FUTURE SPECTRUMS

Breaking down patriarchal structures is therefore not only relevant for our social coexistence, but also for innovative entrepreneurship: A comprehensive system change that allows to break down patterns of thinking and to find new approaches for products and processes. The uncertainty of the upheaval creates scope for developing new (thinking) approaches, ideas and thus innovation. Probably the most obvious lever for breaking down traditional entrepreneurial thinking is the integration of the female perspective. On the one hand, the mere act of breaking with the familiar is innovative. As helpful as routines can be, agility and changeability are central in a VUCA world, but there are additional added values in adopting the female perspective than the mere “disruptive factor.” It offers the chance to define structures with a new approach of the underlying “why?”. Questioning one’s own abilities is in the nature of feminine thinking and thus provides a new approach to motivation. And motivation drives vision: meaning as motive.

It allows contradictions, stereotypes, and values to be discussed openly. It is not about the potential of sustainability based on stereotypical gender characteristics. It is only the means to integrate equal opportunities and diversity as values and drivers that open a spectrum of innovation within two poles. For Mercedes-Benz, we have developed in partnership, an insight presentation, which shows known and equally surprising customer needs.