Germany Has Thrived With Engineering. But the Future Is Digital

Since it was founded 55 years ago, EBM-Papst GmbH has thrived by focusing almost entirely on a single item: fans—thousands of models, ranging from half-inchers for vents in car dashboards to 5-foot monsters for industrial cooling units. EBM is a paragon of efficiency and precision, plotting every step of the production process in detail. To test durability, EBM shocks its fans with electromagnetic waves, heats and freezes them, and measures the tiniest vibrations in an insulated room built on springs to eliminate external noise. Insiders quip that the company, with more than 14,000 employees worldwide, is so focused that no matter what the problem, the solution is always a fan.

Chief Executive Officer Stefan Brandl says EBM today faces a problem that defies that conventional mindset: how to prosper in the digital era, when technologies such as data mining and artificial intelligence—not engineering rigor—will determine winners and losers. So Brandl, who took over in January 2017, has opened an in-house startup dubbed EBM-Papst Neo, a sort of think tank of digital-savvy millennials focused on helping the old-school manufacturer navigate the new economy. “We sell hardware and are growing today, but we need to be aware of what could challenge our business model tomorrow,” says Brandl, whose company reported 2017 revenue of €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion), up 13 percent. “We’re looking for ideas to maintain our edge.”