EWE is one of Germany's largest energy service providers, focusing on energy, telecommunications, and information technology. The company supplies approximately 1.4 million households with electricity and around 700,000 households each with gas and telecommunication services. As a regional group, EWE actively drives the energy transition, the expansion of intelligent infrastructure, and digitalization.
Challenge: Trend Manager as a central tool for trend analysis
- Systematic establishment of group-wide trend management
- 5–10 year corporate foresight for strategic future topics and the alignment of innovation and strategy activities
- Collaborative trend and innovation work with the internal EWE Trend Community
Industry Situation and Transformation
Energy transition and climate protection, intelligent infrastructure, and digitalization are the overarching keywords of the transformation, behind which a multitude of technological innovations are hidden.
The Trend Manager in Business Practice
EWE makes content, evaluations, and projects centrally and transparently available in the Trend Manager. The consolidated trend knowledge is utilized for strategy and business development, and is also accessible to all employees.
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Services and Solutions
To identify potential futures and prepare for them in a structured manner, EWE uses TRENDONE's Trend Manager as a central tool for trend analysis and as an information platform.
Implementation of a Digital Innovation Tool
EWE uses the Trend Manager as a starting point for trend analysis and as a platform for knowledge exchange and networking. With 350 active accounts, cross-functional work with trends and on innovation projects has become central to the group.
Collaborative and interactive work with the Trend Manager opens new horizons, strengthens networking, and fosters a boundless innovation culture within the group.
Building an Internal Trend Community
The self-organized and voluntary EWE Trend Community offers employees an online space for communication, sparring, and ideation. This self-directed management improves the entire organizational culture of the group.
The network, comprising over 300 employees, is specifically used for trend evaluation. Cross-functional exchange and knowledge transfer take place in online workshops.
Mega and Macro Trends highlight relevant transformational shifts. Access to 50,000+ innovations from all industries and 250+ monthly micro-trends enables independent trend research and monitoring.
EWE uses Trend Radar clusters, which are set up in the Trend Manager and where trends are assessed for relevance: "Business & Brand", "Data & IT", and "Energy & Infrastructure".
By defining innovation fields, EWE focuses on the thematic and operational areas with the greatest future potential within the various trend radar clusters.
Innovation projects are initiated decentrally and integrated into the business, innovation, and investment areas. Collaborative work with trends and on innovation projects is becoming the norm at EWE.
