Innovation is the buzz nowadays. It can only happen if a company engages both their employess and their customers. I had just finished an interesting session with my students concerning customer engagement. With the advancement of technology and the pervasiveness of the Internet customers are now one of the major forces that will influence business decisions. It is now not sufficient for companies to push their products and hope that the customers will adopt and enjoy them. Customers' roles have changed from passive users to that of co-creators and co-developers. Forward looking companies have long realised this fact and have started to actively engage their customers. BMW for instance has developed an online co-creation lab where customers can vote on certain design of cars. They also hold competitions whereby customers at large are encourage to submit ideas concerning issues related to cars like parking etc. Lego has also developed online co-developers websites for children. Here the children are encouraged to design their own toys from lego blocks (virtually). Designs are then voted on and the one with most votes will be presented with the 'real' lego blocks to be enjoyed by the customers.
I would love to see similar things happening in our home grown companies.
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