Customer-centric Innovation Drives a Superior Customer Experience

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger
Organizer IIR

Topic: Delivering a Superior and More Profitable Customer Experience

Speaker: Ian Forrest: Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, GE MONEY
GE Money Bank Czech Republic
Delivering a superior and more profitable customer experience.. through customer-centric innovation
Branches are located on back streets; we have been around 10 years.
Mainly a consumer finance company then became a full service retail bank.
Branches are built based on cost. They were designed for the staff to use. Customer was not considered.
Have 218 banks.
Basic principles
1. Starts outside in not inside out
2. Examines tails not averages for insight
3. Designs for behaviors and use
4. Creates value thru understanding key moments
5. Test to fail and learn faster
6. Improves bus and brand performance
7. Customer centric innovation starts with the customer or the customer’s specific problem.
GE has a strong history of innovation.
Think about innovation structurally: Investment, time, resources.
Key facts:
4th largest bank by branches
1 M+ customers
4000 employees
Branch is a critical aspect of the banking relationship.
We looked at analogous experiences.
Use Outside- in approach
How much of time does your marketing team devote outside of your industry?
Explored comparable experiences aligned with brand fit.
Examine the Tails. Impactful innovation will not originate through understanding of averages.
Big insights:
Emphasize easy, clear and more rewarding
2 types of user journeys and 4 behavioral segments
Financial literacy is an opportunity for growth.
Focus on:
Customers who aspire to personal consultation
Remove “Q” stress
Deliver a proper send-off
Design for behaviors: focus on behavioral segments that use the branch most.
Design for how the customer wants to use the branch.
Invest in moments that matter most: align emphasis with customer needs and expectations.
Low-tech innovations around moments that matter: manage expectations and “tune” branch traffic.
Mapped traffic flows.
Enable families to focus on their consultation versus distractions.
Rapid testing and learning. Make mistakes at “no” cost fast.
Fail fast, fail cheap.
GE Money Bank today.
In 2nd largest city in Czech Republic.
Have learning library.
Branches are brightly lighted, clean, warm greeting, with privacy for consultations.
Circle meeting place emphasizes “we.” Banker with client.
Do proper sendoff with handshake.
Drive customer satisfaction: #1 in customer satisfaction for banking in the Czech Republic in 2009 from 6th in 2008.
Drive operational performance for branch of the future: encouraging trends in performance.
We target customers who have money versus customers who need money.
Breakeven point is 9 months.
One “little” mistake: new models require new processes and sometimes people to execute.
New branch was staffed with a branch manager and associates fro
Tried to use existing staff but did not work, we had to hire completely new staff with completely different skill sets.
We hire from hospitality, travel agencies, and hotels.
6 things:
1.) Start from the outside in and explore analogous experiences for a broader remain of reference
2.) Examine the tails—more insight can be gained from the advocates and the disgusted
3.) Design for behavior and usage—avoiding traditional segmentation factors
4.) Focus on moments that matter most through prioritizing
5.) Test to fail and learn faster
6.) Measure, and modify constantly

What are we innovating and what are two questions we do not ask enough?

Here's a short clip from his presentation below:

