Mass Customization & Open Innovation News

Conference Review: European Open Innovation Summit in Brussels, May 2012

I was speaking about our "market for open innovation" study at the European Open Innovation Summit in Brussels last week.This was a new conference for me, but it was a good platform for exchange and discussion, and many of the usual suspects from teh field were there.

Here are a few observations from the presentations at this event I liked most.

 

PSION: Open Source Mobility

 

Presentation helt by Todd Boone, Dirctor, Open Innovation. PSION
 is a Toronto based company producing special-purpose handheld computers (inventory taking, logistics, etc.). After feeling stronger and stronger competition, they changed their business model from an internal closed R&D process to a modular open innovation approach.

And they are utilizing a toolkit for user innovation as their open innovation tool. Indeed, PSION is one of the very few companies that really out this method of OI into practice.

The present toolkit allows anyone to build new hardware products by combining pre-existing modules into new application. Anyone in the community can get the CAD files of all products and components. It also allows external people to integrate PSION's hardware components with external components.

The outcome for PSION:  Allowing to create new business opportunities very flexibly, especially in fields where the company had no previous experience. Take the medical device industry. Here, their open plattform allowed a fast cooperation with medical company that brought industry knowledge and customer needs, and could use the toolkit to easily develop a new device which now is co-marketed. Psion alone never could have entered this market easily.

Outcomes:

• Get new markets and new revenue models
• Create new products with higher margins, as these are out of the established competition
• Get differentiated, distributed products with faster time to market

Challenges:

• Convince all employees that open is not evil
• Get board to accept that they do not know where all target markets are; and what these markets want (tough insight to get for board / Psion's stratgey people),
• Competing philosphies: "We want to be innovative" (but in a domain we know) is offset by "We've never done that before ..." (we don't know how to handle it).
• Opening the business culture: Establish open attitude to listen and respond

 

LEGO: Making Open Innovation a Strategy at Lego

 

Presentation helt by Erik Hansen, Senior Director, Technology Innovation. LEGO since long is known as one of the companies that really take user innovation and lead user ideas seriously. With their new OI initiative, they want to expand this perspective from user innovation to technical and process innovation, too.

4 Value pools shall be tapped into by formal OI initiative

• Internal talent
• Entrepreneurs (lead users)
• Kids and AFoLs (creative customers)
• Companies and other profess. institutions (beyond a few established partnerships like with MII Media Lab)

4 pilot products

• Technical OI in the production area -> can we solve "unsolvable" problems in our manufactuing process by extenral input? (e.g. electricity, statische AUFLADUNG)
• improving the core LEGO experience through crowdsourcing (= building box set for the first time and then deconstructing it and building something again -> can we here create service innovation by crowdsourcing?
• A HR platform for internal OI
• Open Innovation platform (i.e. a Lego Factory 2.0 ?? -> build an established dialogue for customers to share their ideas and experiences)

 

NOKIA: Idea Crowdsourcing

 

Presentation helt by Pia Erkinheimo, Head of Crowdsourcing,.NOKIA's ideaproject.com, an online idea contest originating from this hypethesis: Who provides more value? A bored professional or an enthusiastic amateur?

Structured around different contest, e.g. ideas for a mobile micro-task platform, which git 900+ ideas.

In total Nokia got:

• 11,000 ideas
• 20,000 community members
• 21,000 "likings" of the community members
• 1,660,000 page visits of 10-60 min. per single visit

 

Under Armour: Being Open as Part of the Business Model: Trust for Open Innovation

 

Presentation helt by Jason Berns , Director of Innovation. Under Armour gave a very good presentation on the need of the US sports brand to build trust and be a good partner in open innovation. Jason shared great insight how the spirit of "sportsmenship" at UA is driving their open inovation initiative with smaller companies and individuals.

While it was inisghtful for me at this conference that managers in OI today are not (just) talking any longer about the "why" and "how" of open innovation, but much more about open innovation readiness, internal structurs, policies, capabilities etc., it was Jason's presentation that really reminded us the in the end the core success factor of OI will be to create a win-win partnership.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 5): PersonalNovel: Your Book, Your Story

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Personalized Books by PersonalNovel

Technology is something great. But at times, after a long day's challenging work, tied to computers, emails, cell phones etc. you might want to disconnect for a while. Sit back in your favorite chair and relax with a good book of your choosing. Not just any book, though. Your book. Your very own personal novel (or thriller, children's book....) in which you are the main character, a book personalized to read like it has been written just for you.

