“In a few years we’ll smile at today’s technologies”

How far along is the digital transformation already? And how are managers preparing themselves and their companies for this “Fourth Industrial Revolution?” Porsche Consulting spoke with top-level managers and decision makers. Armin Pohl, CEO of Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, answers these questions in part 1 of the series “How ready are managers to go digital?”

I have been producing digital media for the past 25 years. In this world, a month is more like an eternity. The pace of change is extremely fast. Back when we first started out, we would type in code all day just to create a single 3D image. Today, we can achieve that in a matter of minutes. The computers we worked with cost tens of thousands of marks, but were less powerful than a basic smartphone. Today we see computer-generated images and videos – in perfect quality – nearly everywhere. We can even use design data to create realistic representations of cars that do not yet exist, like the Porsche Mission E. It is also commonplace to combine real and virtual images in movies.

And virtual creations serve more purposes than visualization alone: for example, they are modifying business models by enabling customers to configure their own individual products and assess all the features before ordering them. And the possibilities are far from exhausted. In a few years we’ll look back and smile at today’s augmented reality aids such as video glasses. Computer-generated images will be projected directly onto the retina, and we’ll be able to look around in a movie or a configurator without any type of data glasses, just as we do in a real environment.