"Customer centricity: good approach, but rarely thought through to the end."

Let's put it this way: the OEM business was and still is largely a B2B business. For OEMs, the B2B market is the focus market. Why? Because a direct customer relationship and therefore B2C or even D2C business didn't actually take place. The pandemic has had a major impact on the status quo, but in my opinion only in the short term. The pandemic has seen a certain amount of actionism in B2C business: COVID has driven this development because business suddenly had to be conducted completely contactless. To this end, processes were created that were more strongly oriented towards the end customer - very B2C-driven, but unfortunately without sustainably improving the customer journey.

Agency models were already being created before the pandemic: direct sales of vehicles from the OEM to the end customer. In this case, the dealer receives a commission and acts as a kind of agent and facilitator of the sales process. However, this was not common practice for many OEMs until 2020.

B2C models, such as direct vehicle inventory sales via online stores and the sale of new vehicle models via reservation platforms, were preferred by OEMs and dealers and promoted as complete e-commerce solutions.

However, due to bottlenecks in the availability of parts, cars became a scarce commodity in 2022. This slowed down the new sales channels. This momentum should ultimately have given B2B models a boost again, but innovative and sustainable business models in the aftermarket failed to materialize among OEMs. The supplier industry has been using approaches such as e-commerce for years to create a competitive advantage in the parts business. The supplier industry has a certain lead over manufacturers in this area. OEMs make little use of the opportunity to implement new and digital business models in the B2B business, although many value-adding aspects could be created for the entire ecosystem.

As already mentioned, in my opinion, the digital B2B business is still very much neglected by OEMs today. The B2B business should become much more prominent, as it is ultimately much more lucrative for OEMs - especially when you think about the aftermarket. And: the entire ecosystem can benefit from this - from end customers, suppliers, subcontractors, workshops and dealers through to manufacturers.

After a year of intensive discussions with market participants, the industry needs to be viewed in a differentiated way: The passenger car segment can certainly learn a lot from the truck & bus sector. The commercial vehicle sector is realigning itself, recognizing the opportunities of digital transformation and is more willing to experiment. As described above, the passenger car business is originally a B2B2C business, where the customer usually ends up using the vehicle for private purposes. In principle, the truck manufacturer pursues a different strategy. Here, the primary business focus is not on the purchase and the emotions of the end customer, but on the requirements of the professional driver and those of fleet management. When the truck is at a standstill, the company basically has a loss and this is reflected in the various business models. That's why the entire supply chain focuses much less on the end customer and more on the question: How do I get a wide variety of corporate partners tied to the company as B2B buyers in order to create a smooth and sustainable solution for the customer?

There is still a lot of room for improvement. In general, I think that the topic of data management or "data-driven company" is still being treated very neglected. The topic of customer data platforms, segmentation of customer data, etc. is hardly ever carried out efficiently and effectively and, as I said, customer data is only a fraction of the data at the OEM. It is therefore easy to imagine that the complete package of data should play an essential role in the strategic orientation of OEMs. And this is precisely where the big problem lies. Collecting data is a challenge, but without the corresponding digital architecture as a foundation, it is a suicide mission.

Can I build a house without a stable foundation? The OEM's problem lies much deeper: many OEMs are faced with a proliferation of traditionally grown system landscapes and complex and outdated infrastructure. The new digital architecture now needs to be flexible, more cost-effective, scalable and agile. The data model must be adapted in order to fuel new digital business models with data - this is no easy task, but it is the essential foundation of digital transformation.

This is one reason why customer centricity is a good approach in the automotive industry, but has rarely been thought through to the end: There should be no discussion about whether the customer or the data is more important for the transformation. Rather, customer centricity and data centricity should shake hands: A successful digitalization strategy is only guaranteed if the foundation, i.e. the architecture and the data, as well as the new business models are based on each other and focused on the customer.

Unfortunately, this is often due to the fact that corporate goals are too short-term in nature, without the "big picture" or the vision of the digitalization strategy being at the forefront. Of course, this is also due to the complexity, the fast pace of technology and the variety of different business models. This is why it is becoming increasingly important for decision-makers in digitalization and in the specialist area to have a certain level of technological expertise - without technological experience and a visionary mindset at management level, we will not get very far today. The focus on "product centricity" is long outdated; Chinese and to some extent also the "new" American competition are showing us how.

