A conversation on technology acceptance and industrial competitiveness: Sabine Scheunert, President Central Europe at Dassault Systèmes

Ms. Scheunert, your career has taken you from BMW to PSA/Dongfeng – where you were the first woman to lead an automotive brand in China – and on to Mercedes-Benz, and now to Dassault Systèmes. With this international leadership experience: what differences in corporate cultures have you perceived? And to what extent do these differences influence technology acceptance, the willingness to experiment, and ultimately the pace of innovation in the respective industrial regions?

Those who look at innovation from an international perspective recognize different regional strengths. In China, decision-making and implementation are directly intertwined – short chains of command, high tolerance for failure, rapid iterations. Germany stands for quality, safety and process discipline; decisions are carefully aligned before scaling. France and Europe bring a strong engineering and design culture, as well as an awareness of technological sovereignty. What matters most to me is not an either-or, but the combination of strengths: speed from Asia, Germany’s quality benchmark, and Europe’s commitment to shaping technology responsibly and sustainably. Every company should draw on these three elements in order to remain competitive, implement innovations successfully, and at the same time meet the highest quality and sustainability standards.

What challenges does this pose for companies in Europe – and what role does the virtualization of processes play?

The challenges are manifold: rising cost and energy pressures, complex regulation, a shortage of skilled workers, and volatile supply chains. This is precisely where the virtualization of processes comes in. With our Virtual Twin technology, products, processes and entire systems are digitally mapped in order to simulate scenarios, optimize processes and reduce waste before production even begins. It is no longer about gut feeling, but about solid evidence across the entire lifecycle. The result: shorter development cycles, more robust supply chains, and measurable sustainability gains through reduced material and energy consumption.

Virtualization helps to optimize processes before production even begins. It is no longer about gut feeling, but about solid evidence.

Dassault Systèmes has successfully dedicated itself to developing and providing platforms for knowledge management. How would you describe your fundamental approach?

Know-how is the fuel for innovation and enables teams to make fast, well-informed decisions. On the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, companies bring together data, experience and creative approaches in a single environment, from idea to development through to production and operations. Virtual twins, simulations and AI make knowledge actionable, decisions transparent, and best practices scalable across teams, locations and companies. With the latest AI-integrated generation, the 3D UNIV+RSES, we go one step further: we connect multiple virtual twins across company boundaries and lifecycles, so that knowledge can be used in a targeted way and innovations can be implemented even faster.

How do you manage the now considerable breadth of customer segments – across individual products, individual industries, and especially across different company sizes, from start-ups to the Volkswagen Group?

We meet the diversity of our customers with a simple principle: flexibility at all levels. Our modular 3DEXPERIENCE platform is scalable across company sizes and industries. Start-ups get up and running quickly and efficiently in the cloud, mid-sized companies standardize processes rapidly, and large enterprises leverage complete end-to-end integration and make full use of their vast data assets.

What significance do start-ups hold for Dassault Systèmes, and how do your solutions ensure that knowledge and innovation are shared and advanced across companies, locations and entire ecosystems?

Start-ups are true innovation drivers; they bet on speed, radical ideas and courage. They are essential to us because they bring new impulses, unconventional approaches and fresh know-how into our ecosystems. With our international innovation and start-up lab, the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, we offer start-ups access to our 3DEXPERIENCE platform – and additionally enable them to receive mentoring and connect within a strong network. On this basis, young teams can develop prototypes, share knowledge and seamlessly translate their ideas into market-ready solutions. This makes it possible to turn ideas into real products and measurable successes.

Start-ups are true innovation drivers; they bet on speed, radical ideas and courage. They are essential to us, as they bring new impulses into our ecosystems.

What internal prerequisites does a mid-sized company need in order to implement the redesign of development processes quickly, without it becoming a lengthy, resource-intensive project? Which roles, departments or competencies need to be involved so that the transformation becomes an accelerated time-to-market process?

Success in redesigning development processes begins at the top of the organization: digital transformation must be clearly embedded in the strategy and actively driven forward by management. What is important is short decision-making paths, clear responsibilities and a strong transformation team that brings in all relevant areas – from R&D through production and quality to IT and sales. In addition, agile methods are needed, along with a culture that supports rapid iterations and continuous improvement. Digital tools and modern process methods make it possible to implement new workflows quickly, manage them efficiently, and significantly reduce time-to-market.

Europe doesn’t need to rescue industry: digitalization is a decisive lever to secure competitiveness, accelerate development processes and bring innovations to market faster.

How do you see the future of industry in Europe? Does the feedback you receive confirm your thesis that digitalization can be a key to halting de-industrialization?

Europe does not need to rescue industry – we need to give it new wings. In doing so, digitalization is a decisive lever for securing competitiveness. It enables companies to accelerate development processes, leverage knowledge across locations and partners, and bring innovations to market as viable products more quickly. The feedback from our customers confirms: those who embrace digitalization shorten product launch times, increase efficiency, and can thereby also work against de-industrialization. Digital transformation creates the prerequisites for European industry not merely to survive, but to act with international competitiveness and innovative strength.

Diversity is not a ‘nice-to-have’, but a genuine driver of innovation. Different perspectives enhance the quality of solutions.

Additional question specifically for the Franco-German audience: In both countries, one frequently reads about the challenges of cooperation. In technology companies, however – with internationally composed teams, a global mindset and growing diversity, including the role of women in leadership positions – surely these differences have long been levelling out? Are these factors not, today, becoming elements of connection rather than division?

In tech companies, ways of working are increasingly converging: teams work globally, use the same platforms and make decisions together. At the same time, cultural differences remain – and teams can benefit from them by integrating new ways of thinking and new approaches. This makes teams more agile, more creative and able to put ideas into practice more quickly. Diversity is not a ‘nice-to-have’ in this context, but a genuine driver of innovation. Different perspectives enhance the quality of solutions – especially when the deployment of groundbreaking technologies such as AI and virtual twins opens up new degrees of freedom.

This interview of Hans Gäng with Sabine Scheunert was first published 2025 in the special edition ‘Baden-Württemberg’ of the Franco-German business magazine ‘Acteurs du franco-allemand’.