“Values-based business models for sustainable value creation” is the title of the upcoming keynote at ABSRC conference in Ljubljana. Innovative companies with commitments to strong core values are also more successful economically in the long term than those driven by market opportunities. But how can we ensure that new products and services not only create added value by meeting short-term needs, but are also aligned with what different stakeholders such as company employees, customers, suppliers and societal stakeholders a better business models, and answers questions like: Why does a car have little to do with mobility? Why should we never need to buy another light bulb again? And how can small things make a big difference?

‘All our knowledge is about the past, and all our decisions are about the future’ (Ian Wilson 1975). Complementary to ongoing research on sustainable business models, we started to investigate future business models in mobility. At the „1st Public Conference on Strategic Foresight for Sustainability” of the SF4S project in Turku, Henning introduced the facilitated a discussion on “Future Mobility Business Models”.

As part of the Innovation Alliance project SF4S, a series of expert interviews with strategic foresight and sustainability specialists brought Henning back in contact with former colleagues from IZT and other companies. Thank you all for your participation! Five challenging insights from these expert interviews will be presented at the upcoming ISPIM conference: Sustainability as an important but external topic in futures research, a focus on scenarios rather than integrated practices, the emergence of new small-scale formats and methods, challenges of organisational anchoring, and a persisting dominance of exploratory over strategic and normative scenario management approaches. Addressing the last insight, we elaborate upon the methodological approaches using normative scenarios to facilitate futures literacy for values-based and sustainable innovation.

Managing values professionally is a critical success factor for (sustainable) innovation – with implications for business strategy and leadership, consulting and education, as well as entrepreneurship. Following more than two years of inspired writing, intensive discussion, and rigorous reviews, we are happy to announce an Special Issue of the International Journal for Innovation Management, edited by Henning Breuer, Florian Lüdeke-Freund & John Bessant.   We show to what extent values are an inevitable moment of innovation-related activities, requiring contributions from diverse stakeholders in normative, strategic, and operational management dimensions. We illustrate their practicality to promote rather than handicap innovation and clarify their potential to change and assume different meanings rather than being static entities. The explanatory power of a values-based approach, its generative potential, and its emancipatory impact motivate further research and development. The edition contains seven papers:     As editors, Henning of UXBerlin as well as his co-editors Florian and John are grateful to the authors for their thought-stimulating contributions and, not least, for their patience during the demanding review process. We also warmly thank those who submitted papers, even though their submissions could not be accepted this time. We are deeply indebted to the many people who found time in their busy days to review the papers that make up this special issue. Carmen Abril, Lara Anne Blasberg, Timo Brunner, Robert Dew, Klaus Fichter, Albrecht Fritzsche, Raz Godelnik, Minna Halme, Jacob Hoerisch, Kiril Ivanov, Jakub Kruszelnicki, Claus Lang-Koetz, Moritz Loock, Joan Manuel F. Mendoza, Alessandro Monti, Inge Oskam, Romana Rauter, Matthias Rauterberg, and Micaela Surchi, we thank you for your generosity, insights and advice. Heartfelt thanks also go out to the organizers of the ISPIM Innovation Conference, namely Lucija Barisic, Iain Bitran and Steffen Conn, for providing us with a platform to deepen interest in this special issue. The discussions we had were stimulating and have gone into making this issue a special one. We also thank Joe Tidd as Managing Editor of the IJIM and his team including Thaheera Althaf and Natalie Wee for the chance to create this Special Issue and for their support. We thank Paul Lauer for his copyediting this editorial paper, as well as our colleagues from the IMPACT project for sponsoring that work.

Good news for e-book readers: Together with Florian Lüdeke-Freund and Lorenzo Massa we published a lavishly designed e-book version of our book on "Sustainable Business Model Design – 45 Patterns". The eBook is fully responsive and looks great on e-book readers, tablets, and smartphones. Working with the 45 patterns is easy and convenient thanks to hundreds of active links and cross-references.     Many thanks to everyone who has supported us on this long journey, especially our design team from Arndt Benedikt, who did a great job in redesigning the book with us for the electronic format!  

For our client, TUEV Nord Mobility, we prepared and opened up an exhibition in Hannover summing up results of our one-year user experience project. In order to fundamentally redesign the main inspection software, we had conducted expert interviews on the future of inspection, 16 ethnographic field interviews with inspection engineers, prototyping and co-creation workshops and user tests with the click-dummies we created. Through posters, journey maps and click-dummies we demonstrated key results and invited a larger audience to provide their feedback. While some of the results are already being implemented to improve the current release, we are looking forward to the redesign next year.     Roman Meier-Andrae, Executive Board Member for Digital Transformation and Disruptive Innovation @TÜV Nord cuts the ribbon for the opening of the exhibition. Together we asked: How will we conduct inspections tomorrow? Which new and intuitive interaction principles does AI-supported software enable us to use? Which important insights from the field must absolutely be present in the application? Which ones are not so important (anymore)? What hardware will we use?   Thanks to our partners Max Celko, Philipp Schreiber, Oliver Feichtinger and Eva Licht who contributed to this outstanding project!

Title: Values-Based Business Models for Sustainable Value Creation. Following up upon a short report on values-based innovation and sustainable business modelling in the last edition of Service Today, editor Michael Braun interviewed Henning for the final 2022 edition. We covered 10 years of research and consulting work on values-based business models and sustainable value creation, starting from the increased awareness of the pivotal role of values for innovation, stepping into multidimensional value creation, and up to the recent works of managing IMPACT and with suitable tools and methods.     Here you find the original German text. If you are interested in the full edition of the magazine, please send us a message. Thank you, Michael, for enabling this nice short review of innovation and consulting highlights from 10 years!

How can we facilitate the transition to a more sustainable digital ecocomy? In this panel discussion (here the video) at the Bits & Baeume Conference at Technical University Berlin, Christian Kroll from Ecosia, Laura Niessen from Maastricht University (Netherlands), Iana Nesterova from Umeå University (Sweden), Maike Gossen (from TU Berlin) and Henning Breuer of UXBerlin discussed how to move from a monodimensional growth paradigm to a new awareness of human values as directives for business development and an accordingly multidimensional pursuit and assessment of value creation and success. You can also follow the discussion on LinkedIn.

Together with European Telecommunication, Railway and Energy companies we are contributing to the sustainability-oriented development of the emerging 5G telecomunnication ecosystem. As part of the 5G Victori Project we are facilitating a workshop series to understand complementary value creation throughout the ecosystem, the distribution of stakeholders and roles in different deployment environments (e.g. railways and smart cities), and potentials to enhance ecological, social and economic value creation e.g. considering sustainable business model design patterns such as pay-for-success or green freemium.   One essential challenge here is to find viable paths to deal with the complexity of different business model components or activities, different types of (economic, social and ecological) value creation, and different stakeholders including ecosystem partners being involved, without running into an overwhelming complexity. We are developing a methodology that integrates sustainability orientation consistently in each of the steps and that ensures that sustainable value creation is baked in ecosystem development from the outset. Useful resources are already available, including the EU Taxonomy of sustainable business activities, our own taxonomy of business model design patterns accounting for economic, social and ecological value creation, and practically proven tools to model sustainable business, and a generic process model developed and applied for 5G vertical business ideas in the 5G Victori project.

In this brief article on "Values-based innovation using design patterns for sustainable business model design" for ServiceToday (the magazine of the German service association) we link values-based innovation management with sustainable business model design. How can we ensure that new products and services not only create added value by meeting short-term needs, but are also aligned with what different stakeholders such as company employees, customers, suppliers and societal stakeholders value in the medium and long term?

At the EuroScience Open Forum, Henning participated as a panelist in a session on "Revisiting Entrepreneurship, Innovation Education & Practice for Societal Impact". Thanks to Berta Vizcarra Mir, Prof. Dr. Anne-Laure Mention, Dr. Kyriaki Papageorgiou & Dr. Csaba for the engaging discussion on European Projects and research insights around the future of innovation and education.

We conducted a co-creation workshop to re-design the software and hardware supporting technical inspectors - following up on an investigation of future trends in technical inspection, ethnographic field studies with inspectors at work and basic design sketches that we created based on the ethnographic insights. Flashlight-demos, creative exercises such as heaven and hell and imaginative walkthroughs, and paper-prototyping exercises delivered rich materials for designing a click-dummy and an interactive exhibition of key results to engage stakeholders of inspection at the company premises.  

“Design your own sustainable business model – 45 design patterns show the way” is the title of our workshop on the “Long Night of Science” at the HMKW Berlin. Using examples from the fashion industry, participants will learn how business models can be designed in a values-based and sustainability-oriented manner. Our Business Innovation Kit and a recently published collection of 45 design patterns for sustainable business models will help us. Using the example of a well-known brand, the participants learn how to use the Business Innovation Kit and the design patterns for their own business ideas. For the exercise, we will use five design patterns: Sustainable Product Design, Repair, Reuse, Short Supply Chain, and Use-Oriented Service. Participants will receive excerpts from the book by: Lüdeke-Freund, F., Breuer, H., Massa, L. (2022). Sustainable Business Model Design - 45 Patterns. Berlin: Self-Published.

Getting the Right Things Right (The Managing Values for Innovation Panel), Sustainable Business Model Design Patterns and Implementation Barriers, and Eliciting Stakeholder Values for Strategic and Values-Based Innovation Management are the titles of our main contributions to this years' ISPIM Innovation Conference in Copenhagen. Looking forward to meeting old friend, valued research and business partners and future collaboration partners!

