Customers

Customers (1985)
Financial advice (3)
Legal advice (26)
Management expertise (5)
Skilled labor (17)

Synopsis: Entrepreneurship: Start-up resources: Customers:

Planned obsolescence CAS 13 and manipulation of customers lead to accumulation of waste and waste economy.

Advertisement-based business models empowered by Internet make customers unhappy with what they have and push them to buy something newer and better right now (consumerism).

entailing the recovery and resale of customers'unwanted or old products. By giving them a second life as spare parts or complete systems

what customers want from products is not necessarily the ownership, but rather the function that the product provides

imagine that customers absolutely need their products and they are rather pushing their solution instead of listening,

adapting and anticipating the customers'needs MER 11. When they address large companies, sometimes they do not focus on the right person, for example an Information Chief Officer instead of users.

It imposes a close relation of companies with their customers and their involvement in the collaborative innovation process.

knowledge of customers, their needs and motivations; knowledge of context (policy, taxes, legislation, prices and trends;

considering real customers'needs and prototyping with them the products/applications able to provide an intelligent help

The concept is based on the idea that customers may want the function that the product provides

However the involvement of customers, evaluation of impact and of progress, on regular basis, is not yet general.

Involving customers may improve their real impact; the possibility to send feedback is given only using their multiple choice survey

he gives example of Onstar telematics providing information to passengers for their safety and emergency service to customers.

Telematic is solely about providing paid service to customers. While customers may feel more secure,

the author does not explain if and how the customers participate in the innovation process of provider.

Another more convincing case for the above approach is those of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) public private organization.

and to connect with their customers (resellers), providers and other related partners. Faced with competition from China some companies went bankrupt leaving a precious space in the center of Paris. The association Silicon Sentier was born in 2000 with the aim to offer digital services in this area.

Why future customers need it, what the connections with existing environment are, what the best solution is,

Customers and pilot users may provide considerable help all along the innovation lifecycle. Science was split into various areas

132,138 141,145, 149,150, 160,161 curiosity, 73,164, 168,174 customers, 13,55, 62,71, 77,79, 124,128, 143,153, 163,177 cyber-physical systems, 21 D data centers

where customers suggest new recipes for drinks and food, among other ideas. The growing trend to involve customers in innovation processes seems to be fostered by the possibilities that the various IT-supported collaboration systems of the digital age offer.

Online platforms, social media, and mobile apps, for example, are used increasingly to technologically support collective efforts to develop new products and services,

in order to develop‘intelligent products'for customers and accelerate the time-to-market. Advanced manufacturing methods such as prototyping and ramp-up are applied to support

Just like your customers'do. To take a classic example of this, consider Virgin Mobile (Sawhney, Wolcott, & Arroniz, 2011).

and data service to its targeted customers (primarily teens and young adults) consistent with its youthful, innovative brand.

Instead, it has chosen to wire together (compose) existing services from other service providers to achieve the bulk of its end-to-end service offering to its customers,

thereby offering a unique value proposition to its mobile customers. In general, an organizational service architecture, with decreasing levels of granularity, might appear as shown in Fig. 1 below. 32 R. J. Welke 1. 2 Service Types The word service invariably evokes different notions

say the MIT process framework) may not have well-defined customers, problems to be solved or solutions provided.

and whom its customers are. There are many excellent frameworks and summaries on business models, including an older

and execution that successfully differentiates, in the minds of your internal or external customers, your service/process approach to their job-to-be done. 4 Business model Service Process Innovation The term innovation has many meanings and interpretations.

or completely) address the customers'problemto-be solved. As a process owner, your first (and arguably primary) job is to define what the value proposition (s) are for the service-process you're internally (organizational customer)

3. How should you differentiate your offering so as to dominate those of others that offer a similar (perceived) value proposition to the customers you're seeking to attract or retain?

it is argued that any business process presents itself to its consumer as a business service that attempts to solve the customers'problem.

with a presumed clientele drawn from either internal or external customers. Regardless of demand origin (internal or external) there are competitors to the offered service.

