December 22, 2022
3
Min

Ecosystems to Empower the All Electric Society

Julian spoke to Andreas Rau from Phoenix Contact about their way of “Empowering the All Electric Society”.

Author(s)
Portraits of Andreas Rau and Prof. Dr. Julian Kawohl in front of a globe.
We have great news for you!

The new episode of Voices of Ecosystems with Andreas Rau is now on Youtube!

In the new episode, you will find an ecosystem example in the electrical engineering and automation industry with a strategic planning background. Our guest in the newest episode is Andreas Rau, who gives us great insights into this field.

Andreas Rau is the Executive Vice President Corporate Development & New Business at an international company “Phoenix Contact”.

Phoenix Contact is a global market leader and innovator for electrification, networking, and automation. It is a family-owned company that employs more than 20,000 people worldwide today. The touchpoints of the company's strategic development with business ecosystems have always been there. As Andreas says, "Partnerships have always been important for strategic development, in order to share and gather knowledge to create a better offering".

Ecosystems are a vital part for Phoenix Contact on their way of “Empowering the All Electric Society”.

The All Electric Society describes a world in which energy from renewable resources is available in sufficient quantities and at affordable prices. In addition to the consistent generation and use of renewable energy, reducing the demand for primary energy through efficiency measures and creating intelligent and networked systems are the key building blocks to a sustainable future.

In this episode, Andreas describes the company's strategic key pillars, processes, and ecosystem implementations.

Here are some key takeaways from this episode:

  1. Andreas talks about the process of starting ecosystem initiatives and the things to consider around that. From his experience, once an ecosystem is launched, all the contributors are very enthusiastic at first, but then they start to think about whether they will benefit enough from participating in the ecosystem. To sustain this momentum, participating companies need incentives to continuously share their knowledge and contribute to the ecosystem. And you have to create early successes, so that there is a basic belief that the effort is worth it. Moreover, in his opinion, openness and trust are the key factors to create the ecosystem mindset internally.
  2. Andreas is convinced that even a company as large as Phoenix Contact will not be able to empower the All Electric Society alone. In this case, partnerships and ecosystems are a must so that stakeholders come together to create joint value propositions with this mission. 
  3. As Phoenix Contact expanded to China, Andreas was able to tell us a bit about the business ecosystem situation over there. In his opinion, companies in China are more open-minded when it comes to partnerships and ecosystems.
Did you like the interview and the blog post? Let us know.

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If you want to learn more about the topic of business ecosystems, our book "Ecosystemize Your Business" is just the perfect thing.

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