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 Does Swisscom have anything like a systematic policy of innovation?
The internal programme "future 2.0", which was introduced a while ago, is a step in this direction. Employees can and should contribute innovative ideas. The challenge is to enable every employee to also make a contribution towards improving operational processes.

Which innovations can Swisscom be proud of?
The first one that I can think of is the prepaid functionality for mobile telephony. NATEL easy is a remarkable success story. Another prominent example is Mobile Unlimited. This innovation also meets a specific customer need, namely seamless switching between a WLAN and a mobile network. This technology is now widespread. Lastly I would mention Mistral, an innovation which enables Swisscom's telecoms equipment centres to be much more energy efficient, and for which Swisscom received the "Infovision Award". This innovation is gradually being implemented across the industry.

On a global scale, Swisscom is one of the world's smaller companies. Can Swisscom afford to invest in its own development projects at all?
We couldn't implement development projects like the iPhone ourselves. But it is a natural imperative for us to sense what our customers want and to react to these needs. This includes the obligation of being innovative ourselves. The size of the company isn't that important, as the examples of open source or Wikipedia show. We need to be creative, but also open to partnerships and to play the role of integrator.

You just alluded to open source. What is Swisscom's position on this?
We are definitely not in a position to be able to create an open source community on a global scale. However, we can invest in these sorts of partnerships. There is currently a mobile phone open source initiative. We are going to meet the team in charge of this initiative soon to discuss ways in which we could contribute to this project and to look at how we can gain other partners.

In addition, we are evaluating the potential of open source solutions as an alternative to traditional solutions for certain elements of the company's IT infrastructure.
So Swisscom doesn't see larger-scale partnerships - such as open communities - as an option? Open source innovation is an area where we can still increase our efforts. But the question which arises is the following: How far should our involvement go? We are collaborating with external partners, such as universities and start-ups.

Open innovation also involves participating in start-up companies…
Open innovation means opening up the innovation process to the outside. Our incubation and venturing activities enable us to participate in start-up projects which develop innovations. Beyond that and more marginally, we have participations in start-ups whose activities are adjacent to our own activity.

How can you justify such investments?
They develop a dynamic force from which we ultimately profit, because they tap new opportunities for us, too. There's also another reason for incubation and venturing: If, for instance, we or an innovation partner develop a new product, the product can be launched abroad to test its acceptance on the market. This provides us with valuable information for a possible launch in Switzerland and enables us to test the marketability of an innovation without risking any negative impact on Swisscom's image.

Analysts like to measure a company's innovativeness by looking at the number of patents it has registered. Do you take the same approach?
It depends to a great extent on the industry. In the case of technology leaders such as Xerox PARC or Alcatel, the number of patented inventions is an unequivocal indication of innovativeness. However, with service-oriented companies like Swisscom, the number of patents isn't a reliable indicator. Due to the nature of the industry and our business activities, we simply have fewer patentable market offerings.

So the patent question is a non-issue at Swisscom?
We don't want to make money with patent licences - we want to make money by selling our products and services. However, we did patent Mobile Unlimited, for example. In this case, it's not just about a new product but about an idea that includes an element of radical innovation, namely the linking of wireless LAN technology with mobile telephony. We thought this element deserved to be patented. But the fact that it caters to a real customer need is more meaningful than the fact that it's patented.

Let's take a look into that crystal ball. How will we be communicating in 10 or 15 years' time?
We are focusing intensively on the interface between man and machine. Currently, the human brain connects with the computer using a keyboard and screen. In the future, we'll interact much more directly with the machine. Computer voice recognition is an important step in this respect. But that's only the beginning. We've found a company that's looking at the question of how computers can learn gestures. There's already an interface that measures brain waves and then converts these into data and actions. You wink - and the computer winks back.

Is Swisscom innovative enough for the challenges of the future?
We've got many of the right ingredients. There's room for improvement in adjusting our dynamics to the changed dynamics of the market and technology. We have to become even faster and drive innovation projects with even greater perseverance.

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