Trend Seminar in Digital Technology and Management
New technologies set the agenda for disruptive innovations. Yet not all of them prove to be a market success. It is therefore important to understand how the business environment will change in the future in order to come up with promising innovations. In the Trend Seminar, students analyze upcoming developments and future business opportunities. They aim at identifying the potential of new technologies and describe the changes of industry structures. The participants of the seminar closely work together with industry experts in order to have their fingers on the pulse of the times. Company executives share their knowledge with students and in return benefit from the results of the latest research.
The findings are published as a book in the CDTM "Trend Report" series. Former Trend Reports cover topics such as "Smart Grid Infrastructures", "Developer Platforms", "Tracking & Tracing Technologies", and others.
Course Structure
Overall Structure
Each semester about 25 Trend Seminar students with diverse academic backgrounds write a trend report together on a certain topic or emerging technology. The goal is to develop innovative business ideas. Students work in interdisciplinary teams to ensure that different perspectives on the topic are included in the analysis. In order to understand the business potential of a certain topic or technology, it is important to anticipate the future industry structure and influencing factors. The Trend Seminar therefore consists of two components which use different methodologies of trend and futures research and a third component that covers the necessary soft skills and methodologies for the Trend Seminar.
Trend Seminar Components
Basic Seminar
The first component (Basic Seminar) looks at the near future, summarizes the status quo and identifies upcoming trends for the topic. An interdisciplinary approach ensures that technological, economic, social, political, legal and environmental trends are taken into account. Each of the five Basic Seminar teams has the task to research the topic from a different perspective and summarizes the findings in a report called Basic Report. All five Basic Reports together add up to a comprehensive trend analysis and make up the first part of the Trend Report. The Basic Report is then used as a starting point for the Scenario Planning Seminar. Along the Seminar sessions of the Facilitation I component convey methodical knowledge as well as soft skills to the student to support their performance and development.
Sessions
- Lectures: The main methodology for the data collection is desk research. In addition, several impulse lectures serve as information source. Students get the opportunity to discuss the topic with experts and hear different opinions. Lecturers come from academia and industry. If possible, experts from different fields with opposing interests and views on the topic are invited in order to illustrate the different motivations and arguments.
- Coaching Sessions: There are several coaching sessions during the Basic Seminar in which the teams discuss their work and open questions with the course coordinators.
- Feedback Session: At the end of the Basic Seminar, students get feedback on their performance in the course. Both, the Basic Report and Basic Seminar presentations are discussed. Feedback consists of a team and an individual part.
Scenario Planning Seminar
In the second component (Scenario Planning Seminar) students build upon the trend analysis from the Basic Seminar and look about 15 years ahead. The goal is to cluster the trends into different categories and identify the main driving forces behind them. In a next step the possible interactions and combinations of these drivers are analyzed and combined to different scenarios that explain the industry structures and business environment of the future. Disruptive innovations require a thorough understanding of the future economic, technological, political, legal, environmental and social framework. It is critical to anticipate what needs customers will have in the future and what possibilities and technologies will exist to fulfill them. The task in the Scenario Planning Seminar is therefore to go beyond the description of trends (as done in the Basic Seminar) and develop a concrete picture of the future (so called scenarios). Based on these findings, product or service ideas are developed. These business ideas are visualized by a mockup that illustrates how the product or service might look like. For the Scenario Planning Seminar, each team has the task to develop a business idea for a certain topic. Therefore each team will identify different drivers and scenarios. In the end, each of the five Scenario Planning Seminar teams summarizes their driver analysis, scenario analysis, business idea and mockup in a Scenario Report. All five Scenario Reports together make up the second part of the Trend Report. Along the Seminar sessions of the Facilitation I component convey methodical knowledge as well as soft skills to the student to support their performance and development.
Project Outcomes
Sessions
- Lectures: The main methodology for the data collection is desk research. In addition, several impulse lectures serve as information source. Students get the opportunity to discuss the topic with experts and hear different opinions. Lecturers come from academia and industry. If possible, experts from different fields with opposing interests and views on the topic are invited in order to illustrate the different motivations and arguments.
- Coaching Sessions: There are several coaching sessions during the Scenario Planning Seminar in which the teams discuss their work.
