Next Level Innovation Blog

joint innovation: a client perspective in real-time

[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/joint_innovation_a_client_perspective_in_real_time/blog]A brand new version of the Orange innovation whitepaper for business services - which I have co-authored with Jean-François Fava Verde -  has just been made available (click here to download). This latest version of the whitepaper was distributed at Connect 2007, the worldwide event for Orange Business Services clients which took place in Lisbon on June 4-6, 2007. The event was extremely successful. Many break-out sessions (see photo on the left-hand side) took place on location, at the Corinthia Hotel Lisbon, and Innovation was on the agenda of many a presentation by our top Execs. The whitepaper was widely distributed (many thanks to Mark Wigington, our VP for IT services, for his renewed support) and our break-out session was also extremely successful and triggered interesting discussions with clients about how to handle and foster innovation jointly. The break out that Jean François and I had organised with the help of Orange Labs and our partner 123interview was also a success. The climax of that presentation was an interactive session where we asked attendees to show us their vision of innovation through a survey which contained 4 main sets of questions: 1) about our clients' views on the lifespan of innovation (from short to long term, what I have also called the 'innometer') 2) about our clients' 3 most important business issues where innovation could play a role 3) about the 3 main technologies which were on our clients' radar screen in order to solve their business issues (hence question 2) 4) about how favourable or unfavourable our clients were with regard to working jointly with one of their vendor. But it was no ordinary old fashioned paper-based survey, nor even was it a plain-vanilla online Internet survey.

Orange labs had designed a real-time digitally-enabled paper-based survey for us. What is it then? The paper-based survey - available here - was not printed on ordinary paper but using a special grid. The systems worked with a set of  Logitech digital pens linked to a bluetooth-enabled smart phone. Each time a client was filling in the form by ticking the boxes (two for each question, i.e. their vision for today and for tomorrow) and eventually ticking the send button at the end of the form, the data from that questionnaire was sent to a server (based in Grenoble, France) and crunched by the application and then sent back to an Internet page which was used to display the results in near real-time (in actual fact, the pages were refreshed every other minute). With this system, we were able to analyse the results in front of our clients and reflect their vision for innovation in real-time.   The system wasn't just designed for the survey, but also to show what we are able to do at Orange and Orange Labs for the benefit of our clients. Rather than just go at length about how beneficial our processes are and so on and so forth, we thought that showing an example of what can be achieved concretely was actually much more tale-telling. This kind of paper-form digitalisation is - by the way - being implemented with some of our clients, including a large European bank at this very moment. The potential for such tools is really extraordinary. No training and no special hardware are required nor awkward on-screen sign-off for instance. Plus each set of responses can be tracked to its original page and intelligent character recognition (ICR) can also be used (we could have had 'other please state' boxes in that survey for instance. In this particular instance, we chose not to, so that we wouldn't have to ask our attendees to form their letters correctly - a must in ICR - as it was really impractical in such a session. Imagine all the possible and almost endless applications in field-force automation for instance. The Innovation survey results (available here in pdf format) were very interesting too (statistically unrepresentative but the experience could be extended to wider representative samples at a later stage). These results can be used as basic assumptions, as we will see, they are mostly consistent with some of the feedback we have already had from direct conversations with clients). important notice: please note that in this analysis we only compiled the first eighteen responses to the survey Question 1 was about the  time to implement new ideas, and especially, our clients' preferred target time-frame for such innovation implementation.  The responses we  had  in that instance  were completely consistent with previous direct feedback we had time and time again, and which can be summed up by the tag line 'leading edge, not bleeding edge'. Clients are looking after innovations which they can implement rather fast in their organisations. This, by the way, is also consistent with IT management cycles, which are set around 3 years on average. The timeframe for change implementation is therefore bound to be less than 3 years, and this is reflected very well in our results since we received no answers for item 4. As to the today/tomorrow comparison, there are practically no differences between both sets of responses, except that maybe the focus is even more on short term implementation in the future (we would have to complement this survey with a representative sample if we wanted to know more about this). Question number 2 was not about technologies. Instead, it was about our clients' 3 (max.)  main business priorities (hence the number of responses which is above 18). This is an interesting result too. As it appears that today's focus is on CRM and collaboration in the workplace, it really seems that the workplace of the future is on the agenda for tomorrow. And we know for certain that plans are underway (in Paris and other cities) in order to revise the daily commuting plans and find new innovative ways to favour telework and innovative working practices (reduction of carbon emission and public transport overload are the main incentives in that respect) Question 3 was dedicated to the technologies that our clients were considering for the resolution of today's and tomorrow's business issues (re. question 2). On top of today's agenda, IP services on top of telephony over IP and it's true that such services (including seamless collaboration over TOIP are now possible because most enterprises have either implemented TOIP or are currently in the process of either rolling it out or designing new projects for it.  Number 2 technology for today is undoubtedly blogs and wikis in the workplace. Then come a number of other technologies such as nfc/remote tracking and tracing (that one came as a surprise) and telepresence which has been heavily promoted recently (namely by Cisco - check their webpage here). And telepresence actually comes first in tomorrow's list with 7 votes and then we'll find 4 other technologies, one of which being the very promising content-based routing/semantic web. Responses to question 4 at last, were like music to our ears as they confirmed our clients' willingness to take part in a team with one of their vendors. It proves once more that clients are not just seeking prices and that when a vendor is offering value added, clients are willing to follow new rules and open their books to take their fair share of the benefit of collaboration. And that's Marketing 2.0 for you ...

