potential of IoT and reach true sustainability in manufacturing.

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The last decade was about connecting the consumer world. This decade is about connecting infrastructure and industry to the Internet of Things (IoT)—and the pandemic has only accelerated this trend.

So, at the Web Summit 2020 in December we brought together eight leaders across the private sector, government, and academia. We then asked: How we can unlock the full potential of the IoT to transform infrastructure, industry, and society?

And one takeaway was clear: No one's company can develop and offer these end-to-end solutions on its own. We will need to reassess longstanding ways of thinking and redefine competition. The pandemic, in particular, has demonstrated the value of working together as part of an IoT ecosystem – not an egosystem – tapping into the full range of expertise and perspectives to solve problems and innovate new solutions.

Here are four key elements to building the connected world that emerged during our discussion.

Collaboration isn’t just necessary to building the IoT—it's an accelerator. That’s because no one person or company is an expert at everything. Creating the new systems and developing the new markets for the IoT ecosystem will require a lot of collaboration between companies and organizations. The software developers need a data scientist who needs a marketing communications expert, and so on. The IoT is going to involve tons of R&D, coding, hardware, intellectual property expertise, and communications at a new scale. That assembling of talent and intelligence will make things move faster.

This does not mean an end to competition. The IoT ecosystem will need that, too: innovation will be the name of the game. But we must move beyond the old models of competition to a much more integrated practice of collaboration and cooperation. Most, if not all, the companies with a major stake in developing the IoT will come to see collaboration as a core practice. Collaboration will also be inevitable as we realize the opportunity of using the IoT not just to create business value, but to keep the end-user in mind and solve shared societal challenges.

Moving from a total competition model to a new era of cooperation will rely greatly on a global diversity of thought, workforce, and leadership. Put simply, diversity sparks innovation—the overlap of multiple cultures, experiences, and backgrounds in the act of innovating is where the magic happens.

We’re already seeing that magic happens in engineering programs at universities and colleges across the world, where a new emphasis on multidisciplinary thinking, collaboration, and diversity is helping to accelerate innovation. Today’s young, diverse engineers are highly aware how technological advancements can exacerbate inequities, and they also know that the possibilities of the IoT ecosystem are endless and can transform every single aspect of modern society to create a more sustainable, secure and safe future.

To be sure, business managers need to provide real, measurable results and value for shareholders and stakeholders—that’s the here and now. But as we consider how to build the IoT ecosystem, we realize that we must develop a combination of technologies that over the long term will bring about all kinds of changes at great scale, so we must think long term about how those technologies will work together, how they will adapt and evolve, and how they will change industry and society. 

Exponential technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), digital communications, quantum computing, and blockchain are becoming more and more integrated. This integration of technologies will play a critical role in the digital transformation of just about every legacy business we can think of and will create business synergies we don’t yet know. These combined technologies will also be central to decarbonization and reversing climate change. The IoT will allow us to integrate services, predictive maintenance, efficiency, and innovation that will deliver results for customers in ways that we need to plan for now. That’s why we need to plan for the long term and keep an eye on the big picture: the value of IoT to society.  Embracing open source technology and the power of ecosystems will help us tackle global challenges together.
 

If there’s one barrier to developing the IoT ecosystem, it’s the tendency in business to do things the way they’ve always been done. Breaking that barrier will require a cultural change in every business and organization, and it starts with leadership. Business leadership must be willing to revise business models, align their people on new key objectives, and accelerate toward new outcomes, with new ways of measuring success. This will generate value for customers, for the business and for societies.

Cultural change is also essential for companies to create the sales force, service managers, and engineering teams they will need to build their IoT ecosystem. Once they have such new teams in place, companies will quickly find out how much value they can create through transformation and how to tackle the global challenges.

And what brings all four of these elements to life? People and trust. People control the tech and navigate using the tech, and we will learn to trust ourselves and trust each other, knowing that we’re advancing IoT in the right way: replacing the egosystem with an ecosystem that, five, 10, and 20 years from now, will be a people-driven network expanding what’s humanly possible. If we do, we will be unlock the full potential of IoT both to our businesses and to advancement of a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable world.