Conversely, an organization, with an existing client base, may be interested in better differentiating its offerings to external customers

the market of competitive offerings as well as the alignment of the process that delivers this value, through the service, to the market of customers for it.

How to create products and services customers Want (1st ed.).Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Porter, M. E. 1998.

greater transparency and insights into processes for both internal workers and external customers or business partners;

or business partners and customers from their own 52 S. Kemsley location. Since cloud applications typically do not require licensing and installation on the user's computer or mobile device,

Yet, it is still not well researched how companies can harness the various benefits for using social media to better involve both employees and customers in various phases of the business process life cycle.

or with customers) and provide examples for each type. 1 Introduction The business processes within the organization need to be modelled continually,

The monitoring phase can benefit from including SM for (1) receiving the (quantitatively measured) data and feedback from all stakeholders of the network and (2) sharing the process performance results with co-workers and customers/end-users alike.

and feedback on process performance to employees Enabling real time visibility and feedback on process performance to customers or suppliers Process improvement phase Gathering and evaluating ideas for process improvement from employees Gathering

and try to engage end-customers on one hand and suppliers on the other, as much as possible (Aguilar-Saven, 2004;

customers are included then rarely in the modeling itself. The lack of direct participation in the modeling process could be avoided by including SM.

Customers can even participate in the modeling of processes in which they are involved directly and sometimes attain a better or at least a different view on them,

or to distribute process execution onto customers. An example of the former is the airline company TAP,

since the customers affect the process. SM can facilitate customer communities where customers can give immediate feedback

and see real-time information. Such openness of the organization seems risky and can be met with initial resistance by the management.

when Amazon introduced customers'comments and allowed critics to be visible online. As controversial as this seemed to some managers in the organization

By doing so, the company can bring the customers closer to the process. The external stakeholders are in this case not only limited to customers,

but extend to business partners as well, acting as internal customers (Weske, 2013). SM are targeted flexible to user needs,

often designed by users themselves and allow many types of content to evolve through a wide variety of collaborative processes (Von Krogh, 2012).

since customers and business partners can submit and assess improvement and innovation suggestions. Some companies enable customers to decide on change prioritization,

i e. voting on which suggestions are most important to them and should be implemented next. The open innovation site of the coffee shop chain Starbucks (My Starbucks Idea) is an example of such an open innovation approach;

its idea was to receive innovation suggestions from its customers (Starbucks, 2013. The latter provide the company with either product,

experience or involvement ideas that are rated by customers and those most endorsed are put into practice,

thus realizing exactly what the customers desired the most. 5 Conclusion SM can provide an excellent way of bridging the gap between the potential rigidness of well-structured

How to use social media to tap the collective genius of your customers and employees. Boston, MA:

and is distinguished usually from product innovation processes targeting new products for customers. B. Schenk(*)Institute of Information systems, University of Liechtenstein, Fu rst-Franz-Josef-Str. 21,9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein e-mail:

Currently, the market penetration is low, with the Progressive Casualty Insurance company in the US as the market leader with around 1. 4 million customers in their program (Insurance Telematics, 2012.

If P & C is a market leader in the Nordic countries with approximately 3. 6 million customers in Sweden.

and sales process by getting a new customer channel and improved customer relations through the new possibility of communicating to their customers via the smartphone;(

by identifying the dedicated customers; and (3) the insurance company also gains new possibilities to innovate their business model by cooperating with new key partners,

such as companies with customers who are car reliant, for example gas retailers. 3 The Case of the

and mobile application that attracts car-drivers, especially new customers, based on the core-technology; Increase sales volumes;

, existing customers as well as potential customers. Fig. 2 Examples of the smartphone interface and feedback to car-drivers

The purpose of the commercial release was to implement the smartphone application in real driving scenarios with larger group customers/car drivers.