We are happy to share with you our latest Podcast: Sustainable Business Model Design: Patterns to Make Sustainability Work.     Follow this link or listen here on Soundcloud.     Florian Luedeke-Freund, Henning Breuer and Lorenzo Massa introduce some of the basic concepts from their book on Sustainable Business Model Design - 45 Patterns.

In a two-day pattern recognition and insight analysis workshop we reviewed 16 profiles from our ethnographic interviews with inspection engineers. Thanks to our colleagues and participating clients!

Having hosted the conference two pandemic years in a row, we are very much looking forward to contribute in person to the upcoming ISPIM innovation conference in Copenhagen. Feel invited to join us for three interactive session:   'Getting the right things right' introduces to the SIG and we present highlights from the IJIM Special Issue on “Managing Values for Innovation” (by editors Henning Breuer and John Bessant with selected authors).   'Welcome to Your New Superpower!' is the title of an interactive workshop on gamification design patterns to tackle values-based and sustainable innovation barriers (facilitated by Henning Breuer & Kiril Ivanov).   'Sustainable Business Model Design Patterns and Implementation Barriers' is a roundtable discussion introduced and moderated by Henning Breuer and Carmen Abril.   Looking forward to seeing you there and live again!

"Gamification for Innovators and Entrepreneur - using games to drive innovation and facilitate learning" is the title of our upcoming book. It introduces the essentials of innovation challenges, innovation and entrepreneurship, play, games and gamification and features a design pattern approach repurpose and create games to tackle grand challenges. We also present more than 70 games that are already used by innovators, entrepreneurs and professional trainers. The digital version of the book will be available as 'open access' for all.

At the University of Applied Sciences Worms, Henning introduced the fundamental role of values for innovation and entrepreneurship in general, and for sustainability-oriented business modeling in particular (slides). The lecture was part of the module on „Creativity and Innovation“ with master students in Entrepreneurship, and hostest by Prof. Dr. Carina Leue-Bensch. Thank you for the invitation!

We created and delivered a generic process to create and consolidate sustainable business models for new, technology-based service ideas, for instance involving new 5G telecommunication capabilities. The process describes five overarching steps (see figure below) and is complemented by a number of resources and templates that contain further support and instructions.   1. Collect business-related ideas (e.g. on market gap and technology readiness) using an idea profile template 2. Select sustainable business design patterns to enhance the sustainability-orientation of your idea 3. Facilitate collaborative stakeholder workshop (using the MURAL board template of the Business Innovation Kit) 4. Document, analyse and synthesize results and implications drawing from related literature 5. Plan and enter validation and implementation     The process was developed and exemplified for three 5G telecommunication service ideas, namely Multimodal Mobility Services, vCDN (virtual content delivery network) services for railways, and On Demand Private Network for Industry 4.0 capabilities. See the 5GVictori website for (preliminary) results and further news of the project.

In a new client project, we are revising the essential inspection software of a large German technical inspection company. First, we interview experts, research future trends, and leverage customer insights and design ideas to document the status quo and foreseeable design options. We conduct an ethnographic field study to understand user preferences, action strategies and working methods of different users types as the basis for a user-centered redesign. With the help of co-creation, prototyping and an interactive exhibition for key stakeholders, we create new concepts for various end devices. We are looking forward to the new cooperation!

A book not about, but for sustainablity: The new website for our book on Sustainable Business Model Design - 45 Patterns is now online. Have a look and check out the book prototype!

Visualising every one of the 45 sustainable business model patterns, we are finishing up our new book “Sustainable Business Model Design – 45 Patterns”, together with Florian Lüdeke-Freund and Lorenzo Massa. Read here for more and one example.

Innovating our Common Future is the motto of the ISPIM 2021 conference in Berlin. With our Special Interest Group (SIG) track of activities (see here for an introduction to the SIG track), we join worldwide leading innovation professionals from research and advanced practice. Together with our colleagues from Borderstep we are hosting this event and contributed Values-Based and Sustainability-Oriented Innovation Management focus theme of the conference. Changing customer and stakeholder values and normative frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations create new challenges and opportunities for innovation. We call for demonstrations of innovative approaches and solutions for key societal challenges on local, regional and global levels and how these can create our common innovation future. More on our Special Interest Group please find here.

We started a new client project to review the history, values and purpose, as well as the upcoming challenges and potentials for future development of the company and its brand. Individual interviews with the group of shareholders and top executives prepare the ground for a collaborative redefinition of the core values, business model and development potentials, and to create a consolidated innovation strategy.

At this year's NBM conference we are offering a two hours workshop. Participants learn to apply sustainable business model design patterns to an innovation or business idea tackling an SDG challenge. Using an online collaboration platform you generate and prioritise ideas to advance a business model in a sustainability-oriented manner. Pre-selected SDG challenges will be given to the workshop participants at the beginning of the online modelling session. Access to an online workspace (Mural) will be provided during the workshop. The participants do not have to prepare the workshop or to sign-up to Mural before the event. All required inputs and tools will be provided by the workshop facilitators during the event. The interactive session will be followed by a Q&A session. Workshop facilitators are Florian Lüdeke-Freund, Professor for Corporate Sustainability, ESCP Business School, and Henning Breuer, Head of UXBerlin – Innovation Consulting and Professor for Business Psychology at HMKW Berlin.

For the Africa Europe Innovation Partnership we are conducting a new training session on Sustainable Business Modelling for CleanTech. During the interactive two hours session, participants will learn to apply sustainable business model design patterns to an innovation challenge or a new business idea in the field of cleantech. Using an online collaboration platform, they generate and prioritise ideas, and learn how to advance the business model in a sustainability-oriented manner. Check the AEIP website for a short handbook and results.

We started a series of sustainable business modeling workshops as part of the 5G Victori consortium. The first workshop focussed on Pervasive vCDN services adaptive to network resources for railway environments. More on this please find here.

Wall Street Journal Customer Content (WSJCC) interviewed Henning Breuer on values-based innovation and its relations to open innovation. Read the full article here.

Covering trend extrapolation, explorative future scenarios, normative scenarios, and scenario transfer, our new workshop series introduces concepts and methods of corporate foresight and customer foresight.   Our recent client, the customer journey team of Groupe PSA / Stellantis reports on LinkedIn: "Henning Breuer provided an actionable and highly useful training for our Customer Journey (CX) team at Groupe PSA / Stellantis on Scenario Management and Corporate Foresight including engaging exercises focussing on our service business and highly relevant reference cases from telecommunication and other industries. Thanks a lot for bringing this approach into our company. It will help us to shape our company´s future!"

As part of the GAMIFY consortium, we co-created two innovation games that are now available online (here a short video). The Corporate Sustainability Innovation Game enables participants to turn sustainability challenges at the workplace into seeds for innovation. The Corporate Sustainability Dilemma game helps to raise awareness for issues of corporate sustainability. Feel free to download and try with your team. UXBerlin is one of the associated partners in the European Knowledge Alliance project GAMIFY.

We just finished an international user study for an American internet company, testing its German, French, and English online offerings for European jobseekers with selected private and professional users. We explored culture-specific user preferences in the different markets, identified numerous usability issues and documented the most critical ones with video, and derived recommendations for a redesign.

For almost two years we collaborated with the lab of tomorrow to review, improve and sum up its process in a recently published manual. The manual provides all information needed to conduct an innovation process designed to turn sustainability-oriented business opportunities in developing countries into profitable businesses. It is co-authored by Prof. Dr. Henning Breuer and Kiril Ivanov of UXBerlin, and Prof. Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund of the ESCP Berlin. The lab of tomorrow project is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Its manual has been developed for both project planners and project implementers. It enables stakeholders to conduct their own lab of tomorrow innovation process: it serves as a step-by-step guide on how development partners can identify promising challenges based on shared values and enable entrepreneurial actors to jointly develop SDG-oriented business models using the lab of tomorrow approach. Thus, local development challenges are matched with tailored business solutions.

At the Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership (AEIP) we hold a webinar on ‘Sustainable Business Modelling for Cleantech’. Participants will learn to apply sustainable business model design patterns to an innovation challenge or a new business idea in the field of cleantech. Using an online collaboration platform they generate and prioritise ideas, how to advance the business model in a sustainability-oriented manner, and sketch and refine new business models.   Prof. Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund and Henning will conduct the session to address the following questions: • How to capitalise on the green and social values that motivate and guide green start-ups in delivering sustainable innovations? • How to support and nurture profitable and sustainability-oriented business model innovation in cleantech? • How to improve the sustainability profile of an existing business idea?   The Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership (AEIP) is organizing a virtual event, under the patronage of the South African Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation, as part of their annual Science Forum. The AEIP is an initiative of the African Union-European Union High Level Policy Dialogue, with funding from the EC, aiming to support and connect innovation and technology incubators, accelerators and technology transfer actors from both continents. It was launched by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in September 2019 in Nairobi (Kenya), to strengthen innovation cooperation between Africa and the EU.

We are engaging in the European 5G Victori project. Together with our partners from the Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment we are develop a generic procedure and directly support three entrepreneurs in developing sustainability-oriented business models and plans for future 5G services in three vertical industries focussing on mobility, media, and factory of the future.