Innovation Culture as a Team Sport

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

Topic: Innovation Culture—Making Innovation a Team Sport

Speaker: Urs Limacher: Senior Director Emerging Technologies, ZIMMER

Leading orthopedic supplier to orthopedic surgeons
Industry 50 years old
Will be replaced by biological products
We do not heal
Innovation culture: willingness for risk taking, curiosity, willingness to change, openness for new things, one’s own initiative
Innovation Strategy:
7 success factors, how we did it
Success Factor #1: Provide clarity and guidance and build a strong case for change
4 basic strategies: strategic diversification, market development, products / service development, market penetration
Gap: plan further activities according to the growth strategies listed above.
Success Factor #2 Collect and allow for every single idea
8000 people worldwide
Not centralized, had virtual organization at different sites, not report into R&D, marketing, brand management
Process improvements and product improvements
External and internal (focused here)
Use ambassadors to bring ideas in from external
Get higher quality ideas
Do not double research organization that only works on new ideas
Limit time between the events that brings ideas in to line organization in 90 days. Idea either forwarded or not
Success Factor #3: Leadership: establish distinct roles and demands
Not invented here syndrome will kill all radical ideas at first level
Success Factor #4 Innovation Champions
1. Able to identify customer needs, fields of opportunities and their innovations and are able to evaluate the
2. Form a pool of innovation champions—as trained tool specialists, they are able to hand on their knowledge to other employees –they push new ideas
3. Serve as accelerator for innovations in order to inspire the 8000Zimmer employees to be innovative – encourage and challenge the employees – assure management support
4. Promote innovation and innovation management
Success Factor #5: Break up silos and organize virtually across existing structures
Innovation Champions – collaboration and team work across organizational boundaries
Support informal networks
Success Factor #6: Nominate only the best volunteers look for both knowledge and expertise and review and adopt your selection over and over again.
During interview make sure people really interested in learning about innovation.
Leadership and knowledge management
Give and take – ongoing and in a systematic manner
#7 Promote your innovation system - Communicate within the receiver’s Language
Don’t change culture – use it by Peter Drucker

Reinventing wind power using technology

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

Topic: Reinventing an Older Product Segment by Implementing State of the Art Technologies

Speaker: Carsten Dickmann: Head of Marketing and Product Management, POWER WIND

What is the difference of development between prod and service?
No difference, both bring solutions to clients to solve their problems
Not enough to develop innovation, need both hardware and software
Considered product segment that has been reinvented
1. Wind energy market’s development
2. Powerwind56: reinvention of the sub-MW Segment
3. Comparable approaches; food for thought
4. PowerWind56’s Market success
Wind Energy – Impressive development into a global business (I)
Commercial use of wind turbines for 20 years
Started by idealist – turning into high tech industry
Continuous race for more power output and yield
Increasing political support for wind energy: climate change, energy independence, and satisfaction of growing energy needs
Emerging new markets worldwide beyond traditional wind energy countries.
Exceptional growth rates over the past years
Development expected to continue
Installed capacity of wind energy greater than nuclear power plants in Germany
Wind turbines went through various changes over the years: from experimental stage to power plant characteristics
Today’s systems differ significantly from earlier concepts
To fulfill all of today’s requirements, turbines have to keep up with technical development: one key factor is grid integration
Usually, technological progress is implemented in the next bigger generation
Thus, main development direction has been: bigger, higher, more rated output
Within 20 years the wind turbines’ yield was increased by a factor of 100
5 MW turbines will increase yields by another 5 times
Option 1: Bigger – differentiation by being the first player beyond the existing power range
Plus: clear, easy, distinction as a pioneer
Minus: facing lots of challenges and unknown terrain
High tech risks: high loads, weights
Need for parallel R&D at suppliers; new components
Missing supporting infrastructure: logistics, cranes
Unclear situation regarding site permissions
Complex certification process
Technology clearly not proven
Complicated project financing
Option 2. Smaller – reinventing an older product segment by implanting State of the art technologies
Minus: facing existing competitors and products
Plus: transfer of known and proven technologies into unattended segment
Reduced risk: lower loads and weights
Secure supply chain
Less development time and costs
Leveraging implicit benefits; easy logistics, even to locations that are difficult to access
Facing obsolete competitive products: competitor‘s R&D focused on race for size
Select Option 2 Reinvention
Transferring state of the art technologies from the latest multi-MW turbines back to older sub-MW segment: the PowerWind 56 approach
Benefits:
Higher yields
Increased component and machine lifetime, lower Q&M costs
High reliability due to combo of technically proven components
Compatibility with majority of grid requirements: enabling additional grid services beyond simple energy supply
PowerWind 56 expands application range: enabling access to emerging wind markets
Most important market is Italy
Comparable approaches: food for thought
Car market – the technological trend: bigger, faster, better energy efficiency
Race for size: new technologies applied in next bigger class
Mobile phones – the technological trend: smaller, more functions, better network integration, longer standby-time
Fast R&D development and accelerated market entry after shift to serial production
Features do pay off

FEI Europe Track Session: Being Relevant to Youth to Create new Platforms for Growth

Presenters:
Jacques Matthhiew, Senior Director Consumer Insight, Oriflame Cosmetics, AB
Bill Alberti, VP Business Strategy, Communispace

Here's some footage we caught of the interactive discussion between attendees and the presenters. Enjoy!