, creating salesvolumes and acquiring new customers. 3. 1 The Process Innovation: Customer Acquisition Process The application of the smartphone-based UBI telematics transformed the insurer

The insurer delayed the roll out of the new insurance product to mainstream customers. Process Innovation with Disruptive Technology in Auto Insurance 95

it failed to recruit the desired amount of new customers. Most of the users were already customers of If P & C. However,

the If Safedrive application created much attention among end users. During the first 48 h after the application was released on Appstore,

Or Insurer makes an outbound call to recruit new customer Consumer makes insurance request through Smartphone App New customers recruitments are made by word-of-mouth, e g. inviting friends, social communities, etc.

Price calculation Based on the static demographic data and historical statistics Based on the dynamic changes of driving behaviour (UBI) Customers get an accurate and personalized price.

and analysing customers'driving behaviour. The insurer did improve the knowledge of predicting driving risks.

For instance, they criticized that the insurance industry's hunger to chart customers in real-time may prove larger than Facebook and Google (Computersweden, 2013.

The technology, based on many years scientific research, has created a novel way of offering auto insurance products to customers by analysing their driving behaviours.

2012), conducted through open innovation with customers or other stakeholders (Chesbrough, 2003), or through a focus on mergers and acquisitions to source innovative new products, services or business models.

when we account for differences in environmental conditions such as number of customers frequenting the supermarket every day (a bakery in Paris will always sell more bread rolls than a bakery in Vaduz,

the bandwidth of average sales performance by the number of customers is indicated by the two lines traversing the diagram at a 45angle.

000 bakeries are true positive deviants that sell significantly more given their number of customers.

so that customers can always get their hands on the products they desire. Anticipating demand in advance to allow for the delivery of products on time involves forecasting predictions about future demands based on past sales.

who use data from an information system, together with their detailed knowledge of local customers, local events and all other factors that will influence sales.

because goods from different customers are aggregated often and dis-aggregated at different points in the process.

MOBP captures both condition-creating processes for establishing a basis for the realization of value propositions aimed towards potential customers as well as realizing business transactions with particular end-customers.

Beneficiaries of such processes are end-customers utilizing the products being offered through value propositions from a main actor in the business network,

Multi-organizational business processes both cover actions performed for potential as well as particular end-customers. Actions performed for potential customers are oriented towards the establishment of conditions for efficient realization of customer assignments as well as embedded/integrated assignments.

Successful multi-organizational businesses rely on the ability to coordinate value creation processes based on assignments as coordination mechanisms, throughout the value chain using network capabilities.

Suppliers and customers are defined not explicitly in this example; also, inputs and outputs are shown not. 3 Process Map Design and Its Impact In this section,

For example, the processes shown in the core process category win customers and control sales are clearly a subset of the core process sales.

customers'individual needs, requirements of business networks, or changing laws. Current technological progress and the ongoing trends to analyze business data quasi in real-time will,

and companies with their customers to achieve dramatic improvements in efficiency and create value for everyone involved (Champy, 2002, p. 3). For instance, in a business-to-business environment,

(or customers) have an account with one or more of the social media tools like Twitter,

As such, social CRM means truly listening to customers, wherever they are, responding, anticipating and making the commitment to improve products and services.

in order to turn fans and followers into customers and even advocates of a brand. Consequently, social CRM has a real impact on both existing and new business processes,

and collaboration between departments, customers and suppliers instead of a vertical organogram with silos, etc. SAP, 2013). 3. 3 Learnings The first key domain in this section still takes a technical perspective on business processes by focusing on process modeling and deployment,

plays an essential role in digital innovations by maintaining communication and collaboration between process participants, customers and other external stakeholders,

Process management Strategic alignment of a process strategy to the corporate strategy External relationships with customers, suppliers,

and retain customers. Without vigorous competition, a cluster will fail. 10 Porter's argument is focusing on competition between companies within the cluster.

Also, Mcadam, Keogh, Reid and Mitchell (2007, p. 386) defined innovation as the harnessing of creative ability within customers,

and services and new ways of delivering them to customers (Blumentritt, 2004; Laforet and Tann, 2006.

This comes as an argument for previously encountered findings that state that internet developments have been found to be critical for SMES to build successful interactions with business customers (Tseng and Johnsen, 2011, p. 573.

The results of their study are similar to the results of the present study in the sense that Romanian SMES tend to use the Internet in limited ways, such as finding new suppliers and emailing prospective customers.

business innovation is often incremental and built on the day-to-day expertise of employees and their thorough knowledge of customers and competitors.

Effective knowledge flows between suppliers and customers; and Collaborative, focused attention to common problems. In Ireland, clusters are emerging in sectors such as software,

and to meet their customers'needs effectively. Enhancing competition within Ireland's domestic economy is critical to improving the cost competitiveness of internationally-trading Irish-based firms.

competitors, customers, research organisations and others. It also shows that the quality of local environments for knowledge generation

or simply where the new customers were. Or then again perhaps was this instead about broader changes to international business models

the way it will derive value in its relations to other organisations and to customers.

and customers they consider how vertically or horizontally integrated to be. Firms consider what parts of the production process they can create value in

It immediately can be applied to almost anything without offering any meaningful interpretive power in the case above listening to your customers could be described equally as good business practice rather than an open innovation strategy.

open source can be a manifestation of open innovation IBM has used open source approaches to drive standardisation across its customer base which makes it less costly for the firm to interact with its customers

This allows Amazon to offer excellent services to customers at a lower cost while also making a profit itself.

they may have access to opportunities denied them as mere‘suppliers'or‘customers'of a large firm.

or initiatives such as Microsoft's Bizspark community of start-up customers) may help to build trust between organisations

and in this way created value for customers by leveraging their partners'or other organizations'different competencies.

First, we pay attention to how small firms develop strategies to create value for customers. Several firms faced rapidly increasing commoditization in their product markets

companies engage in open innovation to create value for customers in new ways and to create a more profitable business.

A business model defines the way companies deliver value to a set of customers at a profit.

or business model innovation to find new ways to create value for customers. Business success comes from satisfying real,

indeed, the company delivers existing flavours at reduced costs to customers in the flavour and flagrance market.

and that customers would be willing to pay a premium for high-quality sleep. Consequently the two entrepreneurs defined their business as a provider of healthy sleep,

Providing a healthy sleep should be considered the value proposal that the company makes to its potential customers.

QOD offers customers a new meaning to the product of quilts. Quilts have always been considered a product that keep people comfortably warm in bed.

because the customers were not able to envisage that the properties of a functional quilt such as TEMPRAKON could actually benefit their ability to sleep well.

the more rewarding it is for companies to differentiate their product to deliver value to customers in a way they could not anticipate themselves.

always responding to the customers'requirements. Curana competes in a highly competitive market and since the 1960s the market has experienced continuous pressure to consolidate.

what customers might value. Business model innovations start with articulating a customer value proposition. 17 During our interviews

all managers underlined that creating value for customers is the first and most important element in generating new business.

however, that unique customer value propositions are developed by questioning existing customers. In many cases, this would be a good recipe for incremental changes,

the relevance of the experience economy for innovating SMES New offerings can create value for customers in different ways.

the company can offer more convenience to the customers; or the company can reduce costs and thus the price of a product or service.

several of the successful SMES we analysed preferred to offer genuine experiences to their customers as a new source of value.

experiences have emerged as a next step in creating value for customers. Commoditization makes it increasingly difficult for SMES to operate profitably in established markets where scale

one of its major customers. Although growth and profitability were exceeding the expectations of the company,

producing accessories according to specifications and prices customers set. Moving from an OEM to an ODM allowed Curana to set its own price

and create value for its customers producing products with a customized design. Being an ODM would not differentiate Curana from other ODMS, however.

Their innovation adds value to customers and helps retailers reduce costs. In fashion rent is the most important cost factor.

if customers could experience shopping and buy fashion in a novel way. Nor is optimized shopping from a customer's perspective.

Finally, customers cannot check whether the clothes they are buying in the shop really coordinate with those they have at home.

After scanning, customers see themselves on large screens as a virtual, three-dimensional model dressed in clothes from various collections that the shop offers.

