Collaborating With Customers To Innovate

The Internet has created the problem of an increasing need for innovation, but - as this volume explains - also provides the solution. The authors explore the collaborative potential offered by customers in digital environments to enhance the effectiveness of new product development.

The innovation economy sets new standards for global business and requires efficient innovation management to plan, execute and evaluate innovation activities, establish innovative capability and coordinate resources and capacities for innovation on an intra- and inter-organizational level. Moreover, communication of innovation is one essential impact factor of innovation success due to successful launches of innovations into markets, establishment of stakeholder relationships, and strengthened corporate reputation in the long-run. Consequently, the portfolio of communication activities for innovations has to be mastered by a company or collaborative network equal to the innovation portfolio. Thus, management of innovation and innovation communication on a strategic level play an important role in business nowadays. This new book concentrates on new approaches and methods for strategies and communications for innovations. As one part of the book, integrated perspectives on strategy and communication for innovation intend to bridge the gap between innovation management and communication management. This new book shall contribute to management science and answer current question in business. It provides cutting-edge information and offers a knowledge source for researchers, students, and business representatives who design, implement and manage innovation and innovation communication / marketing of innovation.

Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable, networked, and vocal. For them consumption is not merely an act of buying products and services, but an expression of their creative potential. Consequently, they are demanding a say and a voice in how companies conceive, develop, and deliver value to them. It is not surprising, therefore, to hear that a large number of companies are transforming how they innovate—not only in terms of developing new products and services, but in how they are created, delivered, and supported to customers. Open Innovation thinking, where companies collaborate with suppliers, distributors, and customers to co-create unique value, is fast replacing traditional thinking that viewed innovation as a proprietary activity and marketing as a static, one-way broadcast. However, while there is significant advocacy and buy-in for collaborating with customers, there is little guidance for companies on how to undertake the journey from applause and appreciation to execution. Only reading about others’ success stories – Nike, Hallmark, P&G, Mozilla, etc. – is not sufficient for helping a company develop a blueprint for themselves. In Customer Driven Innovation, strategy and branding consultant Gaurav Bhalla presents a concrete framework to help companies systematically and effectively design and implement collaborative innovation programs with their customers that can be applied in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. The authors describe how today’s technologies allow companies to create dynamic dialogues with their customers through shared networks, virtual marketing techniques, and blogs to develop deeper relationships that reinforce brand loyalty and ultimately drive growth. They challenge traditional approaches to market research that measure "customer satisfaction" from a rear-window perspective, and help companies and their customers look forward instead.P>

A Thinkers50 Best New Management Book for 2022 Launch your company to the top of its industry by driving and leveraging continuous innovation throughout your organization It’s no secret that continuous innovation is the key to seizing and maintaining the competitive edge in today’s increasingly challenging business environment. Unfortunately, the process for achieving this holy grail of business has been a mystery—until now. Built to Innovate delivers a proven system for building relentless innovation into your company’s DNA. Professor and former Dean of Executive Education at INSEAD and business innovation thought leader Ben M. Bensaou explores the essential practices of many of the world’s most innovative organizations―including BASF, AkzoNobel, Sabanci Group, Recruit Holdings, Ecocem, Starwood Hotels, Domino’s Pizza, Bayer, Marvel Studios, Allianz, and Fiskars―and demonstrates how you can leverage them in your own company. This practical guide shows how to: Build your execution and innovating engines Master the innovating perspective Launch the three processes of innovating Engage everyone in innovating Generate ideas from the front lines Empower coaches Create a culture of innovating Catalyze the innovating process Keep the ideas flowing You’ll learn how to drive innovating in product design and creative use of technology―as well as business activities, such as business model redesign, customer service, distribution, finance, talent development, and sales. The big question on the mind of every business leader today is: What can I do to create extra value for my company and the customers we serve? Built to Innovate provides everything you need to transform your organization into an innovating engine that continually produces new products and processes to generate enormous new value for you and for the customers you serve.

A new set of organizations has discovered a new formula: they combine customer-centricity with innovative power. These organizations have created a completely outside-in approach to the market. Not driven by what they're good at, they start with the market and design their strategy around it, replacing practices of the past with a new set of capabilities which enable them to be ahead of the curve in discovering new market opportunities. Whereas the traditional value chain model regards the market as the end-outcome of the efforts of the organization, the reversed value chain model starts there. The customer is the starting point and the value chain is the result of understanding customer needs and requirements. Customer Innovation presents this unique case for developing the outside-in organization to drive your business success, combining market orientation with innovation to enable actionable positive change in the way your company does business. Winner of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship category of the 2015 CMI Management Book of the Year Awards, Customer Innovation provides every business with the framework it needs to combine customer focus with innovation to achieve success. It is packed with real world examples from a range of leading global companies including Disney, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Eurex, Netflix, KLM, Carglass, Komatsu, Callebaut and more to help you put market awareness at the heart of your business.

