Internal start-ups as a driving force in the digitalization of traditional businesses: Interview with Jörg Hellwig, Chief Digital Officer, Lanxess

In this interview Andreas Hinterhuber and J ö rg Hellwig, CDO of Lanxess, discuss the role of internal, digital start- ups as a driving force for the digital transformation of traditional businesses. J ö rg Hellwig played a key role in establishing CheMondis, a digital start- up that today is the largest marketplace for chemical products in the Western world. Digital, internal start- ups allow traditional, analogue companies to understand, absorb, develop, and diff use the digital capabilities required to compete successfully in the digital future. Internal start- ups are a driving force allowing companies to pilot large- scale organizational transformation on a small scale. The culture of the start- up – fast communication and decision- making – is a force that potentially can positively change the culture of the established business. J ö rg Hellwig stresses the importance of building a platform supporting the move from selling products to selling services or solutions. Platforms, by nature, are environments in which transactions are executed allowing the platform provider to add additional services that then can be profi tably sold. The digital transformation has direct repercussions on the nature of work and required capabilities. Big data analytics capabilities are a key diff erentiator: Lanxess has hired dozens of data scientists to internalize capabilities in data analytics. Digital technologies strongly infl uence innovation processes, both in terms of limiting the number of low- value targets as well as in terms of allowing an early parametrization of desirable innovation outcomes.