 PersonalNovel has been a pioneering company to turn this dream into physical reality, coming to you in the form of a nicely printed book, customized through an online editor to match the main character to your persona - or anybody else you would like to read about.

I am especially impressd by PersonalNovels dedication to get also small details correct, and their innovative business model turning a simple product into a new value preposition.

 

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Panels of the MC2012: (6) Developments in Configurators and Co-Design Toolkits

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the conference please see the official conference website. Note that this event is entirely held in German language, so will be the description of this panel.

 

In diesem Panel stellen Konfigurationsenexperten den State-of-the-Art vor und definieren die Entwicklungen der Zukunft

Prof. Dr. Alexander Felfernig ist international anerkannter Experte für Konfigurationssysteme und Professor für Angewandte Softwareentwicklung an der TU Graz. Er ist Autor zahlreicher Publikationen zum Thema und war 2010 Co-Editor des "International Journal of Mass Customization, Special Issue on Configuration." Auf der MC 2012 führt er in das Thema Konfigurationssysteme ein und moderiert das Panel.

Dr. Andreas Falkner ist Senior Research Scientist bei der Siemens AG Österreich und konzernweiter Experte für "Konfigurierung komplexer Produkte", wie z.B. elektronische Eisenbahnsicherungsanlagen. Dr. Falkner’s Lösungen können für den kommerziellen MC-Bereich als Lead-User-Anwendungen gesehen werden, die den Benchmark für die Zukunft setzen. In seinem Vortrag gibt er Einblicke in diese Welt der High-End-Konfiguratoren.

Marc Herling ist Geschäftsführer der Lumo Graphics GmbH, Hersteller von 3D-Produktkonfigurationen für namhafte Hersteller wie Mercedes Benz, ThyssenKrupp, Festo u.a. In seinem Vortrag "Umsetzung eines erfolgreichen 3D-Konfigurationsmanagements" erläutert er die Bedeutung und Herausforderungen von 3D-Visualisierungen anhand praktischer Beispiele.

Dr. Johann Füller ist Vorstand der Hyve AG und Ass.Prof. an der Universität Innsbruck. Seit über 10 Jahren hat sich die Münchner Innovationsagentur Hyve auf das Thema Kundenintegration spezialisiert. Bislang wurden hunderte Projekte mit den unterschiedlichsten Kunden (KMU, Weltmarken, Ministerien etc.) im In- und Ausland durchgeführt. In seinem Vortrag reflektiert er die Entwicklungen der Branche und der eingesetzten Interaktionssysteme, wobei er konkret auf den Trend "Gamification" eingeht.

Klaus Pilsl ist Gründer und Geschäftsführer der oberösterreichischen Softwareagentur IndiValue. Unter dem Namen Combeenation wird derzeit eine Internetplattform entwickelt, die es MC-Unternehmen ermöglicht, Ihren Produktkonfigurator online selbst einzurichten (= Konfigurator für Konfiguratoren). Klaus Pilsl wird in seinem Vortrag über die Besonderheiten seines Systems und seines Geschäftsmodells berichten.  

Im anschließenden Abschlusspanel werden die Ergebnisse der vorhergehenden Panels von den Panelmoderatoren zusammenfassend reflektiert und ein Ausblick auf die Zukunft gewagt.

Panels of the MC2012: (5) Retail Strategies for Mass Customization - Online, Offline and Hybrid

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the conference please see the official conference website. Note that this event is entirely held in German language, so will be the description of this panel.

 

MC ist kein reines Online-Konzept. In diesem Panel werden alternative Retail-Ansätze vorgestellt

Jochen Krisch ist einer der profiliertesten Experten für E-Commerce im deutschsprachigen Raum, Veranstalter der Konferenzreihe exceed und Herausgeber des Branchenblogs exciting commerce, der „Pflichtlektüre“ für alle E-Commerce-Schaffenden. Jochen Krisch beschäftigt sich seit Jahren mit zukunftsweisenden Geschäftsmodellen, Retailinnovationen und Mass Customization. Auf der MC 2012 moderiert der das Retailpanel.

Sven Renz war aktiver Bundesliga-Triathlet und gründete zusammen mit Ehefrau Martina Ertl den "Skischuhcustomizer" ertlrenz. Das Unternehmen verfolgt eine Brick-and-Mortar Vertriebsstrategie, wobei die Kundenmaße mit moderner Scantechnologie erfasst und die Schuhe in Handarbeit gefertigt werden. Das Sortiment wurde unlängst durch Trekking-, Lauf- und Golfschuhe ergänzt. Sven Renz berichtet über seine Erfahrungen und den Zuspruch vieler (z.T. sehr bekannter) Kunden ... 

Claudia Kieserling gehört zu den absoluten Pionieren der internationalen MC-Szene. Bereits 2001 eröffnete sie ihr Angebot für individualisierbare Damenschuhe. Hauptvertriebskanal von selve sind die Filialen in München und London ergänzt durch den Online-Shop. Im März 2012 gewann Claudia Kieserling die begehrte "Million Dollar Zazzle Innovation Challenge". In ihrem Vortrag spricht sie über die Möglichkeiten dieser neuen Kooperation.

Max Kickinger ist Komponist und "Soundbrander". Seit längerem ist zu beobachten, dass Immer mehr Marken ihren visuellen Auftritt durch Hörmarken ergänzen. In zunehmendem Maß ermöglichen es Unternehmen ihren Kunden auch, sich markennahe Sounds selbst zu kreieren bzw. wird das Einkaufserlebnis durch kundenspezifische Musikeinspielungen personalisiert, was dem Geschäftserfolg meßbar zuträglich ist. Max lässt uns die neuen Möglichkeiten hören.

Book Review: Brand Together: How co-creation generates innovation and re-energizes brands

Brand Together: How co-creation generates innovation and re-energizes brands 

By Nicholas Ind, Clare Fuller and Charles Trevail

Publisher: Kogan Page, ISBN-10: 0749463252

Availible via Amazon as paperback and kindle version

 

There already are many books on co-creation, but a team of people from UK based consultancy Promise has written a great new book that provides a very practice-focused perspective.  Promise has much experience in organizing co-creation for companies, and in this books it seems that they really share their tricks and learnings. 

Hence I really liked Part II (Part I is a general introduction into the topic, not bad, but nothing new), which provides hand-on advise along all stages of a co-creation project. 

The focus of the book is the large-scale global enterprise -- the typical client of Promise. Hence, there also is quite some emphasize on branding and co-creation of a meaning of a brand. Nice!

The official book website has more information about the book, the authors and even some exclusive content preview. 

Panels of the MC2012: (4) Trends, Promising Startups and Upcoming Opportunities in MC

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the conference please see the official conference website. Note that this event is entirely held in German language, so will be the description of this panel.

 

Im Startup Panel stellen junge Unternehmen ihre Erfahrungen und Erfolgsstrategien auf dem MC Markt vor

Heiko Vogelgesang betreibt seit 2008 den mittlerweile meistgelesensten deutschsprachigen Blog zum Thema Customization und Personalisierung. Auf egoo wird regelmäßig über die neusten Entwicklungen in diesen Bereichen berichtet. Heiko Vogelgesang ist ein ausgewiesener Kenner der MC-Startup-Szene, steht mit den meisten Gründern in persönlichem Kontakt und moderiert das Startuppanel auf der MC 2012.

Sabine Beck und Olga Dick sind Gründerinnen des Startups amoonic, bei dem Kunden online Schmuckstücke von ausgesuchten Designern wählen und individuell gestalten können. In ihrem Vortrag "Unser Weg zum besten Schmuck-Startup" berichten die beiden von der Entstehungsgeschichte des Unternehmens, von der Wahrnehmung von "customized Schmuck" im Onlinesegment und von der Wichtigkeit eines guten Teams.

Martin Meuser ist Geschäftsführer des Konfiguratorenherstellers customate sowie des Autofoliencustomizers carglam. In seinem Vortrag erläutert der "parallel entrepreneur" Meuser die Geschäftsmodelle seiner Gründungen und die besonderen Herausforderungen für Gründer in diesen Geschäftsfeldern.

Carina Schichl und Tanja Sieder studierten Design und Produktmanagement an der FH Salzburg und gründeten 2010 das Startup Nectar & Pulse, das anspruchsvoll designte Reiseführer bestehend aus Ratschlägen ausgesuchter "Soulmates", die auch online konfigurierbar sind, anbietet. In letzter Zeit wurde viel über dieses Startup berichtet; auch waren die beiden Gründerinnen Vortragende auf einer TEDX-Konferenz. Sie sprechen über Ihre Erfahrungen und die anstehenden Herausforderungen.
 

Panels of the MC2012: (3) Social Media as a Tool for Mass Customization and Co-Creation

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the conference please see the official conference website. Note that this event is entirely held in German language, so will be the description of this panel.

 

Das Social Media Panel behandelt vertieft den erfolgreichen Einsatz von Social Media bei MC-Unternehmen

Dr. Paul Blažek ist Mitveranstalter der MC 2012 und Initiator der weltweit größten MC-Konfiguratorensammlung Configurator Database. In Wien leitet er die von ihm gegründete Digital Full Service-Agentur cyLEDGE. Seit Jahren beschäftigt er sich mit dem Themen Mass Customization, Konfigurationsysteme und Social Media. Auf der MC 2012 moderiert Paul Blažek das New Media Panel.

M. Partl und C. Streichsbier sind Social Media Expertinnen bei cyLEGE. In ihrem Vortrag erläutern sie die neuesten Entwicklungen auf dem Gebiet und konkretisieren die fruchtvolle Verbindung von Mass Customization und Social Media am Beispiel des aktuellen cyLEDGE Projekts CowCrowd, bei dem die intagible Welt der virtuellen Communities auf originelle Art und Weise greifbar gemacht wird.

Catharina van Delden ist Gründerin der Open-Innovation-Agentur innosabi. Ihr Startup, wie besonders ihre Crowdsourcing-Plattform unserAller, wurde in den letzten Jahren mit zahlreichen Preisen ausgezeichnet. Auf unserAller können Unternehmen (bekanntestes Beispiel: dm) zusammen mit Ihren Kunden Produkte und Dienstleistungen entwickeln. Catharina van Delden spricht über die Erfahrungen der letzten Jahre und die Wichtigkeit der Einbindung von Social Media in ihr Geschäftsmodell.

 Renate Gruber ist ausgebildete Grafikdesignerin und Österreichs erste professionelle Cake Designerin. Sie sammelte zunächst mehrere Jahre Erfahrung mit dem Online-Customizer kekswerkstatt.at und betreibt in Wien nun seit eineinhalb Jahren ihr eigenes CupCake- und Designtortengeschäft. In Ihrem Vortrag spricht sie über die vielfältigen Möglichkeiten von Social Media zur Bekanntmachung ihres Angebots.

Panels of the MC2012: (2) Global Brands Going Towards Mass Customization and Co-Creation

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the conference please see the official conference website. Note that this event is entirely held in German language, so will be the description of this panel.

 

Bei diesem Panel liegt der Schwerpunkt auf dem Thema Kundenintegration bei großen Marken

Franz Blach ist seit 2009 bei IDEO und zuständig für die Bereiche Communication & Interaction Design sowie Brand Strategy. Er ist Träger zahlreicher internationaler Designpreise und Gründer zweier Designagenturen. Zu seinen Kunden zählen Marken wie Novartis, McDonalds, Ravensburger und Chiquita. In seinem Vortrag wird er auf die besondere Rolle des Kunden im IDEO-Designansatz (design thinking) sowie über die openIDEO-Initiative sprechen.

Franz Hölzl ist Marketingleiter bei Kaindl Flooring, einem der weltweit führenden Unternehmen für Laminat- und Holzfußböden, mit Standorten in Salzburg und Lungötz. Durch Investition in flexible Fertigungsverfahren ist es seit einigen Jahren möglich, Fußböden zu individualisieren. In seinem Vortrag berichtet Herr Hölzl über die Erfahrungen der letzten Jahre und wagt einen Blick in die Zukunft.