What is behind the founders' spirit in Berlin as a hotspot for start-ups? Within the Long-Night-of Science Podcast (German) Thomas Prinzler moderates the discussion with Jonas Liepmann (Founder of Iversity), Prof. Rafaela Kunz (bbw University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. Henning Breuer (University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management). Prof. Dr. Henning Breuer in the discussion at the Long Night of Science 2020.

Henning discussed some of the common misconcenptions of values and the potentials of a values-based approach to sustainability innovation with colleagues of the insitute for innovation and sustainability. Here you find the presentation slides (with headlines in German).

We are pleased to announce an IJIM Special Issue on Managing Values for Innovation with Henning, Prof. Florian Luedeke-Freund and Prof. John Bessant, as guest editors.   Innovation management researchers and practitioners increasingly attend to the role that values and normative orientations play for innovation and its management (Breuer & Lüdeke-Freund, 2017a, 2017b; Globocnik et al., 2020; Pedersen et al., 2018). In many cases, innovation cannot be well understood, designed or managed without recurring to the values of those involved (cf. Freeman & Auster, 2015). Newer streams of research, such as responsible, social and sustainable innovation, result from an explicit orientation towards values and normative orientations (e.g., Adams et al., 2016; Lubberink et al., 2017; Owen et al., 2013). Values of privacy, equity, justice, safety and further issues humans deeply care about can serve as sources, levers, and orientation marks for innovation. Notions related to this ‘normative turn’ include responsible innovation, social innovation, sustainable innovation and purpose-driven business, just to name a few (e.g., Owen et al., 2013; Rey et al., 2017; Stilgoe et al., 2013).   This special issue focuses on managing, for example, personal, organisational or cultural values in relation to innovation, within and across individual organisations (networks) (Breuer & Lüdeke-Freund, 2017a, 2017b). Large companies like IBM have successfully worked with employee values to refresh their innovation activities and to foster intrapreneurship. Young companies like the online search engine Ecosia established an innovation culture based on core values. And social mission-driven businesses like Aravind Eye Care Systems developed new business models to turn their founders’ values and visions into reality. Depending on how values are managed, i.e. explored, understood and applied as sources, levers and orientation marks for innovation, they open up or foreclose opportunities for innovation research and practice.   However, reviewing the current literature reveals gaps in terms of empirical cases, applicable methods for researchers and practitioners and theoretical frameworks. Only few studies investigated, for example, the impact of values on financial or innovation performance, or found indicators for a positive relationship between organisational values, business model innovation and corporate financial performance (e.g., Globocnik et al., 2020; Manohar & Pandit, 2014; Pedersen et al., 2018). Accordingly, our knowledge about the normative turn in innovation research and management and the correspondingly emerging values-based view on innovation is still scarce. As a consequence, a common language and perspective for framing, analysing and communicating about how values can be managed for innovation is missing. Invited contributions   We invite researchers from various fields such as innovation management, business and management studies, cultural studies, organisational psychology, sociology or ethnography. We are interested in, for example:

• Empirical studies: Cases of values-based innovation in practise and evidence-based assessment of their impact.
• Innovation research methods: Analytical and empirical methods to elaborate upon the role of values in business organisations and their innovation projects and management.
• Innovation facilitation methods: How to work with values in innovation management and entrepreneurial settings. Success factors and failure in the design of facilitation methods and assessment of their impacts.
• Theoretical contributions: Theoretical frameworks explaining in how far values motivate and guide innovation and its management.

  Possible research questions include, but are not limited to the following:

• Phenomenology: How do values impact and direct innovation and its management within individual firms or across organisations? How do organisations operationalize global values such as safety or privacy in order to initiate, manage or evaluate product, service or business model innovations? How do they recognize and integrate different stakeholders’ values (e.g. customers, innovation teams, external stakeholders etc.) into innovation processes?
• Methodology: How can we empirically investigate converging or diverging values among entrepreneurs or stakeholders of an innovation process (e.g. customers, employees, managers, society)? How to study values on different analytical levels (e.g. individual, organisational, institutional, societal or global), including comparative and quantitative studies and the assessment of values’ impacts on innovation on these levels?
• Facilitation Methods: How can new methods such as gamification facilitate the values-based creation of new products, services, business models or networks? How to reframe existing methodologies and methods (e.g. from ethnography or scenario management) to leverage the potential of values for innovation?
• Theory: Which theoretical concepts from business ethics, organisational psychology, sociology or ethnology contribute to understanding the roles and impact of values on innovation management? How to estimate, manage and measure the diverse impacts of values-based innovation (incl. e.g. ecological, social, cultural and economic impacts).

  Tentative timeline The final set of papers shall be ready approx. 18 months after initial submission. Authors considering submitting to this IJIM special issue must make sure that they are able to follow the special issue schedule:

• Full paper submission: between 1st July and 31st October 2020
• Initial review: December 2020
• Revised papers: March 2021
• Second review: June 2021
• Revised papers: September 2021
• Handing in papers for final review by IJIM and production: November 2021

Papers that are ready for publication will be published on an ongoing basis (online first), before the special issue volume will be finally compiled.   Submission procedure We invite original, full-length research papers up to 40 pages (incl. references and appendices, excl. cover page and abstract; 12pt. Times-like fonts, 1.5 spacing). All authors must use the online submission system of IJIM and follow the journal’s submission guidelines (https://www.worldscientific.com/page/ijim/submission-guidelines). Paper development workshops at ISPIM 2020 and NBM 2020 Authors considering submitting to this special issue might as well join the paper development workshops taking place at ISPIM 2020 (“Innovating Our Common Future” with a SIG on Values-Based and Sustainable Innovation), 8/9thth June 2020, and NBM 2020 (“New Business Models – Sustainable, Circular, Inclusive)”, 1st/2nd July 2020. For submission details see the conference websites. In parallel to submitting through the conference systems, please send your conference papers to h.breuer(at)hmkw.de and fluedeke-freund(at)escpeurope.eu. The special issue guest editors will use the paper development workshops to help prospective contributors to develop their papers further.

Values-based and sustainable innovation kick-off, presentations on human values in design and the lab-of-tomorrow, a panel discussion with Roman-Meier Andrae, Corie Wiren, Matthias Rauterberg, Sven Uwe Müller and Stefan Schaltegger, and The Road to ISPIM Berlin 2021 – from coping with the current crisis to caring for our common future - all video recordings from our new Special Interest Group on Values-Based and Sustainable Innovation at ISPIM Virtual 2020 are now online.

Improve your physical and values-based fitness at the same time, listening to our podcast while jogging. Enjoy!

In this webinar in collaboration with CreativeLabs, Henning introduces the values-based innovation management framework and presents unique facilitation methods. Learn how to generate ethnographic customer insights to drive product and service innovation, how to model values-based business and how to review business policies to drive innovation. Each approach is exemplified with selected cases from UXBerlin consulting projects.

At this year’s GRONEN conference we demonstrate how to work with 45 business model design patterns that support ecological, social, and economic value creation. We are inviting you to join our workshop on “Sustainable Business Design with Business Model Patterns” (registration required).

We invite you to join our new Special Interest Group on LinkedIn. Following a splendid start at this year’s ISPIM Virtual Conference (here the innovator's digest) with 3 workshops, 3 panel discussions, and 7 paper sessions, we will share information about values-based and sustainable innovation such as events, publications, podcasts, and news from the business world. We are addressing practitioners, researchers, and advanced students with an interest in values, culture, and sustainable innovation. We are also addressing innovation managers and consultants looking for new ways to drive innovation, #sustainability-led innovation, and cultural change. In short, we address everyone wanting to innovate by what he or she cares about (for more see https://lnkd.in/g7ms8nJ).

Innovating in Times of Crisis is the motto of the upcoming ISPIM Virtual Conference. We are featuring a new Special Interest Group with a dedicated track on Values-Based and Sustainable Innovation with some of the worldwide leading innovation specialists from research and advanced practice. As co-hosts of the conference we also contribute Values-Based and Sustainability-Oriented Innovation Management as focal topics. Changing customer and stakeholder values and normative frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations create new challenges and opportunities for innovation. We call for demonstrations of innovation approaches and solutions for key societal challenges on local, regional and global levels and how these can create our common innovation future.   20200522_CSI_Game_Instructions_ISPIM

The current global crisis is shaking up everyone. Everybody’s life and every business is affected. While most people are still overwhelmed by the speed and diversity of related news and countermeasures, for some theorists these reactions already prove mankind’s ability for radical change based on scientific anticipation, values of solidarity and a primacy of politics and multilateralism over short-lived interests. However, will it allow us to look beyond the day into our common future?  

The management view

Corporate managers are well aware from previous crises that new profits, but also heavy losses in market share, arise in phases of economic downturn, more so than in phases of growth. Most of them anticipate that many of these losses and gains will outlast the acute crisis situation, and that innovation is their best vaccination against such a crisis. Some suspect that today’s customer concerns and desires make tomorrow’s business models, and look for ways of their sustainability-oriented renewal.  

The customer view

Likewise, many customers take a crisis as a chance to review their routines, and to reflect upon what is important to them, what they are missing most during a lockdown, and what they care about in any case. Even though some individuals are seeking to turn back time and suspect evil forces behind the situation, many are dealing with the crisis creatively, as any crisis pushes our readiness to change and innovate.  

