Letting go of control
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 5:42 am
The right attitude
To be effective in co-creation, it is important that the company has the right attitude, according to the interviewees. The focus should be on interaction and constructive collaboration, while the 'not invented here' syndrome must be left at the door. Gebauer explains that co-creation can lead to unexpected results. "Product ideas often have to fit within a certain price range, and be brought to market according to a certain schedule and distribution channel. If the co-creation outcome does not match this, managers may not consider the output as valuable," says Gebauer.
At the moment, co-creation is still in its infancy at many companies, which is partly due to uncertainty. De Ruyck: “These companies have not yet seen enough ‘evidence’ and have doubts about the sales effect and the method of innovation”. It may also be that employees are afraid of the consequences of co-creation for their jobs, and they do not want to relinquish too much control for fear that consumers will take over (De Ruyck, Sanders). Reijnders notes that the role of the company is very important: “You have to prepare a project well, set objectives, use the right instruments and try to reach the right target group. Steering and managing the process is crucial in this.”
It is also indicated that co-creation should not be seen as a one-off action, but as a new method. As soon as you open the door to enter into a conversation with the consumer, you cannot simply close this door. De Laat: “An online discussion often arises and there is therefore a follow-up to the collaboration, which you have to keep working on.”
Gebauer illustrates this with the example of an online design competition, where the jury had announced the winner, but had not clearly substantiated the choice. This led to dissatisfaction and a negative discussion among the community members. Gebauer: "This shows how important it is to manage online discussions quickly and correctly."
Reijnders emphasizes that companies must dare to experiment with co-creation, and must be alert to changes. “The world is changing very quickly at the moment, what works today does not necessarily work tomorrow,” says Reijnders. Priester emphasizes that behavior is very important: “There must be a continuous process of innovation, otherwise it is pointless and consumers will see through it.” Priester: “You really have to give something to the consumers, share ideas and insights and enter into a relationship, only then will they want to give you something back.”
Blankert explains that co-creation involves a lot of uncertainty. In the Maak de nepal phone number list Smaak campaign, consumers were allowed to come up with a flavour themselves, “by making that choice, you are still left with a risk, because you do not know in advance whether R&D will be able to transform the submitted ideas into tasty chip flavours.” The online aspect of the campaign also involved risks, because the submissions could be viewed directly via a live stream. “We had a swear word filter built in,” says Blankert, “even then you can never completely prevent abuse, so we had to let go of a certain level of control.”
Summary
The table below summarizes the aspects on which participants largely agree, and those on which there is still disagreement or ambiguity ( click to enlarge the image ).
Practical visions co-creation
More information and a more extensive report can be found at Joycediscovers.wordpress.com .
Do you have anything to add to this topic? Comments and remarks are welcome!
To be effective in co-creation, it is important that the company has the right attitude, according to the interviewees. The focus should be on interaction and constructive collaboration, while the 'not invented here' syndrome must be left at the door. Gebauer explains that co-creation can lead to unexpected results. "Product ideas often have to fit within a certain price range, and be brought to market according to a certain schedule and distribution channel. If the co-creation outcome does not match this, managers may not consider the output as valuable," says Gebauer.
At the moment, co-creation is still in its infancy at many companies, which is partly due to uncertainty. De Ruyck: “These companies have not yet seen enough ‘evidence’ and have doubts about the sales effect and the method of innovation”. It may also be that employees are afraid of the consequences of co-creation for their jobs, and they do not want to relinquish too much control for fear that consumers will take over (De Ruyck, Sanders). Reijnders notes that the role of the company is very important: “You have to prepare a project well, set objectives, use the right instruments and try to reach the right target group. Steering and managing the process is crucial in this.”
It is also indicated that co-creation should not be seen as a one-off action, but as a new method. As soon as you open the door to enter into a conversation with the consumer, you cannot simply close this door. De Laat: “An online discussion often arises and there is therefore a follow-up to the collaboration, which you have to keep working on.”
Gebauer illustrates this with the example of an online design competition, where the jury had announced the winner, but had not clearly substantiated the choice. This led to dissatisfaction and a negative discussion among the community members. Gebauer: "This shows how important it is to manage online discussions quickly and correctly."
Reijnders emphasizes that companies must dare to experiment with co-creation, and must be alert to changes. “The world is changing very quickly at the moment, what works today does not necessarily work tomorrow,” says Reijnders. Priester emphasizes that behavior is very important: “There must be a continuous process of innovation, otherwise it is pointless and consumers will see through it.” Priester: “You really have to give something to the consumers, share ideas and insights and enter into a relationship, only then will they want to give you something back.”
Blankert explains that co-creation involves a lot of uncertainty. In the Maak de nepal phone number list Smaak campaign, consumers were allowed to come up with a flavour themselves, “by making that choice, you are still left with a risk, because you do not know in advance whether R&D will be able to transform the submitted ideas into tasty chip flavours.” The online aspect of the campaign also involved risks, because the submissions could be viewed directly via a live stream. “We had a swear word filter built in,” says Blankert, “even then you can never completely prevent abuse, so we had to let go of a certain level of control.”
Summary
The table below summarizes the aspects on which participants largely agree, and those on which there is still disagreement or ambiguity ( click to enlarge the image ).
Practical visions co-creation
More information and a more extensive report can be found at Joycediscovers.wordpress.com .
Do you have anything to add to this topic? Comments and remarks are welcome!