Reference Xella Baustoffe GmbH - The Scenario Technique in the Building Materials Industry
Residential Buildings 2020
Initial Situation and Project Goals
In order to meet the high demands for innovation and profitability, Xella Baustoffe GmbH always obtains an adequate overview of the market situation in the residential and economical building sectors by means of intense market research. With the goal of expanding existing activities via a long-term approach and creating a stable, sustainable basis for important future decisions, the “Residential Buildings 2020“ project was started. The idea was to work out the most important and realistic future scenarios.
In the light of those scenarios, opportunities and risks were identified in order to focus the innovation activities and to develop search fields in order to capture new markets and customer groups.
“To remain highly innovative, it is crucial to cast one’s view purposefully into the future. Based on UNITY’s uniform, systematic approach, the realm of the future could be analyzed from both a market as well as a technology perspective by means of the scenario technique, and conceptualized for the Xella business. This method was used successfully to create a uniform image of the future in management across technical and organizational units. This gives an indication as to what opportunities and risks may arise in the future and which innovations might thereby be derived for Xella.”
Sebastian Klug, Head of Innovation Management, Xella Baustoffe GmbH
Tasks of UNITY
As part of the “Residential Buildings 2020“ project, UNITY assisted Xella Baustoffe GmbH in structuring and focusing its innovative activities using projections with various scenarios. The main tasks consisted of:
Identifying growth opportunities and markets as well as threats to the established business
Harmonizing the various visions of the future prevailing within the company through interdisciplinary workshops
Deriving innovative ideas for market-oriented innovation fields
Developing concept house scenarios for the year 2020 with a focus on energy-efficient construction
Benefits for the Client
By means of differentiated technology scenarios, concept houses that describe the future technology push were designed. A description of which market pull would result for Xella in the future was also given by means of a marketoriented trend analysis. Specific opportunities for innovation arose at the point where technology push and market pull could be united. Within the scope of interdisciplinary workshops, which for the scenario creation process took place with a large number of employees from diverse organizational divisions, a uniform image of the future could be created. These workshops also offered a platform for the managers to exchange ideas about future topics in a con-structive atmosphere.
Xella Baustoffe GmbH
Xella Baustoffe GmbH manufactures and markets building materials for residential and commercial/industrial building. Cellular concrete and lime sandstone are among the key products marketed under the Ytong, Hebel and Silka brands. Xella is active in over 30 countries and promotes innovative, efficient concepts and new system approaches within the building materials market. These innovations are aimed at energy efficiency, reliability of construction and cost optimization.
