"Sowing ideas, harvesting the future":
How a spirit of inventiveness and a deeply ingrained culture of innovation brings visionary technologies to fruition – this book tells the compelling story and introduces some of the smart minds behind the ideas through fascinating images and reports.
The book presents new ideas, prototypes and visions of the future, addressing topics such as global nutrition, digitalisation, frugal innovations and artificial intelligence in agriculture. To highlight the considerable innovation strength at CLAAS, the book showcases 30 outstanding developments that have been defining moments for the company.
Insights.
Extract.
Why we need innovations.
“For an innovative company, having innovation in your DNA means that you never stop innovating.”
The following comparison illustrates the groundbreaking impact of agricultural innovations on global society: in around 1800, before the onset of industrialisation, 75% of the working population worked on the land. Today, that figure is only around 2%. Do these figures imply that agriculture has become less important? No, because it's the sector that supplies us with food, and it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. But what this comparison does show is that, to do this job, agriculture today needs only a mere fraction of the labour force that was required around 200 years ago.
Being innovative is a never-ending job.
The drivers of change include policymakers and civil society, but the service providers include in particular businesses, like CLAAS, that have been committed to progress from the very start. It's not easy being a slave to progress. Every day, employees in the company are involved in what economist Joseph Schumpeter termed "creative destruction”: they are constantly questioning the old in order to be able to generate the new. For innovative companies, having innovation in your DNA also means that you can never stop being innovative: on the very day that we unveiled the new LEXION, for example, engineers were already busy working on its even more efficient and interconnected successor.
“The urge to innovate is all around us here – we simply encourage that spirit of inventiveness. For this, you have to set clear goals. When everyone knows what their sector is all about and have plenty of room for manoeuvre, innovation happens.”
- Helmut Claas
"Our aim was and is to have a self-reliant workforce."
- Helmut Claas
"We are an entrepreneurial family, real people made of flesh and blood. You can talk to us directly. At trade shows of course, but in-house too, you will receive a very warm welcome."
- Dr. Patrick Claas
"At CLAAS, it's our special nature that defines us: here, we learn directly from people who pass their values and knowledge down through the generations!"
- Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser
| Product details | |
| Edition | First edition 2019 |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Pages | 208 |
| Publisher | Delius Klasing, Bielefeld |
| Dimensions | 244 x 271 mm |
| ISBN | 978-3-667-11463-1 |
