On October 25th, over 70 CTOs and technical managing directors met at the invitation of Florian Hermle, managing director of the sensor specialist Balluff in Neuhausen a.d.F. to the CTO Autumn Forum 2019. The CEO of Umdasch Group Ventures GmbH, Werner H. Bittner presented the industrialization approach in construction at the Umdasch Group under the title “Strategy, construction process, digitalization – contradiction or logical turning point” and presented the various business models as well the associated IP strategy and the application of IP design.

Using the latest data, Bittner showed the dramatic development in the construction industry, which ultimately leads to enormous pressure to digitalize. Compared to the manufacturing industry, such as mechanical engineering, automotive, or the aerospace industry, productivity in the construction industry is extremely low. In the past twenty years, the manufacturing industry has managed to achieve 1.7 times the productivity of the construction industry through industrialization, standardization, automation, and digitalization. For Bittner, it is important to show that technology alone never has a disruptive effect, but only the business models based on it have the potential for actual, market disruption.

Part of this perspective also includes Umdasch’s IP strategy which is based on IP design. The IP is designed strictly along business cases and is based on transformation scenarios for the concrete construction eco-system. Various business models that are successful on the market have already emerged from this approach and were presented at the world’s largest trade fair for the construction industry.

In the following IP design practice report, Mr. Lucas Winter, Managing Director of Contakt GmbH, a portfolio company of Umdasch Group Ventures, and Johann Peneder, CEO Umdasch Group NewCon, explain the advantages of using IP design for the creation and protection of new digital business models.

Werner H. Bittner is CEO of Umdasch Group Ventures as of 1st May 2019. Prior to that he has served as Member of the Executive Board in this firm which went operational in January 2017. In May 2016, he had joined Umdasch Group in the newly established position of a Director Strategic Business Development at Doka which contributed to the set-up of Umdasch Group Ventures by Umdasch Group AG in November 2016. He had held various international management positions at Boehringer Ingelheim, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and Collini Holding AG. With regards to his academic background, he has a Master’s degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the Technical University in Vienna, Austria.