FEI Europe Track Session: Location, Location, Location – Optimizing Your R&D Empire

Presenters: Arend Jan van Bochoven, Senior Consultant, Innovation Management Group, Cambridge Consultants

Some organizations have become like walruses, they have excess fat that it does not need.

- Need to determine which “excess R&D fat” to cut out requires clear objectivity
- Retaining sufficient RD for mature products while creating space for new initiatives
- Downsizing RD can cause unrest, impacting project delivery
- Assessing which location regime gives the best return on R&D investment

Organizations must be careful when cutting fat because:

- Cutting R&D further may irreparably impair it
- Morale may already be low and staff stretched to the limit.
- R&D may not have a good image among new potential recruits
- The self image of R&D may actually be perceived as technical world class externally

How to optimize your R&D location?

Sensitivity
1. Keep your key stakeholders involved throughout
2. Bring the key stakeholders together to decide what is important, before you start
3. Then, work with stakeholders to determine the practical R&D structures

Here's a short clip from his presentation below:

The Trend Radar – Managing Trends and Innovations

The Trend Radar – Managing Trends and Innovations Through Corporate Foresight

Speaker: Dominik Tappert: Head of Innovations, Kaefer Aerospace

Why innovation and early trend detection?
To be prepared for that special moment.
Kaefer Aerospace is worldwide leading integrator of insulation and interior solutions within aerospace business.
Mission: support our customers success
By supplying comprehensive and innovation insulation systems and interior solutions
Active in 3 countries and 7 locations
Trends in business
Digitalization with internet totally changed the terms in different industries
Thus recognize the cost structure, the value chain and the hierarchy within those industries is drastically changed
The big traditional players did not anticipate these trends
Consequently companies outside the industry used their opportunities successfully
Trend analysis, turning trends into business
Net of sensors, build up the radar team
Background, employee, radar-team, radar-head, GEC
Trend radar in the company
The innovation development process
Innovation development: Exploration, project proposal, project execution, result/know-how transfer
The process of creation
Innovation assessment: nominate, select, quality, research, analyze
Next stage: trend proposal, trend candidate, trend draft, trend, focus trend
The radar screen – systematic
Divided into several sectors in terms of relevancy for our customers in %
Sector 1 (1-3 years) established trend
Sector 2 mid-term trend (1-3 years)
Sector 3 long term trends (greater than 3 years)
Influencing the company
Radar methodology: drivers, topics and trends evaluated, own platform supports collaboration, review of trends quarterly, recommendations for executive board for further decisions
Communication: fact sheets with description of trends, to group and dept, dialog inspires development of overall service offering, concrete projects
Advancement: Internationalization
Process: each subsidiary in each country appointed for the radar team, Utilize methodology for the review of published trends for the identification of new trends, small radars are arising which will result in a total radar
Advancement: Peer-Review
Process: an independent estimation of trends is warranted, internal experts are estimating the relevance and degree of maturity of trends, result integrated as second opinion, and on the base of collective discussion the trend will be approved or rejected.
Peer-Review is an instrument, not the focus anymore
If you have questions, you may contact him by mail or telephone.

