"Our science system needs to change"

Prof Dr Tobias Meisen and the Chair of Technologies and Management ofDigital Transformation

"I think you can build well on what you have," says Tobias Meisen, who took over the new Chair of Technologies and Management of Digital Transformation in Wuppertal in 2018, funded by Vorwerk & Co KG.
At RWTH Aachen University, where he had already spent many years working on the topics of Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and digitalisation, he was responsible for the Production Technology, Transport and Mobility and Cognitive Computing working groups. He is now utilising the experience and contacts from this time in his newly created chair in Wuppertal. "We had a very interdisciplinary structure and that plays a very central role here at the University of Wuppertal today," he explains, because "the biggest challenge we face today is not necessarily the new technologies", but "social change, entrepreneurial change and everything that goes with it. And these are not technical issues." In his opinion, entrepreneurial transformation can succeed when disciplines work together, a fruitful culture of debate is created and added value is recognised by involving employees. "A lot of activation energy is needed at the beginning," says Meisen, "new ideas have to be developed, transferred and accepted. This requires a good corporate culture based on appreciation. Young employees today have a completely different media and digital background and place new demands on companies, which need to prepare themselves for the changes. "We have many traditional companies in Germany that have a very strongly traditional culture. Managing this change now is one of the biggest challenges," emphasises the 38-year-old.

Harmonising new and old

At his chair in Wuppertal, this is exactly what it's all about: stimulating change processes in strategies, business models, processes and culture. On the one hand, implementation is highly individualised, he explains, "and actually quite simple", namely by creating a corporate culture that allows for all this diversity.
Digitalisation is happening everywhere. Whether in production, internal manufacturing, accounting or sales, "you have to build the transformation in such a way that I create space for the new while not losing the old!" Meisen believes that drawing a line in the sand and starting from scratch with lots of new, young employees is wrong and says quite clearly: "That won't work." On the contrary, "you have to involve the older workforce in particular. They have to see the added value in being relieved of their fears. You have to show them why the change is good." The scientist knows companies that are doing just that successfully. Employees are encouraged in regular workshops and their needs are taken into account. This creates freedom, which in turn unleashes creativity. Innovation is generated from within. "If you simply give people the time to think about what is going wrong in their own daily processes and articulate this in a space created for this purpose, it can lead to a solution through discussion." Higher quality can be achieved with less effort. And the resources that are freed up in this way can be channelled into new ideas without having to lay off staff. "Then," says Meisen, "people are also behind it!"

Athinking workforce

A thinking workforce is what a company needs in times of rapid change. But this thinking workforce must first be created. The computer scientist knows companies where the ideas of the shift supervisors do not even reach the management. "They bounce off an invisible boundary", but it is precisely from there that a great deal can be activated. That's where corporate culture begins.
Meisen repeatedly emphasises how important a company's existing workforce is. "It often happens that new, young people are brought into the company who are highly trained but don't know the company. People look less at existing employees who can be trained and who act from a company perspective." Individual, selected sections with new challenges can take on a pioneering role. "Then the other sections often look and say: 'Wow, what are they doing there? I want to do that too!" In this way, individual pioneers can gradually motivate other sections. This requires carefully selected people and skilfully chosen projects."

The university as a partner

Companies are happy to work with the university as a non-commercial partner. The advance of trust and confidentiality are basic prerequisites that make cooperation possible. "Then you try to bring management back down to earth, allay fears and curb expectations, and sensitise them to change," explains Meisen.
"You have to get very close, hold up a mirror and give them the opportunity to become ambassadors for the company." However, there are no procedures for these processes that aim to bring about change. And so suddenly a lot of psychology comes into play, which companies with a strong technical focus in particular must first be made aware of.

Companies become customers

Transfer still leads a shadowy existence in many sciences. And here, too, the scientist is calling for a rethink. "When a doctoral student starts with us, we think about a technical basis that we develop. We put it into practice, look for industrial partners and in the end we have a great story to tell. Ideally, the developed method is then used by two or three customers." In his opinion, the concept of the customer, which is frowned upon in science, is "something very important that we should keep in mind." Meisen refers to DFG transfer projects and the existing Future Cluster Initiative, which describes the path from basic research to transfer. He says with conviction: "Something is happening."
Why shouldn't universities be more involved in advisory processes, in which the federal government, among others, is currently investing heavily to meet its needs? "We have a very strong scientific front in Germany, with extremely well-trained scientists who could be much more involved in such processes." And companies in particular can benefit from this. The idea of a scientist sitting in the basement of a department and doing research for years on end is history. Meisen knows that today this has to be done in a "more agile, targeted and faster way."

Social change equals scientific change

Social change affects all dimensions and, for the Wuppertal professor, this also includes science. "As scientists, we are also subject to change. Our scientific system has to change. And we should also face up to this. I believe we can no longer allow ourselves to follow the traditional path." Universities often experience situations in which knowledge that has been developed is taken up by smart research institutes and put to use. "We have to become faster. We don't want to poach all the people who are good," he explains. Administrations need to work more effectively. It should not be the case, for example, that framework agreements with external business partners take a year and a half to finalise, "we have to change the way we cooperate. Then it will be much easier.
 

Bringing the old along, educating the young

"We have reached the point where a new generation is arriving that uses technology differently", a generation that integrates technology into its life. At the same time, the problem is that the previous generation is no longer keeping up with this change.
Television is out, streaming services and information portals allow an individualised approach that the older generation hardly uses. "What we are currently failing to do is create access for the older generation and make it clear to the younger generation that this new technology harbours dangers." Meisen sees his main task as educating people. And so he asks: "Where do we want to go as a society?" His goal would be a targeted, socially desirable approach to these technologies. He is annoyed by hypocritical questions about the 'sudden' possibilities of online services. "Well, we've known that Google collects data for 20 years. We shouldn't suddenly be surprised that they are analysing it."
He believes it is important to inform the younger generation in a suitable form "so that they are also able to reflect on this and make well-considered decisions." What Meisen sees at the moment is a compulsive use, "a need for participation", as he puts it, but, he says, "no company or person in the world does something because they think it will make the world a better place. There is a deeper meaning behind it. Companies like Google do it to make money at the end of the day and to expand their positions of power. And that can end dangerously." The debate must be brought to the outside world through science, transfer, participation and workshops, technologies must be shown and their dangers pointed out. The future is happening now. Change is already here and "those who refuse to change," concludes Meisen, "will fall by the wayside."
Back in 1964, Theodore J. Lowi (ed.) published the book "Robert F. Kennedy, The Pursuit of Justice", in which he quotes the US senator with the following sentence: Progress is a nice word. But its driving force is change. And change has its enemies.

Uwe Blass (interview from 12/09/2019)
 

Prof Dr Tobias Meisen studied computer science at RWTH Aachen University. He completed his doctorate there in 2012 on the topic of "Framework for coupling numerical simulations for the production of steel products". Until 2014, Prof Meisen was head of the "Production Technology" research group at the Chair of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering, before taking on the position of Managing Director and being appointed to a junior professorship at RWTH Aachen University in 2015. Since 2018, he has been the new Professor of Technologies and Management of Digital Transformation at the University of Wuppertal.