Yes, products and volumes are important, definitely! But: OEMs need to look even more closely through service and data glasses in order to put themselves in a position to use innovative and data-based business models. Of course, the customer perspective is important here, but perhaps not only from the perspective of the automotive industry. Non-industry business models can also provide incentives for new business. I am also convinced that the most innovative or even disruptive business models do not meet the original customer request, but solve a customer problem that was not yet known.

How can OEMs overcome all these challenges and create a stable foundation? There are many good examples here and cultural change is considered a successful concept. However, this means a very lengthy process for traditional OEMs and suppliers - the topic is beyond the scope of this interview. However, if you first look at the project level, small successful results are a very adequate means of driving the transformation forward.

Technology is, of course, a key lever for digital transformation and provides significant support for cultural change. Today, for example, middleware makes it possible to link existing and new systems and processes, reduce complexity and create transparency. This was not the case ten years ago. The trend is moving towards "best-of-breed" instead of "best-of-suite". My clients currently receive advice on an individual and comprehensive technology offering - from digital marketing and customer relationship management, to applications in the area of incentive management and FinTech, through to software for transactional business models such as e-commerce and connected ecosystems. These approaches can be easily combined and connected along the customer journey.

Back to the trends in the automotive industry: what are the general effects of trends towards electromobility and autonomous vehicles?

The transformation of the automotive industry is becoming increasingly clear and the car itself is also undergoing major changes. If individual parts or spare parts of a car change, then the supplier business also changes. In addition, electric cars generally require much less servicing and the service intervals are becoming longer - so the workshop business will also have to change. We are seeing a verticalization of the value chain in the market - one example of this is the cooperation with chemical companies in battery production.

Digital business models with a focus on software issues create greater transparency in the supply chain for OEMs. This is essential as the car becomes ever smarter: A modern vehicle currently has 100 million "lines of code": new business models are therefore not only necessary - these will determine market share and competition in the future.

It is particularly interesting to take a look at the customer journey of the future: this includes, for example, the infrastructure with high-performance charging stations in the right places. And this is where innovative and data-based business models become interesting again. The question here is: What does the customer do for 20 minutes or more while the customer or truck driver is at the charging station? Many new and interesting business models and partnerships can be found here. This potential has not yet been fully exploited and there is still a lot to come. Autonomous driving is a highly complex topic, not only technologically but also legally - without going into further detail here.

Globally, it is clear that traditional OEMs are also having major problems getting innovations onto the road. The megatrends of "urbanization" are decisive in determining how mobility will change in the long term. Business models will change significantly as a result of autonomous driving. This is not only evident on the road: the mobility of the future will be more horizontal and more vertical - a mix of mobility concepts on the ground and even in the air in urban regions.

First: More focus on the right data! Customer centricity does not exist without data centricity! There is a lot of "buzz" about customer centricity and little talk about the data-centric and sustainable "enterprise architecture", which is the real foundation of digital transformation.

Secondly: Regionalization of customer experience projects. Why? Because customer experience projects cannot be squeezed into global templates. Customers in different countries have different requirements or are even subject to different legal frameworks.

Thirdly, the marketplace model. The market is currently being restructured. Marketplaces, or transactional ecosystems, will become an extremely important topic in the automotive industry in the future - especially in B2B business.

Generally speaking, one success factor is the right choice of technology. Many CIOs still rely on the traditional "players" on the market without conducting an in-depth "best-of-breed" analysis. Unfortunately, I speak from experience here; I too have changed my mind on this topic over the last year. Market players in the entire automotive industry must position themselves technologically today so as not to be overtaken tomorrow: A modular technology approach with global scaling and a little more "fail-fast" culture won't hurt here.

In unserem Blueprint Die Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung für die Automotive-Branche erhalten Sie konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen zur Optimierung Ihrer internen Datenstrukturen und Ihrer B2B-Beschaffungsprozesse.