Post by Mike Schavemaker

Ecosystems in Action 🚀 | DEI Community of Practice - Stuttgart Study Trip Two days immersed in the heart of the German automotive industry, exploring how a sector under enormous pressure - electrification, AI disruption, shifting supply chains - is reinventing itself through the power of open innovation ecosystems. Together with the Digital Ecosystems Institute Community of Practice and powered by the DXC Technology network, we visited ARENA2036, STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play and the DXC Executive Briefing Center in Böblingen. A big thanks to Bart van der Linden, Meldy Van Dijken, Sanja Huyghe, Klaus Stöffler, Peter Froeschle, Fabian Wulfrath and Marc Luebke and all the Plug-and-Play startups at Autobahn for making this happen. Three things that stuck with me: 🔹 Scale attracts scale. As quoted: "Having the big guys behind us helps enormously to attract and nurture startups." With Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Bosch anchoring the region, Arena2036 becomes an ideal launchpad - and a bridge to mass scale-up. Ecosystem gravity is real. 🔹 Trust before lawyers. Stuttgart's automotive cluster has a strong cultural tradition of starting collaborations based on complementarity and content - contracts are a means, not the core objective of engagements. A rare and powerful ingredient for building resilient regional industries. 🔹 Human-centred adoption is the differentiator. As value chains grow more complex and interconnected, knowing where expertise resides and connecting it to real challenges becomes as important as the technology itself. This resonates directly with what we do at TNO Health & Work. Supporting people through major technological transitions - whether AI, robotization or new ways of working - requires exactly this: understanding the human dimension of change, mapping where knowledge lives, and building the conditions for people to adopt new technologies sustainably and confidently. Ecosystems aren't just a business model; they're a vehicle for knowledge transfer and durable change. Refreshed and energized, we're taking our learnings home. Keep on Innovating! 💡 Mike #Ecosystems #OpenInnovation #AI #AutomotiveIndustry #DEI #TNO #Stuttgart #HumanCentredInnovation #Industry5.0