The social researcher's view

Social research points out that the resulting shifts in behaviour and values are tricky to detect. Close observation and well-informed interpretation are required to see how and why customers do what they do: Which previously weak signals now turn into mainstream? Which new behaviours and values emerge that lead to a depreciation of taken-for-granted routines and push the adoption of innovations? And which customer insights can be derived from what we have been missing most?  

Beyond the new normal

Most people are now striving to get back to what is called the “new normal”, and imagine it like the life before the crisis, just with a few acceptable handicaps. However, we need to get beyond just going back to get in touch with what we care about. Along with an increased readiness for change comes the risk of seeking innovation primarily in crisis management mode. Already managers and politicians are negotiating which types of (combustion, electric, hydrogen) car engine purchases should benefit from state funding to overcome the economic downturn due to the crisis – instead of clarifying a shared vision of sustainable mobility first. According insights (e.g. from Agora) and scenarios are already available. Such foresight might keep them from state funding of generic categories of economic actors (e.g. small versus mid-sized companies) and interest groups independent of their environmental performance. Based on this it would be easier to see that recovery plans for combustion engines are not the way forward, but that whole ecosystems involving new services, regional planning and infrastructures, legislation and tax models are crucial parts of the agenda. However, moving towards a desirable future, it may not suffice to meet minimal environmental requirements and thresholds. Instead, we should agree upon and strive for a positive impact in each industry and each firm.  

Advancing from coping to caring for our common future

The conference theme of values-based innovation and the headlines of the global innovation conferences – ISPIM 2020 (Innovating in Times of Crisis) and ISPIM 2021 in Berlin (Innovating Our Common Future) – indicate this shift in perspectives. They also point to a major challenge we are facing over the next few months: How to proceed from coping with the current crisis to caring for our common future. Accordingly, this question will guide closing panel this year (with Allen Alexander of University of Exeter, Joana Breidenbach of betterplace.org and Klaus Fichter of Oldenburg University & Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability). What distinguishes coping from caring? Would you agree to the following contrasting juxtapositions?   Actually, coping and caring are not either or, nor a sequence of activities – as this table may suggest. Instead, the ways in which we cope with crisis already reflects the ways we care for our future – the second perspective is just more comprehensive.  

Upcoming isses for innovators

Moving on from coping to caring, how can we include sustainability-oriented goals into normative directives for companies and economic stakeholders, and transfer them into domain specific challenges, goals and innovation projects to achieve? How can we succeed with new business models that foster sustainable development? How can we continuously assess related activities against our normative goals? And how should we engage the stakeholders (especially customer and employees) in the process? The upcoming conferences 2020 online and 2021 in Berlin (both co-hosted by UXBerlin) address these and related questions. We will be happy to have you join us!

Now online: The webinar on the use of remote games to foster innovation by Sune Gudiksen, Henning Breuer and Kiril Ivanov. "Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow" (William Pollard, 1828-1893). In the last few weeks, this statement has gained additional importance. The current circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic have not only forced numerous businesses to rapidly and effectively adopt a remote mindset, but have also confronted them with accompanying challenges for individuals and teams. How can companies ensure that innovative ideas of its stakeholders can be managed appropriately without face-to-face interaction? How can they rapidly align and constantly renew their portfolio in order to withstand economic pressure during the crisis and in the future?     The webinar gives insights into the opportunities and usage of remote games that foster innovation. It provides guidelines on how to drive innovation through remote games in times of crisis. What can you expect to take away from the webinar?

We are giving a preview of the forthcoming book on Sustainable Business Model Design - 45 Patterns (Flyer) at ISPIM 2020 virtual conference.

Scheduling systems are crucial for a satisfactory customer journey. You have to take into account the requirements of different stakeholder groups, in particular the customers organisation and contact persons, the service provider, and the organization of the provider. For a technical inspection organization, we develop an improved disposition system together with inspection engineers and customers.

We started a new project introducing future scenarios to the Customer Journey team of a large vehicle manufacturer. In the first session we reviewed trend exploration and scenario analysis, and developed a raw scenario for future vehicle services. We will follow up with normative scenarios and scenario management and introduce a forward-looking team to managing their way of dealing with uncertain futures.

We delivered an international ethnography with European Jobseekers. Our client is determined to change the careers industry with new online services. We had the chance to closely collaborate with one of their most outstanding teams exploring the job seeking journey in two European countries. Field interviews with 24 job seekers, profile writing, pattern recognition delivered strategic insights how to approach the new markets. We synthesized several relevant issues such as self-management and building up momentum, trading-off ideals against immediate benefits, projecting a big picture strategy and learning to apply different media, and need for tactical support (writing CVs, cover letters and improving interview skills). We are looking forward to continue our cooperation in the new year.

Check out our short presentation on a values-based kickbock approach (so far in German only) to promote intrapreneurship and to develop your innovation culture. In times of change, all employees are asked to act entrepreneurially with creative ideas and foresight. Promoting intrapreneurship is an ideal way to build a sustainable innovation culture. The Adobe Kickbox promotes intrapreneurship with a supporting program of activities, but needs to be aligned with the priorities of your organization and the values of those involved.

A values-based approach to strategic stakeholder management ensures that the course of strategic decisions is not only determined by short-lived attitudes, interests and the best deal negotiators may get, but that it is driven by long-term objectives of diverse participants. Differentiating three forms of stakeholder management (defensive, integrative, overarching), we show how to clarify and develop stakeholder values and exemplifies how to adapt methods of stakeholder analysis and management.

Featuring an introductory video, an initial webinar and further activities and materials coming up, our SIG on values-based and sustainable innovation is up and running. We are inviting innovation managers, entrepreneurs, researchers and consultants to join.

Within a new project, we help a new client of ours to understand jobseekers' challenges and views across the whole application process (from looking for potential employers, to creating a CV and cover letter, to interviewing) in different European countries. Our client is an online business that helps people to successfully find, apply and interview for jobs. From our empirical insights, we will derive recommendations to improve the customer experience and expanding our product offering of our client.

Our latest Webinar on Values-Based Innovation Management: Concepts, Methods and Applications (by Prof. Dr. Henning Breuer & Prof. Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund) is now online.   The Webinar introduces the basic concepts, exemplary methods and practical applications of values-based innovation management. We show why innovation cannot be sufficiently understood and appropriately managed without addressing different stakeholder values. We explain the heuristic, directive and integrative function of values, and demonstrate their potential to drive innovation on different management levels. Through three recent consulting projects we illustrate applied methods to work with values on different management level:   - How to apply ethnographic research on customer values to frame and conduct ideation (operative management example from the digital economy). - How to model sustainability-oriented business based on a review of stakeholder values (strategic management example from workshops in the energy sector). - How to trigger innovation through redefining business vision, mission and purpose based on employee values (normative management example from the cleaning service industry).   Participants are invited to contribute their own experiences and examples and to propose new challenges that might be addressed with a values-based approach.

We have successfully completed an ethnographic research and customer journey project for TUEV NORD Mobility. Together with representatives from our client, we created 3 future state journeys, came up with 10 new concepts, 56 ideas and a lot of newly discovered or reformulated challenges for digitization and organizational development. Adding on to the promised results we also delivered two executive posters, one summing up the key insights and the other one providing an overview of the current customer journey and three future state journeys for different personas. We thank our client representatives for the excellent cooperation!

As partner of IZT we are part of the European Horizon 2020 project 5G-Victori, providing ubiquitous super-fast, reliable connectivity and seamless service delivery. The project focussed on large scale trials of next generation of communication networks and services for advanced use cases in Transportation, Energy, Media, and Factories of the Future. We contribute sustainable business models and the values-based innovation approach to generate alternative business models for each vertical use case. Each should be aligned with the SDGs, ist impact should be measurable following the DECD (2018) standard to link SDGs and targets to impact models and indicators. For more information check the project website. There you will also learn what victori stands for: VertIcaldemos over Common large scale field Trials fOrRail, energy and media Industries.

We are conducting an adapted, 4-day format of the Design Sprint for TÜV Nord Mobility, a German but worldwide active technical service provider.

We opened up the International Conference on New Business Models with an introductory note (here the video) and a dive-in to a key topic of present-day’s innovation and entrepreneurship discourse: How can we develop viable businesses based on what we really care about?   We respond to this hot issue by presenting the values-based approach to innovation management. Understood as notions of the desirable, values provide a powerful lever for the companies that aspire to do well while doing good. Values can spur innovation in numerous ways, in order to set ambitious visions or to establish a common ground for partnerships, or to understand customer concerns in ways that are more fundamental.   Moreover, as we are moving from a single bottom line to a triple bottom line (of planet, people and profit) to measure business performance, and on to 17 Sustainable Development Goals to strive for, we need to recur to our values in order to interpret and to prioritize these global goals into unique business goals.   In a fishbowl discussion, two industry leaders will share their experiences with, challenges from, and measures to address values in innovation management and sustainable innovation:

At this years ISPIM 2019 conference in Florence we moderate a Hot Topic Discussion on Innovation Values and Culture, present a paper on the European GAMIFY project, engage in two gamified workshops.

For one of the major German providers of technical services and testing, we review the customer journey of its most important business customers. A combination of journey mapping, ethnographic field research in car dealerships and workshops, and co-creation will provide the insights and a baseline to create the future state journey. Together we are also setting new priorities for upcoming digitization projects, marketing efforts and strategy.