Wolfgang Gruel ist Business Innovator bei der Daimler AG in Stuttgart, wo er unter anderem die Projekte car2go und car2together mitbetreut. Daimler ist nicht nur durch sein umfangreiches Fahrzeug-Customization-Angebot bekannt, sondern es werden zunehmend auch Aktivitäten unternommen, die Kunden und Mitarbeiter aktiv in den Innovationsprozess miteinzubeziehen. Wolfgang Gruel erläutert in seinem Vortrag die verschiedenen Bereich der Kundenintegration bei Daimler.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 4): Dell - the original mass customizer

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Computer mass customization pioneer Dell

"The computer is personal again". Right, this marketing slogan was not Dell's but rather part of HP's great campaign in 2006. Yet, it would also have been very fitting for the former, one of the pioneers in online PC mass customization. I vividly remember times when the dell concept to offer computers, individually assembled to the customer's choices and needs, all through a (mostly) convenient online backend and delivered within a few days (plus good aftersales service) was mind-boggling innovative. The PC did longer have to be one that vendors pre-assembled en mass, one that was ok in general but always had one or two components that did just not work for you. Now it could be your PC, a truly Personal Computer.

Over 25 years after Dell's debut on the technology market, we took a look on how their mass customization concept has evolved over time and where it stands today, compared to a number of competititors incomparable to those of decades ago. More about Dell's history at their homepage.

 

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Panels of the MC2012: (1) Introduction and Recent Trends in Mass Customization

As promissed in my post about this year's MC2012 conference we will briefly feature each of the seven panels here. For more information on the entire program please see the official conference website. Since the conference is entirely in German language, this description also will be in German. 

 

Die Konferenz startet am 29. Juni mit dem Begrüßungspanel.

Prof. Dr. Dominik Walcher leitet den Fachbereich Marketing und Innovationsmanagement im Studiengang Design und Produktmanagement der FH Salzburg und ist wissenschaftlicher Leiter des internationalen Forschungsprojekts "The Customization 500" der MIT Smart Customization Group. Als Organisator der MC 2012 übernimmt er die Eröffnung der Veranstaltung und stellt in seinem Vortrag die zentralen Ergebnisse der Studie vor. 

Dr. Christoph Ihl ist Habilitand am Lehrstuhl für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement der RWTH in Aachen. Seit Jahren forscht und publiziert er zu den Themen Mass Customization und Open Innovation. Seine Dissertation "Marketing for Mass Customization" wurde mit zahlreichen Preisen ausgezeichnet. In seinem Vortrag wird er über die grundlegenden Motive sprechen, warum Kunden Mass-Customization-Produkte kaufen und an Open-Innovation-Aktionen teilnehmen.

Thorsten Harzer ist Senior Consultant bei der Boston Consulting Group. In seiner Dissertation beschäftigt er sich mit Erfolgsfaktoren von Mass-Customization-Unternehmen. Zu diesem Zweck hat er die Firmen der Studie "The Customization 500" befragt. Die Antworten der teilgenommenen 120 Unternehmen (Großfirmen wie Startups) lassen konkrete Schlüsse auf die zentralen Stellgrößen der MC-Branche zu.

Prof. Dr. Frank Piller ist Mitveranstalter der MC 2012, Co-Autor der Studie "The Customization 500", Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Technologie- & Innovationsmanagement an der RWTH Aachen und Gründer der Smart Customization Group am MIT. In seinem Vortrag fasst er die zentralen Punkte der voran gegangenen Vorträge zusammen und erläutert konkret, wie Unternehmen von Kundenintegration profitieren können.

MC2012: 10th Edition of Our German-language MC Community Conference: Profiting from Customer Integration

Note: This conference will be held in German language. Find much more info in German language here.

On June 28/29, the German speaking mass customization community will again assemble in the city of fine arts, Salzburg, Austria, for the MC2012, the 10th edition of our German-language mass customization and co-creation community meeting. 

Created and organized by my dear collegues Dominik Walcher (University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg) and Paul Blažek (founder/ CEO of cyLEDGE and initiator of the Configurator Database) as well as myself, this edition will be all about strategies to profit from customer integration of various kinds. 

The conference will be heading off on Thursday, 28th of June with an intensive workshop conducted by Dominik Walcher and Paul Blažek on principles and practical application of MC and OI. Following the demonstration of the concepts by use of numerous case studies, participants will be invited to and assisted in practicing their newly gained knowledge by employing it on a chosen real life case. This workshop is especially interesting for those not very firm with the MC concept yet and can be booked individually from the second conference day (29th)

On the following day, Friday 29th, the main event will take place in the halls of the University of Applied Knowledge of Salzburg.

