Customer collaboration and co-creation are relatively new ideas. However, as we have seen in class and through readings, more and more companies are taking on these practices and many new companies are solely based off these practices. Gaurav Bhalla, a strategy, innovation, and marketing professional with global experience, examined how customer collaboration and co-creation are becoming mainstream business practices. The ideas are being featured in many conferences around the world with companies like Local Motors being in the spotlight. Further, nonprofit organizations and government agencies are taking advantage of these strategies. See Global Pulse 2010, which was put into place after Obama's speech delivered to the Muslim world in Cairo. It was "a 3 day online collaboration and global conversation" attracting participants from over 155 countries resulting in about 10,000 ideas and opinions. We see here that this idea of collaboration and co-creation can span across cultures. The best part about it- all of us can contribute in any which way. Raj Shah, a key organizer of Global Pulse 2010 quotes, "By listening to each other and collaborating, each of us can become an agent of change and contribute to innovative and sustainable solutions to local and international challenges."
When I hear the word, "innovation" I typically think of high-tech and expensive new offerings such as the iPhone, Dyson vacuum, and the GM Volt. Indeed, these are the types of innovations that grab headlines and engender high levels of consumer awareness. However, these offerings appeal to only a small subset of consumers (i.e., those living in advanced consumer economies). According to Mahajan and Banga (2005), nearly 90% of our planet's inhabitants live in nations with a per-capita GDP of less that $10,000 (US). Clearly, these individuals have a much different set of consumer needs and desires than the typical American and are highly unlikely to be able to afford (or even need) an iPhone, Dyson, or Volt. Consequently, there is a tremendous need for low-tech innovations geared to this vast population of consumers. While this need appears to have been ignored by most corporations, it has attracted the attention of Professor Amy Smith, who directs MIT's D-Lab, which focuses on creating innovative solutions for inhabitants of developing nations. This lab has produced a number of interesting innovations such as non-toxic charcoal made from corn husks and sugar cane. The importance of affordable low-tech innovation has also been recently recognized by Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase, who has discovered that in developing nations such as India, local street vendors who recycle and reuse old cell phones are posing a major competitive threat. Given current growth projections, over the next decade, the population of developed nations will shrink and get older, while the population of developed nations with grow and get younger. Thus, innovation directed towards the developing world is likely to be the main growth are for most firms. Is your firm prepared to meet this challenge?
