Portrait of Ulrike Tagscherer

Career Path and Motivation

As the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at KUKA AG, it is my role to drive technological advancements and foster innovation within the robotics industry. I see my role in making the company being able to deliver on innovation, meaning creating new ideas that are successfully brought to the market.

This combination of technology and business growth is my main personal driver. It’s a challenging task and I really enjoy this challenge. My work is different every day and I meet a lot of fantastic people who develop new technologies, products, solutions and sometimes also crazy ideas. The ever-evolving field of robotics presents exciting opportunities and being part of this community allows me to shape the future. My passion for new technologies allows me to ignite a fire in other people and get them on board.

Robotics has a profound impact on various sectors, from manufacturing to healthcare. As the Chief Innovation Officer, I contribute to creating solutions that improve lives, enhance efficiency, and address global challenges. One of these challenges is climate change and sustainability. Our solutions and innovations can contribute in tackling some of the unsolved problems we currently face. Imagine the dismantling of products to re-use valuable materials and keep them in the loop for as long as possible. Today, this is mostly a manual task, and in the future robots might allow us to re-capture much more resources out of used products than today.

I like to break down barriers that exist for no reason. Being a woman in a male-dominated field, I can serve as a role model. My achievements hopefully inspire other women to pursue STEM careers, fostering diversity and innovation. Diversity and innovation go hand in hand in my perspective. It’s scientifically proven that diverse teams have better innovation outcomes than homogenous ones. In my role, I can encourage collaboration between different people from different nations, educational backgrounds, mindsets. I foster this cross-disciplinary teamwork, knowledge sharing and partnerships. To see people grow in this space is one of the greatest gifts of my role and keeps me going.

The fact that in my role there is no end to learning, is fantastic. I understood during my time as innovation systems researcher in China what lifelong learning means and I embrace it fully. Working at Fraunhofer for many years, where I was also responsible for an internal accelerator, I know what it means to stay at the forefront in your industry and how to ensure staying informed. I have always been inspired by what you can do with new technologies. It’s often not the technology itself, but the value it creates for us that fascinates me.

From the start of my career, I have been building bridges between people who think and work differently, e.g. the scientists and engineers and the leader of a small or medium sized company. While one is promoting the technology, the other is seeking to understand the business value that the technology can create for their customers. In some cases, this leads to misunderstandings or missed opportunities. During my time at Fraunhofer, I always felt that I am home in both worlds, and I can easily switch between them.

My role also allows me to mentor other women and men in robotics. By sharing not only my own, but also inviting other leaders to share their experiences (the good and the bad ones), we can empower the younger generation to envision their own impactful roles.