Dr. Ulrike Tagscherer

Senior Executive, Innovation Strategist and Advisory Board Member. An inspirational, empathic leader and beacon of new ideas and critical thinking, galvanising and empowering colleagues, organisations and boards to respond to rapidly changing business landscapes and evolving customer needs. Champions innovation as a strategic driver of organizational success, empowering executive leaders to explore, prioritise and cultivate innovation strategies to foster collaboration and allow winning ideas to emerge. Scrutinises internal and external factors (political, societal, technological) to understand the ‘big picture’ and support development of impact-led innovation strategies which take into account all potential outcomes. Balances priorities such as revenue growth and innovation, and new opportunities with existing business, providing the greatest possibility of success while ensuring organisational resilience and limiting exposure.

Some relevant successes:
 Define 5–10-year growth strategy for 3 business segments, including different 5+ different foresighting methods, including participants from suppliers and customers in strategy workshops, e.g. a Nightmare Competitor Workshop for one business segment with 50% external participants. This resulted in a change of strategy for this Business Segment, including financial priorities.
 Implemented innovation process with 3 innovations taken from very first idea to market and numerous others in exploration with potential revenue > €100m.
 Led product viability assessment for robotic vehicle charging device, determining non-viability due to customer value challenges, saving €17m.
 Created a lean product development process optimised for innovative (digital) offerings, subsequently selling 15 MVPs in advance of the scaling phase, which helped making the final product a successful offering for which customers are paying well.
 Create and deliver 3 key measurements (KPI) for innovation management and innovativeness, using systems approach and innovation system research methodologies. Resulting in new ways how Controlling is collecting and measuring relevant data, which leads to more evidence-based decision making.
 Lead and embed a culture of continuous learning and entrepreneurial thinking, starting every innovation project with a clear problem statement and having learning conversations with 20+ potential customers. Ensuring that only the projects with clear evidence from the customer gets further funding. This includes stopping projects.

Spent 17 years at Fraunhofer, Europe%27s largest organization for Applied Research, ensuring cutting edge technologies can be handed over to companies for commercialization. Increased the revenue from Asia by more than 62% in four years.

Worked in China for seven years as an Innovation Expert at a National Research Institute.

Currently working for a large robot manufacturer and automation company.