Stuttgart – To kick off the third season of Transportation Matters, the CEO Podcast of Daimler Trucks & Buses, Martin Daum has invited the CEO of CureVac, Dr. Franz-Werner Haas. They both discuss successful innovations and global challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change demand a completely new approach. At the same time however, the path from innovation to market launch is often long. In this episode of the podcast, Martin Daum and Dr. Franz-Werner Haas discuss which factors are crucial to success.
Both companies, Daimler Truck AG and CureVac, are pioneers in their industry. CureVac has developed an mRNA-based vaccine to combat the global coronavirus pandemic. Daimler Trucks & Buses is advancing the transition to CO2-neutral goods transport and passenger traffic. The company is presently developing a series-ready fuel cell drive. During their discussion, the two CEOs consider the following questions, for example: when is the time right for an innovation? How can innovations succeed – from the development phase to market launch? Which individual challenges do innovative entrepreneurs face?
Dr. Franz-Werner Haas emphasizes that innovations do not just establish themselves. "If you want to be successful with an innovation, you must be prepared to perform persuasive efforts. You need to provide very good reasons as to why someone should invest in technology change. Because such a change usually involves many established products losing their market share."
For Martin Daum speed is also an essential success factor: "Innovations must be launched on the market quickly. However, the crucial conditions must be in place. We are also experiencing the typical "hen-and-egg-problem” in the development of the fuel cell drive. In order for this type of drive to become accepted, we need a functioning hydrogen infrastructure and vice versa. That is why both of these must be advanced simultaneously and not one after the other."