Innovation and Collaboration in the Digital Era provides a holistic approach to collaborative innovation, innovation management and innovation leadership. It is full of practical advice and includes 34 interviews with high-level politicians, innovation industry leaders, academics and entrepreneurs discussing the reality of innovation and how to create change for a positive impact. Many quotes are included from researchers and practitioners in the innovation field who have participated as guests in the author’s podcast “Business of Collaboration” or in interviews with the Collabwith Magazine which she produces. This is a powerful book full of practical frameworks and one-page canvases which act as reminders of the value of making needs and expectations explicit. The author provides frameworks and tools that can be used to support collaboration journeys across different sectors and organizations. She also offers clarity to the reader for their innovation journey and brings a new perspective on how to innovate and understand innovation. Jara Pascual focuses on the importance of managing emotions and feelings of frustration which can be very common during a collaborative innovation process. She explores the interaction between Emotional Intelligence and business and shows how to remove and manage frustration and how to produce a positive outcome. Innovation and Collaboration in the Digital Era will empower the reader to take action and show how to change your conversation about innovation and collaboration. “Jara Pascual, with colleague Celia Avila-Rauch, has been able to distill and apply the ability model of emotional intelligence to the art and science of innovation and innovation leadership. In our work we note that feelings are not always facts but that emotions as a form of data. More than that, emotions can assist or facilitate with decision making, creativity and innovation rather than getting in the way, but only if leaders are “smart” about emotions and develop and deploy their emotional intelligence skills.” Dr David R Caruso, Emotional Intelligence Skills Group, Founder Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Research Affiliate

Learning from broad experience with open innovation: how it works, who contributes to it, and arenas for innovation from manufacturing to education. In today's competitive globalized market, firms are increasingly reaching beyond conventional internal methods of research and development to use ideas developed through processes of open innovation (OI). Organizations including Siemens, Nokia, Wikipedia, Hyve, and innosabi may launch elaborate OI initiatives, actively seeking partners to help them innovate in specific areas. Individuals affiliated by common interests rather than institutional ties use OI to develop new products, services, and solutions to meet unmet needs. This volume describes the ways that OI expands the space for innovation, describing a range of OI practices, participants, and trends. The contributors come from practice and academe, and reflect international, cross-sector, and transdisciplinary perspectives. They report on a variety of OI initiatives, offer theoretical frameworks, and consider new arenas for OI from manufacturing to education. Contributors Nizar Abdelkafi, John Bessant, Yves Doz, Johann Füller, Lynda Gratton, Rudolf Gröger, Julia Hautz, Anne Sigismund Huff, Katja Hutter, Christoph Ihl, Thomas Lackner, Karim R. Lakhani, Kathrin M. Möslein, Anne-Katrin Neyer, Frank Piller, Ralf Reichwald, Mitchell M. Tseng, Catharina van Delden, Eric von Hippel, Bettina von Stamm, Andrei Villarroel, Nancy Wünderlich

This book offers a multidisciplinary strategy for finding new and more effective human-computer interaction approaches, in particular from a socio-technical perspective, that facilitate the exploration and exploitation of benefits that information technologies (IT) offer organizations. Though the relationship between IT and organizations is certainly very strong, it is also one of the greatest obstacles to securing benefits from their interaction. The participation of organizational users in the planning and design stages of IT interfaces is the main area of human-computer interaction, where a wealth of contributions are positively enriching both the academic and management discussions. Thus, a new approach for managing this relationship is needed, one in which the different stakeholders are suitably taken into account. Moreover, the outstanding success of the 2.0 phenomenon offers an example of a relevant platform where human-computer interaction has been widely developed and exploited. Consequently, this will influence and already is influencing – the way IT and users interact with each other. The book is based on a selection of the best papers – original, double blind peer-reviewed contributions – from the annual conference of the Italian chapter of the AIS, held in Milan, Italy in December 2013.

Philosophical paradigms, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies make up the answering and problem solving systems that define current research approaches. While there are multiple research method books, the subject lacks an update and integrated source of reference for graduate courses. Research Methodologies, Innovations and Philosophies in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems aims to advance scientific knowledge on research approaches used in systems engineering, software engineering, and information systems and to update and integrate disperse and valuable knowledge on research approaches. This aims to be a collection of knowledge for PhD students, research-oriented faculty, and instructors of graduate courses.

"An incredibly useful and valuable guidebook to the new consumer economy. Buy it. Learn from it. Succeed with it."--Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Would Google Do " "This is the stuff that every business and nonprofit needs to embrace if they're going to succeed in a changing world."--Vivian Schiller, CEO of NPR With clear analysis and practical frameworks, this book provides a strategic guide that any business or nonprofit can use to succeed in the digital age. Marketing expert David Rogers examines how digital technologies--from smartphones to social networks--connect us in frameworks that transform our relationships to business and each other. To thrive today, organizations need new strategies--strategies designed for customer networks. Rogers offers five strategies that any business can use to create new value: ACCESS--be faster, be easier, be everywhere, be always on ENGAGE--become a source of valued content CUSTOMIZE--make your offering adaptable to your customer's needs CONNECT--become a part of your customers' conversations COLLABORATE--involve your customers at every stage of your enterpriseRogers explains these five strategies with over 100 cases from every type and size of business--from shoes to news, and software to healthcare. In "The Network Is Your Customer," he shows: How Apple harnessed a host of collaborators to write apps for its iPhone How IBM designed a videogame to help sell its enterprise software How Ford Motors inspired an online community to build brand awareness for its new Fiesta...and countless other cases from consumer, b2b, and nonprofit categories. The book outlines a process for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match "your" customers, "your" business, and "your" objectives--whether you need to drive sales, to enhance innovation, to reduce costs, to gain customer insight, or to build breakthrough products and services. Because today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer.