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Co-creation for business: An introduction by Olaf Hermans and David Pinder
An advanced aspect of Valuegenie’s portfolio of Customer Value Creation activities is co-creation, where companies and their customers fully collaborate, with the customer as an internal resource or asset, to the benefit of both parties. This is achieved through specialist co-creation platforms that we build and manage for clients, supported, where appropriate, by new AI designed to support and enhance employee interactions. Valuegenie’s David Pinder teamed with SiR Intel’s Olaf Hermans to write an ‘epilogue’ to a book titled The 7 Principles of Complete Co-creation, by Stefanie Jansen ans Maarten Pieters (publication date 30 November 2017). The chapter makes the point that the key difference between co-creation and other useful forms of customer or user-focused act...
Customer Centricity: The ultimate Outside-In lesson for us all
Customer Centricity When companies talk about Customer Centricity it is often from an Inside-Out perspective. A “Look, there are our target customers – go get ‘em” approach, supported by a “Buy what we’ve got, now” marketing and sales stance. In truth, this is a parody of Customer Centricity. Genuine Customer Centricity only happens when an company organises with and around its Customers. This requires, first and foremost, the adoption of an Outside-In perspective; recognition that Customer Value is the value perceived by a customer. In fact, our interconnected, always-on world has made this Outside-In, Customer-perceived-Value-led approach a ‘must have’ capability if sustainable success is to be achieved. The Outside-In view allied to “pull” marketing is the only way that the virtually un...
Are you brave enough for customer centricity?
Customer centric business It is one thing to say that the Customer is at the heart of any business but quite another to fully embrace the idea and have a truly customer centric business. A couple of stories from the not-too-distant past help illustrate the point. First, ask yourself these questions: To build business with a client or prospect what do you need to know about their business? What are your ‘benefits’? What are your ‘strengths’? What do you need to know about the competition – yours and those of your prospect? Now, here’s the first story about the challenges of having a customer centric business. A large, rosewood, mirror-polished table dominates the boardroom; around it, 20 or so black-leather chairs. Half a dozen dinner-plate sized ashtrays signal that we are in a time gone b...
Which came first, the Product or the Customer Outcome?
Customer Outcome It is along towards ten o’clock one April evening in 1990, and I am sitting in a restaurant in west London with my friend John Frazer-Robinson – JFR for short. We went there for lunch and are now nine hours in to a lively conversation about the future of sales and marketing. (Total Quality Marketing[i] was published in 1991.) One of the topics we discuss is his theory of three generations of selling. I am immediately fascinated. It’s the genesis of an obsession with Customer Value Management that has stayed with me to this day. Value Creation =Customer Outcome All buying decisions (all decisions, in fact) are based upon Value judgements, where ‘value’ is an individual’s or group’s assessment of what something is worth, weighing the benefits of whatever is on offer against ...