From fireworks to paint

I just came across this new advert from Sony.

I have a deep respect for whoever had the original idea, very original. But of course it doesn't end there, I stand in awe for those who actually proposed it and drove it through to completion. Just think about it: 2800 people working on a 70 sec add...

But does it really contribute to the image of Sony, do people associate it with them?

Innovation & cross media: Picnic '06

Last week I was at the Picnic '06, Cross Media Week in Amsterdam. Not only was the Westergasfabriek a nice location for meeting each other, the whole entourage and atmosphere I found very stimulating. But of course that was not the only reason I went...

During the three cross media-focussed days I heared 'between the lines', that a lot of succesfull (innovative) idea's spring from enthousiasm, teaming and creativity.

It was very cool to see the Pixar presentation by Michael B. Johnson, where the enthousiasm just spluttered all around when he gave us some insight in the process of creating a movie. On friday I listened to John Underkoffler (worked on Minority Report), talking about his view on the replacement of the current computermouse. He showed us a video of the Gesture Glove, in which enthousiasm and creativity were centric again...

Another thing I heared a lot at the Picnic was the buzz of 'user-generated content'. This is, as you probably all know, one of the most important factors in Web 2.0.

If I should name two companies that really get it (and inspire me), I'd say MTV Networks and Linden Lab (creators of Second Life).

• MTV Networks: because of projects like Digital Scout and Flux, that give young people the opportunity to make their generated content count in today's world. Simon Guild, President MTV Europe, said MTV is all about constantly pushing the creative boundaries. For the Flux concept in Italy, they promoted the website YOS.it. Nobody knew MTV was behind this, and the page was at first all black. For every visit another pixel appeared, till the whole Flux page was visible...
• Linden Lab, Second Life: because this game is all about what the users do with it. You can create your own house, company, cars, etc, and can even make a good living out of it. Where other games restrict their users, Second Life gives a lot of opportunities. For example, the PR company Text100 (also speaking at Picnic) opened it's first office in Second Life and even conferences are finding their way to this virtual world.

Of course there are a lot of other good examples, so feel free to put your favorites in the comments.

Finally I'd like to tell you about the presentation by Joseph Jaffe. Mostly revolving around his book Life after the 30 second spot, he tells the audience about the fact that consumers aren't stupid anymore and they're no longer impressed by 50 years of branding. The new branding is about engagement, reach out to your customers and connect with them. Sharing, respect, listening, working together...

I seriously started to doubt then and there, wheter the big companies with long history (such as IBM) are able to make the switch on time, to this new branding Jaffe talkes about... And if you'd ask me if they're able to handle Web 2.0? I think most traditional marketers and comms are scared as hell of customers having a voice.

An interesting quote for marketers from Jaffe, which I fully agree on: "Consumers know your brand better than you". Let's start learning from them!

Live commenting at the Weblog stand

The weblog is really starting to take off here at the Next Level event in High Tech Campus Eindhoven! Many enthousiastic reactions have come back to us from guests that think it is really powerful to have information up instantly after a session. Here is a guest that is commenting on the Healthcare blogpost at the Weblog stand.

'Innovation in Marketing' session III

Part 3 - Discussion two: How to create an innovative company?

Basis for the second discussion is:

"Companies in mature markets are focussing more on value topics withing the existing field of competition, then searching for value and possibilities on the outside."

The group immediately starts sharing experiences and examples about how they innovation within their company and how they think innovation should be:

From employment company point of view: "Our company is arranged in three sections and we now combine these three and have them working together." (...) "We grow in three ways: - expanding to foreign countries - improving products/services - creating new possibilities outside our borders." According to him, this last way of growth is very much about innovating, thinking and acting outside the borders.

"To really be innovative, you really have to shake things up and change your company dramatically." - media sector

"Mistakes need to be accepted to be innovative, there needs to be a budget for a 'playground' were there can be trial and error." - business services sector

"In our company there's not much structure and processes. We're all human and everyone needs something different. For us 'getting together' and discussing works really good. A lot of inspiration and new idea's come from this. It's not always productive, but we are all very passionate." - media sector

The discussion now comes back to 'innovation is about collaboration', the following comes to table:

Marketing should be integrated within the company, to create new concepts and possibilities. Especially the 'internal' collaboration with sales should be much more important. "Maybe sales and marketing should be integrated, if you really want to be successfull in innovation", someone from the advertisement sector brings across.

"'The new' really needs space to originate and develop. If you don't have this 'space', innovation can not happen." - electronics sector

Concluding on what's important to be innovative as a company and search for value and possibilities outside the current focus:

• Culture of orginisation. Leadership and creativity are leading.
• Collaboration is a key factor, different disciplines need to be combined.
• Customer insight is very important: what's happening in the marketplace?

'Innovation in Marketing' session II

Part 2 - The first discussion

Ruud Frambach starts with an introduction and poses the following discussion point:

"Marketing has lost it's strategic role in the organisation, and as a result of that the impact on strategic forms of innovation is limited."

The first question that rises immediately is: 'what is marketing?' One of the responses coming from the media corner: "Marketing is different in every organisation, at our company marketing doesn't even exist as a job title. Ten years ago 'marketing' was logical, but a lot has changed." (...) "For me a marketeer is someone that's really enthousiastic about his product and can convince others, very much like Steve Jobs from Apple."

Of course it's quite ambitious to 'create' a definition of marketing, but the discussion has started.

"Sometimes people are so focussed on the brands, they forget the customers" says someone from the consumerproducts sector. A thing everyone agrees on: marketing is all about external focus (clients, market, etc).

Coming from the business consulting angle: "Our marketing department is struggeling with the speed of developments of today. When another department starts something new, they come running after that to manage brochures and things like that."

Ruud summarizes the discussion:

• Labels for specific specialisms are not really necessary anymore, collaboration is more important.
• Marketing skills are definitely needed in a company.
• The customer value is really important, and a major point at strategic level. It should really be reaching the 'top level'.

'Innovation in Marketing' session I

Part 1 - The introduction round

The Marketing session that takes place this afternoon is 'invitation only'. 18 people from branches like transportation, consumerproducts, electronics, food sector, (new) media and more, have come together to discuss innovation in marketing and see how they can collaborate and share idea's and experience.

The kickoff is done by Barbara Vulto (IBM Marketing director Benelux), part of it is the 'introduction round'.

Some quotes:

"We're one of the few people having an innovation board for advertisment and strategy." - Consumerproducts sector

"You can only innovate by collaboration, we surely know something about it, but others also know a lot that we don't already have knowledge of. Furthermore, combining different disciplines is very important." - Media company

"Among other things, we're focussing on the 'life beyond the 30 second spot'. What can we do more than just commercials, innovation in communication is very important for us." - Also consumerproducts

Next Level event photo's

The photoalbum for Next Level event is now online. Every day photo's will be taken of the different sessions and will be updated regulary. If you'd like to have your own pictures added, please contact the Blog moderator.

Look at the pictures and feel the atmosphere...

Next Level event Photoalbum

Sparking a culture of innovation takes a life of its own

In the CEO Survey 2006 senior executives believe generating growth through innovation is essential for the success of their business. The survey points to six vital innovation enablers. One of them is a climate for creativity working environment, where inspiration thrives & creativity flourishes.

In The Ten Faces of Innovation you will find the human elements of innovation to the workings of your organization. It is about developing the personas of your team to maximize it influence on innovation. The right innovation project at the right time can spur a companywide movement.

As the InnovationNetwork defines: “People creating value through the implementation of new ideas”. All great movements are ultimately powered by humans. Which role(s) do you play as marketer in the innovation process to keep your business moving forward?

Communication expands

Communication expands: Personal message or Undercover Marketing? (From Conversationblog.com)

De rol van de klant in innovatie

Mobiliseer de creativiteit van de klant.
Eric von Hippel, hoogleraar aan MIT geeft in zijn boek “Democratizing Innovation” aan dat er een nieuwe vorm van innovatie op komst is. De klant of gebruiker speelt hierin een centrale rol. Dat wil niet zeggen dat de traditionele vorm op de researchafdeling niet meer werkt, maar ondernemingen moeten ook de klant in het innovatieproces betrekken. Zijn boodschap is helder: organisaties die de creativiteit van hun klanten niet mobiliseren, moeten dit nog maar eens opnieuw overdenken.

Samenwerken met klanten levert waarschijnlijk niet meer innovaties op, misschien zelfs wel minder. Maar de impact van een dergelijke innovatie is des te groter, omdat met en vanuit de klant wordt gedacht en gewerkt. Een van de gevolgen van dit open innovatieproces is dat er minder patenten kunnen worden vastgelegd. Is dat erg? Kan innovatie zonder patenten?

Denk eens aan open source software, dankzij Internet is het samenwerkingsmodel eenvoudig en krachtig en wordt kennis gemobiliseerd. Iedereen werkt mee aan een beter product vanuit zijn expertise dus iedereen wordt er beter van.

Een ander voorbeeld is terug te vinden op de website Leadusers.nl. Men roept hier consumenten op samen te werken aan nieuwe producten door mee te werken aan onderzoek. De resultaten van dit onderzoek worden door een grote Nederlandse producent van elektronicaproducten gebruikt om zinvolle innovaties op de markt te brengen. Deze innovaties worden dus opgestart vanuit ideeën van en samenwerking met klanten. Organisaties die dus open staan voor suggesties van klanten kunnen hun product of dienst sneller verbeteren.

In hoeverre ben jij als marketeer in dialoog met je afnemers en betrek je ze in de ontwikkeling van producten en diensten?

Perspectieven in Marketing

Innovaties zijn volgens Schlumpeter noodzakelijke stimuli tot economische ontwikkeling. Het runnen van een business zonder innoveren is dus eigenlijk geen echt ondernemen, maar meer het beheren van een organisatie. Ondernemerschap is dus een tweede noodzaak omdat kennis en technologie geen waarde hebben als zij niet worden omgezet in de innovatieve oplossingen en processen, volgens de schrijvers van het boek Innoveren.

Klanten zijn de bron van inspiratie als het gaat om innovatie.
Dankzij allerlei technologische innovaties kunnen afnemers en consumenten beter en sneller bepalen wat zij willen en wanneer zij het willen. Deze technologie stelt de organisatie ook in staat om klanten individueel rechtstreeks te benaderen en te betrekken bij de organisatie. Met andere woorden betrek je klanten bij je innovatieproces als je als ondernemer wilt innoveren.

In dit nieuwe paradigma speelt de strategische marketeer een essentiële rol. Vanuit het opbouwen van kennis over het communicatie en koopgedrag van de afnemers en consumenten, op individueel niveau, kan de marketeer als geen ander de onderneming aansturen op hoe in het spelen op deze relatie met klanten en hoe klanten betrokken willen worden bij jouw organisatie. Echter alleen door ondernemerschap kan de belofte van een innovatie tot realiteit worden gebracht en grote impact hebben. Voel jij je als strategisch marketeer ook ondernemer?