At the ESCP in Berlin, Henning faciliated a mini-project in the master program "Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation". The purpose of the course is to provide a first-hand experience in modelling new business catering to values of sustainability. Students obtain an overview of sustainability-oriented and values-based business modelling tools, and create their own business models for their Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Projects (SEIPs). They learn about different revenue models and sustainable business model patterns, and elaborate upon the dynamics between different business model design elements, such as values, value propositions and stakeholder segments. At the end, they critically reflect upon the impact of the tools they used for designing new business.

Kiril is presenting a top paper of the conference, and Henning is giving a short keynote to introduce a fishbowl discussion at this years NBM conference in Berlin.

In a medium-sized company, based on the values of the employees, we have elaborated upon the core values of the company, its overarching purpose, an ambitious mission and a vision for the future. Using various collaboration methods we have addressed the crucial questions: • Values: What is most important to us? What do we stand for? • Purpose: What do we want to achieve? • Mission: Where do we want to be in five to ten years? • and Vision: How can we vividly depict the world we are striving for?   By combining and iteratively revising answers to these questions with selected employees, the vision can be formulated as a desired image of the future with a "vivid description" (Collins & Porras 1996).

"Developing Sustainable Business Models: Values-Based Business Model Innovation" is the title of the compact training course that we are offering again this year at the Center for Sustainable Business Development (CSM). Participants will learn to apply the guiding principle of sustainable development and values-based innovation to the review and development of new business models.

In cooperation with colleagues from QM-Beratung Berlin we have conducted a workshop with the leaders of the RPG group to clarify its values and strategy. "Surprising, which values we already share" and "the day helped us to strengthen our cooperation" were two of the consistently positive comments from our customers. In a next step, a reformulation of mission and vision and the modeling of the individual business units are planned.

Henning presents his works with Florian on values-based innovation management and its application in development cooperation at Victoria University of Wellington. Host is Urs Daellenbach (Head of School, Management).

A chapter in the book "Rethinking Strategic Management - Sustainable Strategizing for Positive Impact" by Henning Breuer and Florian Lüdeke-Freund points out new directions for strategic stakeholder management. This is the abstract: "Stakeholders have acquired an active and even pivotal role in strategic management decisions and collaboration formats due to ongoing substantial changes in the corporate world, impacting established management frameworks, concepts and methods. This chapter discusses some of these fundamental changes and demonstrates the impact of (missing) stakeholder engagement for the success of a strategy process. Based on the difference between interests and values a values-based reframing of the stakeholder concept and corresponding management methods is suggested and illustrated with exemplary cases. To support a values-based approach to stakeholder management, new conceptual distinctions and methodical implications are presented. Three forms of stakeholder management are proposed (defensive, integrative, overarching). Furthermore, this chapter shows how to clarify and develop stakeholder values (e.g. by means of ongoing values conversations) and exemplifies how to reframe and adapt methods of stakeholder analysis and management (e.g. as an element of values-based business modelling). A values-based approach to strategic stakeholder management ensures that the course of strategic decisions is not only determined by short-lived attitudes, interests and the best deal negotiators may get, but that it is driven by long-term objectives of diverse participants."

At the Business School of Auckland University Henning held a New Zealand lecture on values-based innovation management. Teachers and PHD students from different faculties and from Auckland University press attended and participated in a vivid discussion. One locally relevant topic was the tension between local embeddedness of values-driven entrepreneurs in New Zealand and global venture capital firms seeking profitable exit to maximise returns on investment. Another discussion revolved around the challenge to adequately discuss the dynamics between personal and organisational values on the one hand, and intented value-add (including ecological, social and economic benefits) of an organisation on the other hand.

More than 20 years after working here as an intern, Henning was invited by his former colleague as speaker at the Lunch Talks of the Institute for Futures Research and Technology Assessment. He presented works on values-based innovation and framing of future challenges in different client projects. The common discussion then focussed on different (technological, strategic or normative) levels of cooperation with companies, the organisational dimension of sustainability management, and the useful combination of methods to create future scenarios and manage risks.

This years CSR day of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Berlin (CCI Berlin) is titled "license to operate". This year the local CSR community focussed on the relation between corporate image and responsibility. Henning was invited to contribute an introductory presentation on values in innovation and reputation building. Afterwards more than a dozen participants from the audience joined Henning in a learning bowl discussion format, and discussed issues such as the role of innovation for communication and marketing instruments. Henning and Kiril thank the IHK and the Sustainable Natives for the chance to participate in this inspiring event! Image: Henning during his introductory presentation, copyright by Ines Meier Fotografie / IHK Berlin

How to assess the economic and values-related output, outcome and impact of new business models. Following a multi-stakeholder co-creation approach we are supporting the Lab of Tomorrow to create and demonstrate a positive impact on the sustainable development goals? Standards for results measurement by DECD delivered a great starting point to think about prospective estimation where empirical measures of attributable change are still missing.

We are supporting our business partner Schwarz Innovation in a new project for an international bank. Based on trend research and ethnographic field studies we are identifying and modelling new business opportunities in shopping.

The +3 magazine asked, and Henning Breuer was among the professionals who answered the question how innovation succeeds, within 1440 characters: "The very concept of innovation (unlike the ones of product improvement or ideation, for example) implies an extraordinary level of ambition, success, and risk. There is no simple recipe for successful innovation. However, organizations can create the necessary conditions and a culture conducive to innovation. For this, they need resources that are not absorbed by everyday business. They need methods and experience to think ambitiously into the future and to handle risks in a learner’s manner. Above all, they should know why they want to be innovative at all. A short-lived hunt for new trends and market opportunities is neither efficient nor successful. Companies need to clarify their ideas of what is desirable, and important to customers, employees, managers and other stakeholders. These values offer a heuristic for the development of new business fields, orientation for their design and starting points for the integration of even contradictory interests. Values understood in this way help formulate visions and a mission that is worth working for. They do that especially well when it comes to shaping our future, developing new processes, products, services, business models, or designing new organizations and networks."

A new podcast on values-based innovation in the automotive industry features Henning Breuer and Roman Meier-Andrae of PSA Groupe. They discuss the role of values to drive and direct innovation, the crucial role of customer insights and future scenarios, and their recommendations for a successful collaboration. The interview was conducted by Jara Pascual of KnowCo, a platform promoting collaborations between professors and industry executives.

We published two new journal papers dealing with sustainability-oriented business model patterns. Florian is first author of "The Sustainable Business Model Pattern Taxonomy – 45 Patterns to Support Sustainability-Oriented Business Model Innovation" (please find a short summary here). Together with him, Klaus Fichter and Irina Tiemann, Henning Breuer also published a paper on "Sustainability-Oriented Business Model Development: Principles, Criteria and Tools". See the publications for details.

We started a new project for a large car manufacturers, designing and introducing a new innovation approach and tools for connected services and mobility.

Business Models in the Era of Sustainable Development Goals, and how to manage their development, are at the center or our contribution to the annual conference of the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) in Stockholm this year. Please check the Title Page and Abstract.

Once again we participate in the Long Night of Science offering a values-based business modelling workshop. Everyone is invited to bring and model his or her new business idea.

We facilitated an exploration into revenue models beyond the usual suspects in the mobility industry, looking into adjacent industries, using the revenue model cards of the Business Innovation Kit. Led by our OEM client we designed and qualified new business models for the near term roadmap of connected mobility services.

Values-based, sustainability oriented business model innovation is at the core of a new project that we are conducting for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and its Lab of Tomorrow. We are consolidating processes and tools to develop and assess new business models emerging from the Lab, and create materials for stakeholder communication. The project continues our successful collaboration with Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund, Professor for Corporate Sustainability at the ESCP Berlin.

We started working on a future vision and roadmap for digital services of a European car manufacturer. We are designing an innovation process for future connected mobility and provide market and technology research, methodological coaching and workshop facilitation. In tight collaboration with internal and external experts, we identify threats and opportunities in the portfolio of internal competencies and offerings. We specify a process how to explore and exploit mobility markets based on customer values and purpose.

At the Leuphana University in Lüneburg (Germany) Henning and Florian are offering an executive education module on values-based innovation management. Further information in German please find here.

An interactive version of the Values-Based Business Modelling Template is now available as PDF download. Enter your ideas for each component, save, share, edit and print. It is powerful tool based on the Business Innovation Kit to collect and share ideas even before entering a moderated workshop. Enjoy! Thanks to Oliver Feichtinger of Olson Garden for adapting the template.

For a new business unit of an automotive client we identified new collaborative business models with new benefits for customers, online business and dealerships. We started sketching dealer personas, reviewed and extended the business model on the new online unit, and leveraged its business model to enhance the business models of partnering dealers. New customer journeys resulted, involving both online business and local partners.

We contribute with two new articles to the new compendium published by Springer. A case study of Aravind Eye Care Systems analyses an outstanding successful case of values-based innovation in processes, products, services, business model and even networks reaching beyond the company. The book is so far published in German only.  

We have been invited to contribute to the 16th Innovation Forum of the Daimler and Benz Foundation in Berlin. Henning will reflect upon "Tools and Orientation in Corporate Innovation". Together with Florian Lüdeke-Freund we will then moderate a hands-on excercise in values-based business modelling.   © Matti Hillig

We started a series of co-creation workshops with stakeholders of a new client from om the automotive industry. Potential customers contribute to designing an online shop based on rapid paper prototyping and card sorting exercises. Retailers are invited to participate in the co-creation of new business models that are attractive for themselves, for customers and the manufacturer. Bringing different parties together, and facilitating their interaction we co-produce a mutually valued outcome. A major result in this case will be the design concepts for an online shop suited to different target groups.

