Lauda Announces new.degree GmbH to Identify Temperature Control Innovation Opportunities

Lauda Dr R Wobser GmbH & Co KG announces new.degree GmbH, a new, wholly owned Lauda subsidiary, to deal with temperature control-related innovation activities outside the present core business. The new company is managed by Birgit Dillmann and comprises seven employees in Germany and abroad.

new.degree GmbH brings together Lauda start-up management, the Lauda innovation laboratory including the branch office in Morgan Hill, USA, as well as the Lauda Digital Unit, which is responsible for digitalisation projects within Lauda. The Lauda internal ideas management scheme is also supported in the new company. The objective of the merger is to further professionalise and strategically develop the activities which have been developed so far. new.degree GmbH is based at its current location in Lauda-Königshofen. In the medium term, however, it is planned to move to the ‘Brainstation’ innovation centre planned by Lauda Managing Director, Dr.Gunther Wobser, at Lauda railway station, the town that gives the company its name, in order to provide the creative space that is crucial to its success.

The core task of the new company is to identify innovation potentials relevant to temperature control outside Lauda’s current normal business activities, develop them into innovative solutions and test them in the market at an early stage. Potential approaches to this will be systematically generated by the analysis of trends and suitable search fields, uncovering opportunities for future-critical technologies, targeted collaboration with startups or also thanks to ideas provided via the internal idea management instrument. The innovation laboratory quickly and validly evaluates such ideas for their sales opportunities and innovation potential. Promising ideas are developed into so-called Minimum Viable Products using agile development methods such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking with the active involvement of potential users.

new.degree GmbH supports start-ups in their business development with relevant technology innovations and gives their business ideas the necessary initial momentum through joint pilot projects. In addition, the Lauda management innovation experts recommend strategic investments in promising start-ups on the basis of a comprehensive system. Lauda has so far successfully invested in three start-ups - watttron, ENER-IQ and Better Basics Laborbedarf.

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