How do you become an innovation leader? And what is the best cooking advice you've ever received? The answers to these questions (and many more) are available once a month in the Stories+ Snack, the Kitchen Stories business questionnaire.
Good ideas that really help users
It must be possible to use new technologies in such a way that they are not a “gadget” but improve consumers' quality of life — this is also stated in our BSH mission statement.
Quick and user-centered implementation of the idea
As an innovation leader, you have to be fast and ensure time and again that the benefits for users are there when developing products and services.
Successful go-to-market
You are only an innovation leader if the products or services are successful on the market and you are also perceived as innovative by consumers.
The life cycles for home appliances are very long — a kitchen is bought for the next 15 years. In Europe, most devices are only replaced when they no longer work and not when you want to upgrade, such as TVs or smartphones. For digital services for our connected home appliances, this means, on the one hand, that this standard is only slowly spreading on the market. And on the other hand, we always have to think very long-term so that we can still offer something for the devices on the market in 15 years.
In the kitchen of the future, users will receive situational and individual support with everything they want to do in the kitchen. To achieve this, home appliances and digital services work together seamlessly — even across various touchpoints, such as apps, voice assistants and home appliance displays. However, the user always remains the “determiner”, because only he or she knows the individual needs, which can also be very different depending on the situation, e.g. a quick lunch or cooking together with friends.
I'm generally curious, I try things out and I like to learn new things. In my job, I am driven by the fact that I can support many users in their daily lives with our innovations — for example, to cook in a more relaxed way or try something new myself. For trends, I look at “thespoon.tech” or “voicebot.ai.” But the biggest inspiration and grounding for me are the users themselves — whether it's interviews, reviews or other insights. For example, we once asked our customers to put on a GoPro and then film themselves cooking with recipe apps. That's when the ideas just bubble up.
Cooking sous vide — this means that meat is prepared in a relaxed way and is always at the perfect cooking point. I hate ketchup and would love to ban it from my kitchen — but then I get in trouble with my son.
Thank you so much for the interview.
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