For the GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation) and its “lab of tomorrow” we are developing a framework for sustainability–oriented business model innovation and shared values. In tight collaboration with Florian Lüdeke-Freund contributes to the development of new business-driven solutions for problems affecting developing and emerging countries.

How can Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) become a mainstream building component? What are the motivating values behind such a development, and what business models should be pursued to support these values? We are working for an international group of reseachers and practitioners of the International Energy Agency in Uppsala, Sweden. We captured directive values in European BIPV business to develop new business models for making BIPV a mainstream building component. Based on an initial collection and discussion of values 18 new business ideas have been identified. Two of these ideas were elaborated upon using the Business Innovation Kit, named Power2Consumers and Photovoltaic Catalogue. Two groups worked to sketch viable business models for each ideas and described five business models in more detail. Thanks and regards to a highly engaged group of participants! Image: Frodeparken building with BIPV facade in Uppsala

Our new website on values-based innovation management is up and running. Learn more about the book, inform yourself about research and teaching activities, and retrieve materials that will help you to uncover potentials for and to manage innovation based on values.

We released an updated version of the Business Innovation Kit 2017. The new version contains an updated booklet and a new set of 40 case cards to discuss and learn from a world leader in sustainability-oriented clothing business. The case is based on the private benefit corporation Patagonia. It was created by Judith Ehmann, Leydy Johana Gutierrez, Caravajal, Kira Herrenknecht, Francesca Poletti, Teresa Röhm, in the “Business Models for Sustainable Entrepreneurship” class by Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund 2016/17, Master of International Business and Sustainability. We thank the authors for their inspiring contribution!

We finished an international field study in Italy, France and Spain for a large automotive client. Gathering speech data in real driving situations, audio editing and annotating utterances from drivers our international team contributes to the development of next generation speech recognition and infotainment systems. The project adds on to valuable results from a speech recognition study in Germany we conducted earlier this year.

What is values-based innovation management? Henning explains it in this short video clip taken at the annual conference of the ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management) 2017 in Vienna.

New publications, a case study on Tata Nano, and values-based business modelling workshops at ISPIM and the NBM conference, and the long night of science are coming up.

Based on insights of a previous UXBerlin client project for a renewable energy region in Northern Germany we published a paper in the renowned International Journal for Professional Innovation Management (IJIM). This is a brief summary of this new publication:     Innovation management falls short in solving urgent societal problems, if it neglects the power of networks and the values of their constituent actors. Even though network and business model innovation have been acknowledged as innovation categories in their own right, their problem-solving potential remains unexplored.   In this article, we argue that purposeful innovation requires considering the shared values of those engaging in innovation processes, where values are understood as subjective notions of the desirable. Values-based innovation can motivate the development of new networks and business models that address complex societal problems, such as the unsustainability of current forms of energy supply.   We present a theoretical framework and facilitation methods for values-based network and business model innovation. Both have been applied in an exemplary workshop on regional energy networks in Germany. Reflecting upon the lessons learned from theory and practice, we conclude that crucial starting points for systemic sustainability innovations can be found in values-based networks and business models.   Towards Values-Based Innovation Management: In order to specify the potential of values-based innovation, we need to differentiate between various management levels and the impact of different types of values. Building on The Integrated Management Concept (building on Bleicher), we distinguish between three dimensions of management in general and innovation management in particular. These are the normative, strategic, and instrumental management dimensions.   Figure: Values (left) impact normative, strategic and instrumental management and may be leveraged to inform innovation activities (right) such as innovation in values-based networks.   Our framework describes how a company’s values and normative orientations — constituted of corporate governance, policy and culture, and articulated, for instance, in vision or mission statements — frame strategies and operations and thus business model-related decisions. The figure above relates the three innovation management dimensions to exemplary values on the left and broad innovation categories (called “innovation levers”) associated with these dimensions on the right.   A full overview of this framework, a discussion of different types of values and their impact on innovation is given in our new book “Values-Based Innovation Management” (Breuer & Lüdeke-Freund, 2017).   A Framework and Workshop Method for Values-Based Business Modelling: In order to facilitate the ideation and development of values-based networks and business models, and thereby translate the theoretical framework described above into an actionable management approach, we combined a “future workshop” format (workshop part 1) and business modelling techniques (workshop part 2).   Figure: A framework and workshop method for values-based network and business model innovation.   Workshop part 1 (Future workshop): A “future workshop” consists of three phases of critique, vision (or fantasy) and realisation. This format allows directing collaborative reasoning in the critique phase towards values that are neglected or counteracted in the current situation. In the visionary phase, participants are asked, which ideal values could be achieved in a Utopian setting, i.e., in the best of all cases. They are also asked to provide live graphic recordings of emerging associations and ideas to enhance their imagination. In the realisation phase, participants generate ideas on how to realise selected aspects of their ideal values and on how the different participating actors could contribute to the realisation of these values.   Workshop part 2 (Business modelling): The second workshop part shown in Fig. 3 is dedicated to business model and network development using the Business Innovation Kit. The toolkit contains self-explanatory instructions guiding workshop teams through the definition of values or a “common ground”, exemplification (through cases and business model patterns), ideation (for single business model components), modelling relations across components and models, and challenging implicit assumptions with scenarios. The layout of this tool supports values-based, and thus also sustainability-oriented, modelling in collaborative settings and accounts for the participants’ varying and potentially conflicting values and normative orientations.   The framework and method have been applied to a case of developing a sustainable energy region. This case and its results are discussed in an article published in the International Journal of Innovation Management.   Sources   Breuer, H. & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2017): Values-Based Network and Business Model Innovation, Int. Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 21, No. 3, Art. 1750028 (35 pages).   Breuer, H. & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2017): Values-Based Innovation Management – Innovating by What We Care About. Houndmills: Palgrave.

We finished a set of field studies for a new client from the automotive industry. Based on interviews we guided, recorded and annotated audio interaction of car drivers to optimize or reconsider speech recognition systems and overall comfort.

Values remain widely untapped as sources of and drivers for innovation. Our new book on Values-Based Innovation Management, published by Palgrave Macmillan takes a values based view on innovation and its management. It demonstrates the potential of values to integrate diverse stakeholders into innovation processes, to direct collaborative efforts, and to generate innovations that matter – innovations that cater to what we really care about. Historical and current case studies demonstrate how innovation in processes, products, services, business models, and even in whole organisations and networks may be driven and guided by notions of the desirable. Sustainability-orientation and social responsibility, but also values of privacy, safety, equity, or tolerance, qualify as relevant drivers and guidance for innovation within and across organisations. By reframing future scenarios, ethnographic research, and business modelling techniques, powerful methods are described to realise ideals by the means of business.

The basic version of the Business Innovation Kit for free download and usage. 16 printable case cards, 16 challenger cards, 16 facilitation cards, refinement sheets and a playgound enable you to model your own values-based business.

At the 2nd International Conference for New Generation Business Models Henning gave a keynote speech on “Values-Based Innovation Management” (you may check the keynote slides or watch a short video giving some impressions of the event).   Together with Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund of the University of Hamburg we also conducted two workshops. Here you find the slides on these two workshops showing how to re-model business using sustainability drivers. We thank Professor Frans Stel for the invitation to Breda, Avans and the Fuji Film Future Challenge.   Together with Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter and Dr. Irina Tieman from the University of Oldenburg, and Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund from the University of Hamburg, Henning received the “2016_FGF_Best Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research Award” at the G-Forum, Germany’s largest conference on entrepreneurship 2016 in Leipzig here you may download the German press release.  

We continue to work for Dropbox as partner for their strategic customer research and development in Europe. Paris was the latest stop in our journey to better understand and address the preferences and values of cloud service customers in different European countries. We delivered pespondent profiles, an analysis of six key insights and recommendations for product strategy and marketing, as well as a compilation of video illustrating these insights.

For a new client from the airline industry we conducted a design thinking and values-based business modelling workshop. A team of high potentials learned to moderate business modelling workshops, and modelled a new marketplace for tickets, and drones control as a new business.

Based on empirical results from ethnographic research in Germany and the UK we facilitated a workshop to generate new ideas and testable concepts for the connected car.

What matters most to drivers in the connected car? How do they go about driving, what are they missing or longing for? Within a new client project in UK and Germany we will find out.

Together with colleagues of Lufthansa Systems and Nokia Networks we are conducting a session on Gamification in Innovation at this years ISPIM conference in Porto, Portugal. Come and join us taking values-based business model innovation to the next level.

We presented and discussed the results of an ethnographic study with professional users of cloud services in Finland. We are continuing to work for Dropbox as partner for their strategic customer research and development in Europe. Paris is the next stop in our journey to better understand and address the preferences and values of European cloud service customers. Dropbox is already taking first steps such as shifting data hosting into local markets.

In collaboration with the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) we invite you to participate in a workshop at the HMKW Berlin on Gamification in Innovation. We are expecting about 30 participants from Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Russia and Canada. Engaging with a group of innovation management professionals from industry and academia Henning and Adam will model values-based and sustainable business strategies and demonstrate the Business Innovation Kit in action. Here you find the slides.

We finished a small project for a German company supporting documentation and quality assurance for oncologists. Based on interaction design guidelines and standards we optimized the look and feel of Onkodatamed applications and forms.