Customers can also be welcomed by a stylist with whom they discuss their personal style, but the software also can make choices for the customer depending in the skeleton, weight, age,

and evaluate the clothes the customers selected before they purchase. This process is called‘istyling'.'It creates new ways to change shopping

Customers experience an additional advantage: purchases are stored in a personal, virtual wardroom, which can be consulted any time.

Moreover, customers can see online at home how they might look in a new collection. This innovation is all about experiencing fashion;

Stylists even guide their customers through a transforming or restyling experience, subsequently changing, adapting, or upgrading prior dressing habits to professional standards So,

and service oriented into more profitable business models based that generate experiences for customers The role of open innovation is not in business model innovation is discussed not here.

This change in strategy created value for its customers and was highly profitable for the company.

and lead-customers. New technologies thus offer opportunities for small firms even in the so-called low-tech industry such as textiles

changes in customers'needs, and in offering customized products and services to clients (particularly in business-to-business industries).

Segers & Balcaen (see p 35) is a small Belgian plastics packaging company that continuously identifies new packaging needs among its customers. 33 For many other companies,

not amidst the mainstream. 22 Mainstream customers will only buy a technology product when the new technology has been proven,

what customers need from technology that is available from different types of knowledge partners. Small firms are successful as innovation champions

because they know how to bundle the right expertise of different technology agencies to solve a problem for their customers.

and about customers'self-image. Similarly, the founders of Quilts of Denmark intended to be providers of a healthy sleep, not quilts-makers.

what customers might value. Business model innovations start with articulating a customer value proposition. Creating customer value through game-changing

and highly profitable business models will usually not be developed by questioning existing customers. Sometimes the business model is straightforward.

they can create more convenient products for the customers. SMES may also wrap additional services around their product or offer genuine experiences to the customers.

Turning businesses under the threat of commoditization into genuine experiences for customers is a difficult target for SMES

but it is one of the most profitable strategies in the long term and a way to gain more power in the industry.

and therefor offer opportunities for SMES to pursue embryonic markets that are too small to attract large companies. o SMES have greater capability to specialize than large firms to offer customized service to customers. o Small companies may offer completely new

experiences for customers. These radically new ways of offering value for customers takes time to develop

and there are too many unknowns at the outset to guarantee a market big enough to attract big companies. 35 Figure 4:

We pay special attention to the role of customers and innovation partners in this process. Finally, several SMES have built a corporate reputation or brand as part of their strategy as a way to fight commoditization.

The customers (manufacturers) determined the prices, and the company could not add value because the product was easy for other bike accessory manufacturers to imitate, often at the same price.

and price reverted to Curana based on the premium customers want to pay for a unique and exclusive design.

Customers started to realize that Curana was becoming an important partner for their own success. Over the years,

Curana organized information sessions to promote its new ideas among potential customers. In this way, the company received valuable feedback from potential customers.

Realization is the fourth step. For Curana, this step started with 39 developing a high-end, three-dimensional model of the concept in collaboration with an (external) engineering partner.

It is driven a vision approach where direct interaction with potential customers is delayed until a later stage in the process.

Customers are still important, but they are not driving the company's innovation strategy. Through this strategy, Curana created bike accessories that were unique to the industry.

Only at that point did the company realize that it could increase the uniqueness of its designs (and the value for customers) further by switching to a proactive innovation strategy.

This change in strategy gave the company more degrees of freedom to act (customers were no longer taking the initiative)

Philips spent significant energy educating customers about how to make the fries tasty and crispy in an Airfryer;

essentially, customers had to learn to fry again because hot air frying differs from frying in regular fryers.

With Philips communicating with customers via its My Kitchen Web site, different customers are already experimenting with new ingredients, meals, and so on.

and the Airfryer, explaining to customers how they could optimize the device for several frozen snacks.

The food separator allows customers to fry an entire meal and can inspire snack producers to develop different combinations with the same frying time as a ready-to-eat meal.

The new possibilities the Airfryer and its Rapid Air Technology present only emerged after customers started to use the device and when other players in the market, such as snack producers, envisioned new market opportunities.