Divided into seven panels we will (try to) cover all main aspects of (applied) Mass Customization and Open Innovation. Each panel will consist of presentations by three to four experts from science and business with a strong stressing of professional practicioners from successful MC companies. The will share some of their knowledge, experiences and invaluable tips & tricks on the topics of

• Brands
• New media
• Startups
• Retail and
• Configurators

While these are the main topics, other aspects of successful MC/ OI employment will be part of the presentations as well. As you can see the conference will adress a broad range of aspects to be considered when setting up or expanding one's own innovation strategy, ranging from the underlying design to technical realization, creating a successful brand around the business and finally get customers to actually buy the product. 

In addition, we are also organizing an exhibition with numerous MC companies demonstrating their offering.If you are interested in presenting your (MC/ OI/ Co- Creation related) company or institution as part of the exhibition, just send an email to Dominik Walcher for more information on free ehibition space and the possibility to become a conference sponsor with special ways to present yourself.

Special offer:

• Early bird conference rate: Use the early bird ticket offer until the 31st of May.
• MC2012-MC500 Bundle: Get the MC 500 study at a special reduced price. Please do contact Dominik Walcher to inquire about this special offer as well!

In some upcoming posts, we will present the individual panels and speakers in more detail, so stay tuned.

I would be glad to meet you all in person there and discuss the latest development and future perspectives of MC and OI in person! All further info on the MC 2012 conference website.

Winners Announced: Idea Bird Contest by Deutsche Telekom came to a Conclusion

Some weeks ago I posted about Ideabird, q large scale ideation contest on M2M-Communication hosted by Deutsche Telekom, Deloitte, Hyve and RWTH Aachen. Last Friday, the jury decided on the winning ideas. 

As you may remember, the contest's intend was to to create awareness for the positive effects that M2M applications can have for life, work and society and to stimulate innovation across industries. By gathering opinions and ideas from a broad base of creative participants and challenging them with a scientific point of view, future fields of research within this area were to be identified.

Participation was far beyond any prediction with several hundreds of submissions being sent in, despite the rather specific topic of this contest. Another great example that idea contests can reach and activate a really large audience, even if the questions asked would at first glance indicate a rather closed (small) community of experts.

Picking the very best out of the large number of really innovative, sometimes easy-yet-brilliant ideas was really no simple task. After long and intense consideration, confering and discussion we finally decided to award the three first prices (third was a split, just could not decide...) to the following ideas which we deem really really interesting:

1st Price ($5000)

Emergency triangle

The Submission: The idea is to incorporate an chip in the emergency tringles, alerting other drivers to the dangers they will encounter on the road.
How it works?

When the car has a breakdown or accident on the road is required to signal the Occurrence to other drivers. When mounting the triangle on the road, he activates a chip that transmits a warning signal by GSM to your Gps device on car or other alert system. The signal has a radius of 1 km, to not create confusion to drivers. Simple to apply, low cost and very useful for ensuring security in regional roads with low visibility.

Jury Statement: "The Emergency Triangle convinced us because it is a unique and innovative idea with the goal of increasing safety on the streets. It's a typical product, which everybody knows, and at the same time the idea offers a new and very concrete benefit that only becomes possible through M2M. Therefore it fits perfectly to the contest. The potential for such a solution is also huge - it may be placed in cars by manufacturers or offered as a valuable present for clients."

2nd Price ($3000)

M2M Remote Parking Disc

The Submission: In many countries parking discs are a common way to for authorities to see how long a car parks on a short term parking spaces. For example in germany there are parking lots where you are only allowed to stay for 90min.
Everybody has made this experience: One coffee too much in Saturdays shopping fever, overslept maximum parking time, got a ticket.

The idea is a parking disc which is controlled by a mobile phone or smartphone. When parking you send a sms or datapush by your smartphone to set the time - for example: 90min - the parking disc sets the wheel on the right time. After 85min the parking disc sends a SMS with a warning, so you have enough time to get back to the car, without getting a ticket.

Extra function: When the parking-disc is in "parking-mode" but suddenly moves (changes GPS coordinates) you get a warning, that your car might have been stolen. So actually the parking disc is also a alarm system for your car.

Jury Statement: "The Remote Parking Disk is the most innovative gimmick we have seen in the contest. It provides great help in our everyday life, fits perfectly to the contest and inspires many other applications. "

3rd Price (Split decision, $1000 each)

#1: Pizzatracker - where is my pizza?