We are finishing a project for our latest client Dropbox, the widely known leader in cloud storage and hosting services. Conducting ethnographic observation in various work environments we explore what really matters to users of such services. How do for instance concerns about privacy and security impact the customer journey and collaboration strategies? Based on such customer insights marketing strategies and product design will be tailored to the demands on the European market.

The latest extension set to the Business Innovation Kit facilitates modelling customer journeys. Nine cards help you address the seven touchpoints:   I. Become aware II. Inform III. Acquire / Buy IV. Start Up V. Use VI. Modify VII. Dispose / Renew   How do customers and / or stakeholders proceed from one to the next? How should the journey look and feel like? Which motives, requirements or fears need to be addressed?   First, select one of the relevant customer or stakeholder groups and take an imaginary walk through their journey. That means their overall experience with your company, its products and services. Alternatively start collecting ideas for each touchpoint. Then select a stakeholder group and draw its journey line from one touchpoint idea to the next. Enrich your ideas with photographs and original quotes from customer feedback or internal staff.   Example Card: Modify

Based on our research results, concepts and strategy-related recommendations for one of the largest car manufacturers we created a a top management repor on future mobile infotainment.

At this years WUD in Berlin we present our modeling approach to values-based business (here see the video. Reason about and specify values, for instance directions and drivers for sustainability-orientation, before modeling value propositions or customer touchpoints. If you missed it here is our presentation on Values-based and customer-centric business model innovation (sorry, in German only).

Together with well-known speakers such as Lech Walesa, Donald Tusk, Lev Manovich and Norbert Röttgen, Henning Breuer was invited as panelist to the European Forum for New Ideas 2015.                   He participates in the Panel "Investments in Innovation – Who Is Taking the Risk and for Whom?". Come and engage against "growing inequality, radicalism and geopolitical threats"!

Within an international project for one of the worlds largest car manufacturers we explore future design and marketing strategies for automobile infotainment. Ethnographic inquiry in three European countries yields insights to customer needs, problems and strategies. Insights imply new business opportunities we are adressing through concept development and specification in terms of general customer requirements, new features and marketing approches including pricing and bundling tactice and a redesign of the customer journey.

At this years Conference of the International Society for Professional Innovation Management we contribute a short workshop on the Buisness Innovation Kit and an academic paper publication introducing the Values-Based Innovation Framework - Innovating by What We Care About.   The values-based view on innovation focuses on the role of values and normative orientations in triggering and directing innovation within and beyond organisations. This paper presents a theoretical framework in which values, understood as subjective notions of the desirable and criteria for decisions and evaluations, provide heuristic and integrative functions for normative, strategic, and operational innovation management. A central feature of this framework is a new and values-based interpretation of open innovation relationships, for example with external stakeholders. Theoretical notions such as specific values types and their integrative functions within and beyond organisations are developed and discussed with the aid of the illustrative cases of Aravind Eye Care System and the retail company Otto Group. Defining values as a source, lever, and orientation mark for innovation activities brings notions of the desirable from the periphery to the core of organisational value creation and renewal.

UXBerlin goes UXPoland. Adam de Nisau is conducting a workshop on modeling values-based business. In Modeling Values-Based Business participants learn to model new business with the Business Innovation Kit (www.facebook.com/businessinnovationkit) combining methods from user experience, gamification and design thinking.  

The Sustainability Innovation Pack is packaged, first samples shipped. First select one of five maturity levels you are working on or aiming for. Second: Distribute up to eight champion roles for sustainability business case drivers (such as risks, reputation, workforce, and ecosystem). Third explore how to enhance sustainability in each business model component and their interaction, prioritize, challenge. We are proud to develop the sustainability innovation toolkit in close collaboration with Florian Lüdeke-Freund of the University of Hamburg.   In order to work with the Driver Cards in a workshop you may follow these instructions:     Example of a Sustainability Driver Card: Reputation.

The new Business Innovation Kit facilitates the collaborative elaboration of values and business models. A modular playgrounds allows for flexible use of the components that are most relevant for your individual business. 33 cards provide options how to innovate your revenue models. The latest pack of cards supports your reasoning about potential sustainability innovations. Focus is on facilitating sustainability-oriented business model innovation. Having agreed upon a shared vision in the initial grounding exercise, consider which maturity level in terms of sustainable business development you aim for. Then, collecting ideas for each business model component, the new set of eight sustainability innovation driver cards provides levers how to improve your business model based on business case drivers such as costs, risks, reputation, or network creation. For instance, consider cost efficient contracting models based on using instead of buying technical infrastructure. These business case drivers can also provide anchors and selection criteria for the modeling phase and the final discussion of environmental challenges and scenarios to survive. Kits in English & Spanish and now ready for shipping at self-cost price of 59€.

One week, two innovation experts, one opportunity map, our new training unit for your business: Becoming fit for innovation.

The theme of this years International Conference on Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility in Berlin inspired us to contribute a presentation entitled "Wicked Problems need Virtuous Solutions - Normative Innovation to Establish Sustainable Value Networks". To “innovate for sustainability” we need to go beyond process, product, and organizational innovation into strategic (business model) innovation and normative value innovation. Value innovation builds on the introduction of new normative orientations into an existing business ecosystem. Our work delineates this new theoretical approach that is illustrated with case studies on different modes of sustainability innovation. On the normative level of innovation we discuss the case of collaborative business modeling to create a network-based energy region in Germany. On the strategic level “Green Power Marketing” provides and example how to differentiate branding and create a new business model. On the instrumental level the "Carbon Footprint Calculator" exemplifies an innovative tool to measure and reduce environmental impact. Here you may download the presentation!

At this years Online Marketing Conference (OMCap 2014) in Berlin we will discuss how to proceed from new online marketing tools to new business models. You may download the presentation here (in German).

For the European Institute of Technology EIT we are looking into recent trends regarding smart energy and smart spaces and mobility. Since October 2006 we are continuously scouting for new developments in ICT in Japan and Korea we found more than five dozen and initiated first German-Japanese contacts for research and development in telecommunication. For the Technology Radar of the Deutsche Telekom-Laboratories we delivered more than 200 topics and profiles for more than three dozen technologies like mobile multiplayer games, domestic robotics, large screen interfaces, projected displays, wireless sensor networks for disaster management, robotics or context-aware computing. Last but not least it keeps us up to date.

At the ISPIM Innovation Conference in Dublin we present an approach how to apply business model innovation to the solution of wicked problems. At ISPIM leading university scholars and innovation leaders from the business worls discuss their latest insight and persisting challenges. This year we pushed the discourse beyond the established fields of product and service innovation into the field of normative, value-based innovation focussing on sustainability. The full paper you may download for free.   Figure: The Value Network. Value innovation builds on the introduction of new normative orientations into an existing business ecosystem.

We are looking forward to an innovation workshop with a large car manufacturer: Together we will elaborate upon new technologies in production.

Get a glimpse of our work at the Long Night of Science in Berlin and at the IA Conference in Berlin.

Contributing to a top management seminar of a large multinational cooperation we conducted a future business prototyping workshop. Overcoming problems of the past, participants built a corporate vision using a wide variety of tanglible materials and components. This is what it looked like before this engaging and inspiring session:  

For our clients we developed a generic format to specify relevant B2B value propositions and identify stakeholder for given technological inventions. Elaborating upon a unique innovation proposition different dimensions of value and stakeholder personas help to explore the space of options and to inform management decisions.

At Leuphana University we conducted a workshop on future energy business. How to model value networks for Virtual Powerplants (System Image) where value emerges from the distributed activities ... of different instances instead of being centered around a central proposition and provider?     This was one of the challenges in designing a value-driven innovation approach to collaboratively develop business ideas and models for regional systems of renewable energies. Our clients were impressed by the quality and depth of results - especially the combination of a futures workshop with business modeling proved to be a most valuable approach. Exemplary results will be available through the Innovation Incubator of the Leuphana University Lüneburg.

At Sungkyunkwan University Henning is presenting our work on business model innovation at the Department of Systems Management Engineering & Management of Technology (MOT). Looking forward to finding out more about the Korean business ecosystem where still few large corporation dominate not only the market and startups are just emerging as new players in business life.

While our latest research activities deal with innovative and yet sustainable business models initial results are becoming part of our consulting projects, e.g. on virtual powerplants and renewable energy infrastractures. We are building on lessons to be learned from pioneer companies such as Betterplace and Solar Mosaic (crowdfunding of solar energy); and we contribute our own experiences with futures research and scenarios, and modeling new business in order to contribute to the exploration and validation of systainable business ecosystems.

„The Business Modelling Starter Kit is of such value that it was stolen yesterday on an e-health event after I showed it (unfortunately this really happened)", Andre Winzer (Schaltzeit).   ...................................................................   "I particularly like the Business Modeling Starter kit because it introduces a time dimension in business modeling, going from the development of value proposition to the test of the model. In this way, it improves the Canvas by facilitating the transition from user experience research to business models design. In addition, it provides a rich set of analogies from companies and the press that can be used in new business models ideation and testing" (Massimo Garbuio, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Sydney Business School).   "Great tool that enables ebaloration of present and future business model in a playful and yet structured way! Take a look beyond the given situation, learn about pattern from other companies and industries, generate and condense the essential elements of a business model" (Reinhard Ematinger, Facilitator).   "Super! We worked for 5 hours on Slik17 and received extraordinary results. Especially I liked the example cards in the warmup phase and the challenger cards with scenarios“ (Julian J. Kea, Co-Founder of Slik17).   "We have used it for the first time with lawyers and achieved impressive results. Even in the field of law it helps to create an overview of the required expertise and revenue sources for the different fields of law. Systematizing all business aspects we were able to clarify the future development path of the chancellery “ (Andre Winzer, Schaltzeit).

