Dimitris Bountolos: Our approach is conventional and unconventional at the same time. Conventional from the perspective of the sector, but unconventional because we are dividing our actions across three horizons.
Horizon 3 is about disruption—exploring new technologies and business models. We’ve developed new ideas around mobility, autonomous vehicles, and connected cars in Horizon 3, and new alliances to support that. We’re trying to interconnect our ideas and vision about a future ecosystem together with academia and research centers, using all that information to anticipate ‘what if’ scenarios to define archetypes and track the evolution of drivers. This will help us to better anticipate opportunities.
Horizon 2 is around exponential work. We’re bringing more mature capabilities and collaborating with startups. We’re continually scouting for different verticals, with the support of our different Centers of Excellence, particularly around mobility and digital infrastructure. We can improve the competitiveness of our existing assets and business units, for example, by using AI to monitor and anticipate the potential failures of transmission lines in isolated areas at a fraction of the cost. We have hundreds of examples where we’re working like this across the business.
Horizon 1 is about incremental, day-to-day improvements. We’re proud of our employees and the “intrapreneurial” culture we have. We run programs like Zuritanken to promote a culture of innovation where we receive hundreds of ideas. We recently promoted our finalists’ contributions —which represents an inventory of ideas we prioritize according to their potential to drive incremental value.