Future-Research

Establishing firm foundations for the long-term management of the company underpins our commitment to meeting future challenges. Only by detecting prevailing social and technological trends at an early stage, understanding the development of our sales markets, and foreseeing the future wishes of our customers and new management trends will we be successful. With this in mind, we are constantly analysing key fields of activity and control variables.

Identifying trends
We use market research and market analysis primarily to evaluate customer requirements and identify market trends in the relatively short term. These studies form the basis for marketing decisions which affect the whole Group. As such, they must deliver a comprehensive and detailed analysis of market developments. We employ a broad spectrum of analytical tools to evaluate the will to purchase and behaviour of our target groups. This also allows us to make a reliable assessment of our competitors’ strategic and technical positioning and plan our market activities accordingly.

Global scenarios for social developments
We carry out medium-term analyses within various business processes. We then use these to identify trends in society, technology and politics at an early stage, and highlight the opportunities that they present. To this end, we compile a systematic record and assessment of uncertainties and risks in the global environment of the automotive markets going forwards. This process also sees us refer back to reasonably sound assumptions on the social development of our corporate environment. These might concern

• the age structure of society,
• urbanisation trends,
• environmental legislation or
• the availability of resources.

From these we derive scenarios that provide models of our future development against a background of specific social conditions. In a second step, we then study a series of relatively uncertain control variables, such as energy supply and currency risks. These factors have the ability to change the course of the scenarios. The global scenarios compiled through these methods are channelled into the Group planning and strategy process. They help us to assess opportunities and risks, sharpen our eye for future challenges and assist us in the development of new strategic options.

Long-term future scenarios
The ability to develop innovative products calls for early identification of customers’ reasons for buying and technological trends. To this end we draw up long-term future scenarios in terms of technology, social developments and the environment, and transform these into product ideas, vehicle functions and, of course, strategic roadmaps. 

At the same time, we constantly monitor new research approaches. This ensures that we identify technologies relevant to our competitive position at a very early stage. This dual process of analysis eventually flows into technological roadmapping, which brings together all research and development projects in terms of both time and content, and directs them as required.

Future-Research and Trend transfer