At the University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management we conducted a student innovation project for the German soccer club Hertha BSC Berlin.   Based on customer insights students generated new ideas for sales and distribution. Hertha appreciated the support giving an excellent performance in the first game of the new season and achieving a 6:1 victory playing against Frankfurt.

The Business Modeling Starter Kit is now on sale. Order and renew your business!

The International Journal of Innovation Management published our latest work: High-risk loving crews leave their comfort zone entering an open-ended journey ... Very few survive as not only adverse winds and deep icebergs abound, but also ip-pirates and copycat carriers populate even blue oceans. The ships that are venturing out are being built on the way ... And yet, while fashionable figures of open & disruptive innovation, business model innovation and service design thinking are still dancing by on the docks corporate venturing is rising as the new star on the horizon. Anyone, from lonely fortune seekers to professional copycats, from small and medium to large enterprises put resources aside and send their ships to sail the uncharted waters ... To read more from this seminal publication on business model generation and implementation

We are continuing to scan the global frontiers of innovation for Telekom Innovation Laboratories. Again our focus is on IT and telecommunication technologies from east asia and beyond, and diverse topics such as Microtransportation Networks with Drones and Next Generation Dating showed up on our radar screens. Since October 2006 we are continuously scouting for new developments in ICT in Japan and Korea we found more than one hundred and initiated first German-Japanese contacts for research and development in telecommunication. For the Technology Radar of the Deutsche Telekom-Laboratories we now delivered profiles for more than five dozen technologies like mobile multiplayer games, domestic robotics, large screen interfaces, projected displays, wireless sensor networks for disaster management, robotics or context-aware computing. And we keep on looking.

At the Long Night of Science in Berlin we conduct an Open Business Modeling Session - "Berlin Startup" took participants through five simple steps towards a new business model on June 8th at the HMKW. About 40 spontaneuous visitors brought three different business ideas and created three business model skteches in one hour. The providers of the ideas showed themselves very enthusiastic. They were invited to and made sure to document every single new idea and relation they gathered, one we had to save some from napping the playgounds ...

We reviewed and updated results from a comprehensive strategy and scenario project in collaboration for Telekom Products & Innovation. We were quite impressed to see how the normative vision became the basis for the new innovation strategy regrading access products. Only slight changes were required more than a year after the project entered its communication phase.

More than 100 academics and professional innovation experts of companies such as Siemens, Daimler, Eon partcipated in our business model teach-in session at the 4th Innovation Platform in Aachen. We ... contributed a presentation of the "Lean Venturing" approach and explored potential extensions of the business model for "Aachener Printen" in a World Cafe format together with our collegues from indeed. Participants took three turns in order to work on the value side, customer interaction and cost side of the idea pool in our Business Modeling Starter Kit. They discussed and learned how changes in one component (e.g. a new remote customer segment) require changes in other components (e.g. partnering) yielding a completly new business model. In the end 12 new business models for Aachener Printen resulted from this quick brainstorming session. We received great appreciation for our approach and valuable feedback. Our thanks and kind regards go to our host from the Technical University Aachen, particularly Prof. Dr. Frank Piller. More details on the event you may find in the program.

We delivered three new profiles to the Technology Radar of Deutsche Telekom. Since October 2006 we are continuously scouting for new developments in ICT in Japan and Korea We found more than 140 trends and technologies and initiated first German-Japanese contacts for research and development in telecommunication. We also contributed profiles for more than three dozen technologies like mobile multiplayer games, domestic robotics, projected displays, wireless sensor networks for disaster management, robotics or context-aware computing. And we keep on looking ...

We created new offerings for coaching corporate ventures and their steering. A process and a set of methods combine business modelling approaches with organizational learning practises. Theory and cases have been presented at the European Institute for Technology (EIT)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the development of the Business Modeling Starter Kit. The toolkit was initially created by Henning Breuer, Pauline Tonhauser, Stefan Thon and colleagues within a series of projects at Telekom Innovation Laboratories and redesigned by UXBerlin. We thank our colleagues who contributed to this fine piece of work, including Gabriele Heinzel, Maria del Mar Agudelo, Robert Steinmüller, Ulrike Mascherek, Sarah Mahdjour, Katrin Lütkemöller, Fee Steinhoff and the UDI Team, also the Entrepreneurs Team of Peter Borchers, including Christian Renner, Philipp Schett and Alexander Krappe!

Within the lecture series on entrepreneurship at the Technical University Berlin we present and practise our approach to business models. Come and join or check out the slidedeck.

Action for Innovation - Innovating from Experience: This is the title of this years conference of the society for professional innovation management ISPIM 2012. We will participate with a new approach to develop and utilize future scenarios as means for innovation development and organizational learning. Come and join us in Barcelona!

Henning continues to manage and extend a project field focussing on user-driven innovation and interactive system development at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories . Within more than three dozen projects we introduced and conducted ethnographic user research, user clinics, ideation and futures workshops, online panels, scenario process and developed new HCI and participatory research methods. Since 2008 Henning is working on an interim-management position as research and innovation director. Together with Dr. Fee Steinhoff he set up a new project field with now about 20 colleagues and scientific assistants for user-research and open innovation management. Within the project field we develop, apply, and transfer methods of user research such as ethnograpic day in the life visits, online diary research, lead user and future workshops, user clinics, and user innovation panels. Application fields include potential features of IPTV and Next Generation Mobile Networks, mobile services and social networks and future scenarios for disruptive communication technologies.

The Innovationforum Berlin, set up for and with Telekom Innovation Laboratories received the Best Practice Award for Online Research - also thanks to our colleagues who delivered a great presentation! A short description of the Innovationforum and its activities has just been published online in German. The full paper in English you may download here.

Our new workstream on business modeling is going public. Think about the value proposition, customer segments and touchpoints of your business; model revenue and costs, and configure core capabilities, partnering networks. Our approach (developed with Telekom Innovation Laboratories) starts with structured ideation and benchmark studies and reaches from storytelling and prototypes to detailed business process models. The paper was presented at the IADIS conference on eSociety 2012.  

In cooperation with ICL Interventions for Corporate Learning we bring together two approaches to strategic learning in the face of uncertainty: Future Research (FR) as a set of methodologies to imagine and elaborate on future developments within companies and their environment, and High Reliability Organizing (HRO) as an approach to cultivate collective mindfulness. At SKM Conference on Competence-based Strategic Management in Linz we present new challenges and capabilities required to identify and exploit opportunities for innovation. You may find an extended version of the paper here: Mindfulness for Innovation. Future Scenarios and High Reliability Organizing Preparing for Unforseeable..

Some of our recent works systematically explore alternative future developments in telecommunication, mobile human-computer interaction, and learner-centered design. Henning published results and presents use cases for ubiquitous learning at the international conferences ED-Media in Lisbon. His latest contribution is on future scenarios in strategic consulting and will be presented at IADIS International Conference on Telecommunications, Networks and Systems in Rome.

Henning gave another class on strategic user research for students of interface design in Potsdam. This semesters focus topics: Contextual inquiries to gather user requirements, and futures scenarios to explore design concepts for mobile learning. Thanks to one of the students you may explore some of the classes content here.

Since 2007 Henning has received serval national research awards in Japan working at Waseda University in Tokyo. Until the end of January 2011 he will now deal with design challenges and opportunities of portable technologies to support learning activities inside the classroom and outside across various contexts. A functional software prototype for interactive whiteboards, and pen-tablets and PDAs has been implemented in order to support learning activities in the classroom, at home, and in the wild. Futures workshops have been conducted to sketch out additional scenarios for mobile learning applications, named Pattern Collector, Natural Ideograms, Contextual Windows, Augmented Tourguide, Mobile Library, and Wiki School. Drawing from psychological and pedagogical theory we explored their unique potential to support learning across contexts.

We support a large airline to establish user experience as a key differentiating factor of a large software package of safety-critical applications such as flight planning for worldwide clients. Recommendations for prototype redesign were derived from empirical and expert evaluations. Together with findings from paper prototyping they contributed substantially to an improved interaction design of the system. Extending an initial generic style guide all interaction design solutions have been documented through design patterns and a style guide that will be the basis for future extensions and newly developed systems. Our immediate client and its clients we worked with in the testing sessions were highly satisfied with the proceeding and the results. We are continuing our cooperation.

Together with Prof. Takanishi from Waseda University we reviewed research and published a feature paper for Technology Radar of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. From the Greek myth of Pygmalion to modern science fiction artificial life forms populate literary imagination and challenge designers around the world. Ever since their role model and antagonist has been the human being, whose desires, needs and fears, and whose culture shape their development. Today robots are integrated into the fabrics of production and service industries, and specialized models now spread into domestic environments. Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) became a critical component to the success, acceptance, and capability of robot systems. We review history and cultural factors within the development of robots focusing on humanoid and service robots in Japan. Robot models for different application domains focusing developmental efforts are being presented. We describe our notion of human robot science and exemplify the approach discussing challenges and potentials involved in the design of a humanoid robot orchestra are being elaborated upon. Finally we explore how humanoid robots may impact requirements for future communication services and infrastructures.