The Submission: What a nice benefit: You know exactly when your ordered pizza will arrive!!!

Often the pizza supplier says: "....in approximately 30 minutes you will get your pizza". This could be 20, 25, 30 or e.g. 40 minutes. Nobody knwos it exactly, the answer knows only the wind.

With a tracking-code, which is given during the order-call, the customer gets a self-service possibility to trace the delivery and knows exactly when it will arrives. A delivery tracker would be a new service for the customer and therefore a unique feature compared to other delivery services: The communication in advertising!

Advantages:
- use the delivery time very effective for other doings - you are flexible
- you will get nervous until reach the 30-minutes-border: now you are safe, that the pizza service haven`t forgot the order
- the acitvation on suppliers website will increase
- process costs will decrease
- new and innovative communcation opoortunities

Jury Statement: "The Pizza Tracker addresses an interesting business by providing an innovative M2M-based solution to industrialized delivery services. It may fascinate customers of these services who probably like using online tools, and could boost service quality to a new level. It also provides great benefits to the service provider as an excellent tool for differentiation. "

#2: Modern Hide & Seek

The Submission: The idea is to modernize tradition game of Hide & Seek and bring kids back to playgrounds. We are all witnesses of today's kids behavior of mostly playing games in front of computer monitors and spending most of their time in front of it. This idea aims to change such unhealthy behavior by upgrading the game of Hide & Seek to 21st century standards.

Product would consists of bracelet/receiver with display.
Bracelet would have two basic functions:
- send location signal;
- receive location signal;
Traditional game of Hide & Seek is mostly static, but with idea of bracelet locator it could become more intense.
Hiding players would be allowed to move around predetermined territory making game more interesting.
Bracelets would also have delay setting so if you want to make the game a little bit harder, you would just set higher value for delay signal (15 seconds for example).

Additionally parents could download dedicated app to their smart phones and watch location of their children at any time.

Jury Statement: "With the help of M2M, Modern Hide & Seek brings one of the most popular children's games into the age of geocaching. It thereby allows bunch of new rules - really the next generation of Hide & Seek. "

These and more submissions as well as the lively community interaction can also be seen on the official contest website.

Congratulations to all winners! Even if your idea did not make it to the top three (four...), thank you very much for your participation! As said, picking the winners was an extremely tough, close decision and I really look forward to your ideas in one of the upcoming idea contests (that I will keep you up to date on in this blog)!

Open Service Innovation: BOSCH Launches OI Community Dedicated to Auto Mechanic Services

Bosch, one of the world's leading suppliers for (professional and personal) electronics and tools, has taken another interesting step in opening their innovation process. 

Bosch is not a new player in this field, already providing a general idea plattform where you can both submit solutions to specific problems and get the chance to send in and present your very own revolutionary idea for the next big product (enhancement). 

Now Bosch has taken things one step further. Seeing how automotive componentes and electronics are a major branch of their business they decided to go where problem-knowledge and improvement-ideas are most likely to be found: with the professional employer of Bosch's tool, the mechanic. 

In light of this realization, Bosch has recently launched the Bosch Open Innovation Plattform, specifically dedicated to professional garages and their employees. 

The concept of this community (which is so far in German language only) is twofold: The core-piece is a forum where professionals can discuss problems they may encounter during their work with Bosch's tools as well as exchange tips and tricks with colleagues from all over the nation (and the world, provided they understand German). Dedicated Bosch staff is also present on these forums so a direct interaction with company representatives is possible.

Next to this the plattform features an "Idea" section in which users (upon free registration) can submit their ideas about product enhancements and new solutions that they deem helpful/ necessary to better employ the company's products in "real life". Browsing through already submitted ideas is possible without registration. And of course you can submit ideas on how to improve the plattform itself (there even is an own section for this topic). 

A complementary "News" section is used by the company to transmit additional information deemed valuable for their target group. 

So far Bosch's concept seems to be rather successful with 400+ registered users and already 72 submitted ideas as of today, ranging from improved knowledge databases to concrete improvements of software provided by Bosch. It will be very interesting to observe where this communty of experts will go and which concrete outcomes it will produce. In any case a very good example of open innovation employment beyond "just" putting another idea website out there and wait. 

