Starting the research

Dear people!

Welcome to my blog! It will concern my graduation study at a large consultancy firm, Capgemini, in the Netherlands. I will keep you informed through this blog about the progress I make, and I would like to invite YOU to give comments, useful inputs and discussion subjects. This can really help my knowledge and experiences concerning the subject of co-creation. So please feel free to bring the co-creation and innovation concept to a higher level!

Today’s business is asking for new sources of innovation and creativity. On macro, meso, as well as micro level, there are distinct trends of value creation through co-creation. Organizations need to anticipate, rather than be reactive. Interactions with customers and other partners in networks become more important. In B2C environments, companies are aware of the need for personalized value. This is clearly not (always) the case in B2B environments.

An interview with Philips Design pointed out that co-creation is an egalitarian connection between a supplier and customer, where the business becomes democratized. Co-creation is a way to new value chains, and it will change the relations between companies. What is essential in co-creation is that a company involves (in a new, innovative way) people equally, which results in a win-win situation: the dialogue with these people is set up to increase value.

The Business Innovation team of Capgemini found out that their clients do not have the awareness, knowledge, ideas to set-up, and execute co-creation. Companies are mostly put off by co-creation, because of the unforeseen organizational hurdles in enabling co-creation. Capgemini Business Innovation would like to advice and support companies by providing insights into the co-creation process and its consequences so that companies are better able to co-create in order to increase business performance.

In this new form of ‘working together’, a new value chain becomes reality, where B2B and B2C do not exist anymore. Instead, a continuum, which alternates companies and customers, will form the value chain. Yet the first matter of importance is the common interest of a company and its actor to create value. Therefore, the question rises how companies think about co-creation; what it is that companies put off on co-creation and what are the organizational hurdles. Thus, we want to know how co-creation can be enabled. Through lots of literature on collaboration/cooperation, innovation management, and case studies at large Dutch companies, I will try to give 'roadmap to co-creation'.

As a student in Business Administration specialized in Innovation Management at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, I have acquired lots of knowledge during my study concerning Innovation Management. My Bachelor Thesis, which was performed in Lisbon, Portugal, focused on the organization of innovation in the automotive industry. The involvement and integration of suppliers (inter-company co-creation) in new product development was studied. With the work of this Master Thesis, I acquire more knowledge and experiences. I have the opportunity to develop myself in the scientific and consultancy environment. The goal is to work as good as possible on this research to become a Master of Science. Furthermore, it will be the goal to work on this subject after studying in order to shape the co-creation concept.

Next time, I will give a more specific understanding of this research and will explain how I think to make companies aware of the need for co-creation.

Ciao,

Daniël