- Feedback Session: At the end of the Scenario Planning Seminar, students get feedback on their performance in the course. Both, the Scenario Report and Scenario Planning Seminar presentations are discussed. Feedback consists of a team and an individual part.
- Scenario Workshop: In this workshop, students conduct the whole scenario planning process. As a preparation, they conduct comprehensive research to identify trends and drivers for their specific topic. The workshop consists of several milestones at the beginning of which the theoretical aspects are repeated and next steps are discussed. For the practical part, students split up into the different teams to work on the milestone with respect to their topic. At the end of the workshop all teams presents their driver analysis and scenarios.
- Midterms: In this session, students present their product or service idea and have the opportunity to get feedback on the status quo of their work. Based on the three scenarios they developed, they introduce a product or service idea, explain how this innovation addresses the future conditions as described by the selected scenario and visualize their business idea with a mockup.
- Feedback Session: At the end of the Basic Seminar, students get feedback on their performance in the course. Both, the Basic Report and Basic Seminar presentations are discussed. Feedback consists of a team and an individual part.
Facilitation I
In the third accompanying component (Facilitation I) students learn about the methodologies of trend analysis and scenario analysis and train soft skills that they will need during the Trend Seminar. This includes an introduction into the basic tools of management or technology respectively for students from other academic backgrounds, presentation skills, teamwork and communication and academic writing. The Trend Seminar Facilitation block is therefore a compulsory, complementary component that takes place in parallel to the Basic Seminar and Scenario Planning Seminar.
Sessions
- Basics of Trend and Futures Research: In this session, students get an overview over the goals and structure of the Trend Seminar. They learn about the different methodologies for trend and futures research and become familiar with the methodologies that they will use in the Basic Seminar.
- Basics of Scenario Planning: This session provides the theoretical foundation for the Scenario Planning Seminar. Students get to know the Scenario Planning methodology and the difference between forecasting and scenario analysis. They learn about the reasons for the use of the methodology and the process for the development of scenarios. Examples for the use of scenarios in practice are discussed.
- Basics of Management / Basics of Technology: In this two day-session, students with a technological background get an introduction into the main tools that are used in management and vice versa. The goal is that students learn about the most important frameworks of the other discipline and understand the differences in terms of communication, approach to tasks and working mode.
- Basics of Team and Communication: performing as a team is difficult and working together in interdisciplinary and intercultural teams is even more complex. Complications may occur from different working styles or communication problems. This session provides a theoretical and practical introduction to teamwork. Potential problems, solutions and strategies are discussed. Based on the theories taught in this course, students reflect on the Basic Report teams and the first days in their Scenario Report teams.
- Team Coaching: In addition to this session, there is an individual coaching session for each team. The goal is to analyze the team situation, address existing problems and develop strategies for the specific situation of the team. The Team Coaching takes place for the Scenario Report teams during the Scenario Planning Seminar. By this time, students have already gathered practical experiences with interdisciplinary teamwork during the Basic Seminar and the first days of the Scenario Planning Seminar. Students participate in the Team Coaching with their Scenario Report team members in order to be able to discuss current issues and apply the developed strategies.
- Basics of Presentation: Once a task has been completed, it is critical to present the results in an easily understandable and professional way. Therefore, this session provides a theoretical and practical introduction to presentation skills. First, the strategy, structure and style of a good presentation are discussed including slide design and speech. In a second part, students prepare and present a case study. Finally, the students get individual feedback on their presentation skills and recommendations how to further develop their performance.
- Presentation Coaching: It is important to train the presentation skills in order to establish and further develop the learnings from the Basics of Presentation session. Therefore, students receive detailed feedback on their various presentations during the Trend Seminar. This includes video-taping presentations, watching and discussing the performance as well as feedback on the slides.
- Basics of Academic Writing: In this session, students learn what they need to consider in their reports. This includes the access to information, structuring the report, writing style and referencing. Guidelines for the Basic and Scenario Report are provided.
- Basics of IT/Lyx/Latex: In order to be able to start working right away, students learn about the CDTM IT facilities and work together with the lecturers to set up their laptops. Furthermore, students learn how to write their repots in Latex.