Each firm stayed focused on its product markets and customers. The most interesting example in this respect is Curana.

including its customers. Outside that open innovation network, the company cannot rely on its reputation and it has to start from scratch to build its network of partners

and customers. 27 Open innovation networks thus enable a company to deliver value in completely new ways to its customers.

however keep the company tied to the existing innovation partners and customers. In a phrase, innovation networks enable,

The race into ever more complex applications of chemicals coincided with a continued focus on the same type of customers and applications.

They stick to their value chain partners or customers. In several cases, the innovation network is one of the factors that limit the options to change over time.

which is granted to European companies that use design to create added value for their customers

They stick to their markets, customers, and partners. Open innovation networks enable a company to deliver value in a completely new ways to its customers,

but they also keep the company tied to the existing innovation partners and customers. Innovation networks enable,

but they also bind. Small companies must use relatively inexpensive but credible ways to develop a reputation or brand.

Examples as we have seen in Chapter 2 are reducing costs for customers (e g.,, Isobionics), increasing time efficiency, solving problems (e g.,

, DNA Interactif Fashion), increasing the attractiveness of the customers'products or services (e g.,, Curana), and providing new functionalities and increasing emotional value (e g.,

Each firm we examined started its open innovation adventure with a new concept about how to serve customers better.

In some cases, customers identified a problem themselves; in other cases, the entrepreneur devised a new concept.

Later on, Curana established strong bonds with suppliers, the designer community, knowledge centers, and customers. Working with external partners over the length of the value chain (from design to production and sales) leveraged the business to new opportunities that could not have been seized without collaboration.

which it could transform into extraordinary solutions for its customers. The network was a powerful tool in speeding up the innovation process and in combining novel designs with new materials.

PROF members (Patient Room of the Future)( see p 59) jointly created value for customers in yet another way.

and with lead customers on the other hand is essential for understanding how the company can continue to make profits in this way.

if they could offer customers the experience of a healthy sleep by adding new functionalities.

Eco-radiators appeal to some customers because they reduce the carbon-footprint of heating houses and buildings.

because some customers value a nicely designed radiator such as the Heatwave (see figure 6). This radiator is developed by an artist, Joris Laarman, and Jaga.

because customers make a clear distinction between companies that offer the authentic experience and those that are copying it 34.

First, they gain direct access to potential customers although they are not in a sales mode in PROF

In addition, a showroom presents the brand new idea of a patient room to potential customers.

Visiting the showroom has the additional advantage that potential customers can invite different manufacturers at the same time.

and that Curana would try to pass part of the price increase to its customers. In an innovation network, partners are interconnected

Take for instance, the example in which a company grants exclusive designs or products to its customers.

If direct customers are the target customer, then the innovation network will most likely be small and easy to manage.

thus changing the relationship with customers profoundly. The combination of different fields of expertise to develop a new offering can lead to attractive profits

It still took two years to develop a prototype that could be demonstrated to potential customers.

Most customers and health authorities perceive that the Airfryer is a highly innovative product that drastically reduces the need for oil

which the company brings to potential customers (not necessarily existing ones). A radically new value proposition may offer customers new meaning to the product or service offering.

The network of partners: Common in all cases is that the SMES establish a network of external partners.

the customers'reaction is not easy to predict. In addition, the SME depends significantly on its partners'commitment.

market sources (suppliers of equipment (i), customers (ii), competitors and other firms with similar activities (iii), commercial labs, private R&d organizations, and consultants (iv;

Isobionics'customers, notably food manufacturers, can use Biovalencene--the first commercialized flavour by Isobionics to create natural citrus flavours and fragrances for their products without worrying about quality issues that plague natural extracts.

Marketing and selling technology products to mainstream customers, Harpercollings Publishers, New york. Chapter 3 23 See previous chapter for a more detailed description how Curana developed the B Lite.

and computer engineers called Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos. The group developed software that is at least 10%more accurate than Netflix's current software (Cinematch) at predicting which movies customers will like based on their past preferences.

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