Executive Training: The Customer Centric Organization - three perspectives to profit from the fact that all people are different

Today I would like to inform you all about an intensive workshop that my colleagues Fabrizio Salvador and Martin Boehm as well as myself will be conducting at IE Business School in the beautiful city of Madrid, Spain. Three days dedicated to one of the most contributing factors in building and running a successful business: Putting the customer's desires first.  

Building a Customer-Centric Organization
Outperforming your Competition in Profitability 

June 18th - 20th, 2012
IE Business School, Madrid, Spain

Building a Customer-Centric Organization is a challenging three-day international executive program designed to help executives turn their customer's heterogeneous needs into an opportunity for value creation through the development of concrete capabilities applicable to any organizational setting by evaluating three fundamental aspects within their firms:

• Their customer base
• The state of their competition and 
• The technological capabilities and innovation mindset available to them.

The stagnation of consumption and the proliferation of highly heterogeneous and diverse customer needs are forcing executives today to refocus their product and service portfolios and respond to their client’s needs or risk losing them to the competition.

Yet, for any organization to be able to manage this changing dynamic all aspects of the business must be aligned with the goal of understanding customers, revamping their product and service offerings to match the target customer-value proposition, while redesigning organizational culture, incentives systems and processes accordingly.

Today’s executives must develop a holistic view of the principles around which organizations can redesign themselves to tap into the benefits of customer-centricity and gain insight into the issues and solutions associated to such vast organizational change processes.

Participants will develop a sound understanding of how to:

• Analyze the impact of customer centricity on revenues, profitability and growth. 
• Understand the organizational implications of customer-centric strategies and the changes that need to be made.
• Structure their organization by customer segments that establish ownership of the customer experience.
• Delight their customers by delivering value propositions that competitors cannot match.
• Achieve customer satisfaction by understanding and adapting to customer needs rapidly and efficiently.
• Identify and exploit all customer channels.
• Measure customer value for long-term profitability.
• Implement a customer-focused culture within their organization.
• Innovate by improving the value propositions offered to customers.

Additional information about this executive  program, a detailed schedule and all important registration data can be found on the workshop website (courtesy of IE Business School). I'm looking forward to discuss these challenging concepts with you in person in Madrid!

Participate at Idea Contest: Brining the Walking Frame (Rollator) into the Future

Our German readers can find a German version of this post here.

Mobility is one of the key requirements for maintaining an independent lifestyle up until a high age. Today, most seniors are able to depend on themselves - as more than 90% of all 65-years olds live under their own roof in good health.

But what happens, when leaving home, to go shopping or to meet with friends, is getting increasingly difficult with a higher age? What if somebody’s mobility declines, even though he or she does not depend on help permanently?

A small daily help in such situations can be a walking frame. In Germany, there are almost two million walking frames in use, with a yearly selling rate of another 500.000 pieces.

Unfortunately, not all of these are as fancy and safe as one would wish. Furthermore, the German consumer protection agency Stiftung Warentest found insufficiencies regarding stability and safety of walking frames tested last year.

But what could the superstar of walking frames look like? It has to be handy and safe, yet also has to incorporate personal desires concerning the design and accessories to overcome it's still somewhat dusty image.

To find answers to these questions, German League of Seniors, in cooperation with partners from both the business and academic world and sponsored by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has initiated a large-scale idea contest to improve the famous walking aid. 

In the context of the idea contest “Stil:sicher unterwegs”, everybody is asked to give their input on how to improve the walking frame.

If you want to be on the team for developing completely new and innovative solutions for the walking frame of the future, here is your chance! May it be a GPS-assisted emergency notification system, an attached reading aid or a built-in minicomputer that helps to identify (individually) tolerable food: the only limit is your imagination. 

On the project homepage you can find more detailed information on the contest and the process of turning in your own ideas. Submissions are open until June 15th, 2012. You can also view and comment on already submitted ideas. Afterwards, a panel of experts will decide on the winning ideas which will be presented to interested companies and institutions and hopefully make it into future products. 

So, what is your idea (incremental or wild) to bring the walker /rollator into the future? Submit it here!

PS: The modern walker, the Rollator, of course itself is a lead user innovation, invented by the Swede Aina Wifalk in 1978, herself a polio sufferer.