Why future scenarios?
At present, there is a risk that German companies will not recognize and utilize the value-added potential created by digitization at an early stage. The reasons for this are manifold. On the one hand, they often lack appropriate methods for evaluating and using data. On the other hand, relevant influencing factors in the environment that cannot be controlled by companies can develop very dynamically in various directions in the future. These factors of uncertainty include the legal framework for data protection and security, digital infrastructure, the maturity and reliability of new technologies and how they are perceived by society. Companies also perceive company-related, partly controllable organizational or structural factors as a challenge. This is because there is often a lack of experience and best practices for the design of competence development, work organization and acceptance for digital value-added processes by the workforce.
The brochure 2030 – Data-based Value Creation in Germany presents some of the results of the scenario process that was carried out in 2019 as part of the Data Mining and Value Creation project. Three future scenarios were developed in a participatory and structured process. They provide an insight into the possible changes in value creation in Germany as a result of the ongoing digital transformation and intelligent use of data. The explorative future scenarios are intended to provide companies, public institutions and political decision-makers with orientation for strategic decisions relevant to value creation. They make it easier to deal with uncertainties by identifying relevant key factors for possible future developments and presenting alternative visions of the future.