Leadership and Innovation Strategy

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

Corporate Leadership Forum on Innovation Strategy – A Two Part Presentation by:
Speakers: Krijn Rietveld, Senior Vice President of the Nutrition Innovation Group, Royal DSM N.V. & Patrick O’Riordan: Global Director, Insights & Innovation, Anheuser-Busch InBev

About DSM
Exist over 100 years
Began coal mining company.
Fertilizers, petrochemicals, performance materials, etc.
Global trends, climate and energy, health and wellness, functionality and performance, emerging economies.
Life sciences and materials sciences
Global trends drive DSM’s innovation strategy
Nutrition, pharma, etc.
Strategic commitment to (open) innovation
Both focused on the short term and long term
Have top 50 project list
Innovation scope
Fitness, wellness, obesity, diabetes, novel pharma process, eco-friendly materials, safety and protection, next generation plastics, biomedical materials, specialty packaging, etc.
New business development: biomedical, incubators, personalized nutrition, sports, specialty packaging, venturing, white biotechnology, licensing.
Functional excellence, FE Innovation, CTO Office
Incubator for radical innovation
Focus on new business models, etc
Steering the innovation pipeline
Open innovation throughout the pipeline
Acquisitions to boost innovation speed
Exiting businesses which do not fit the strategy
Advocates of proudly found elsewhere strategy
Regular sanity check of innovation projects
Key focus areas
Boost commercialization and launch skills
Dedicated product launch support team
Toolkit for commercialization
Identify and spread best practices
Recruit and hire individuals from other industry to speed up commercialization
Stimulating employees to innovate
Hi level jobs and equal career paths in innovation
Train people and virtual teams around innovation at multi levels and functions
Business plan competition for top potentials
Teams are cross discipline, cross bus entities, cross countries
Focus on opportunities at the intersection of life sciences and materials sciences
Winner of 2009 OCI Award
Continued innovation growth despite recession
Core element
Strong strategic commitment
Tailored org structure
Focus on building relationships with external partners
Continuous drive to improve: from good to great
Creating sustainable growth for all stakeholders.
Speaker: Patrick O-Riordan, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Leading global brewer
1 or 2 position in over 20 markets
Consumer-centric, sales-driven organization
320 brands
16’912 glasses beer drunk every second
169 times volume of Empire State building
Industry’s changing face, the world is changing
Majority in westernized market
Next 5-10 year consumption shift to developing nations, Brazil, India, China
Background, psychology and engineering
Most difficult part is understanding our consumer
The consumer is boss. We connect in meaningful way brand experience, balance heritage and innovation and always in a responsible way
Renovation & Innovation
Modernization of product or tactical launch of short lived products to defend share
Commercial, label changes, etc
Innovation, package: sig modification of liquid delivery or container, liquid, creation of new liquid within beer segment and or across category adjacencies.
Philosophy, for brands to have maximum effect the need renovate and innovation to fulfill their promise, while for R&I to have maximum effect it needs the brand to provision, focus & direction.
R&I
Pyramid
Bottom: secure & improve OCC R&I
Middle, share of beer
Top: SOT Innovation
Looking at competitiveness and renewal
Bottom of pyramid: incremental (renovation)
Middle: evolutionary
Top revolutionary (innovation)
Key learning’s:
To build the story of the brand
Pathways of timed introductions
Connected pipeline – collective potential of initiatives
Complementary short-, mid- & long-term focus
Have a framework for innovation
Done most work at front end of innovation
R&I process (WCCP)
Where, what, how, build the rod and go fishing
Lean organization, outsource creativity
Common strategy and process
1. Secure and protect core
2. Drive share & volume
3. Expand category share at expense of SOT
In ten global markets
Uses Apple iPod as an inspiration

FEI Europe Local Inventions: The SOUP-SERVER™ & 365SOUP™

We were able to catch up with one of the local inventors from Amsterdam at the FEI Europe expo hall and he was able to tell us a little bit about his unique offering the The SOUP-SERVER™. The SOUP-SERVER™ is an intelligent and well designed, remotely managed soup vending machine. Take a look at the clip below for a walk-through of the invention.

Ten Ways to get Fired While Innovating

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

Speaker: Scott Anthony: Author, The Silver Lining An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times
Topic: Seizing the Silver Lining

In telecommunications it is about that last mile for success. The same for innovation in looking at that first mile.
Ten reasons to get fired.
Discount rate turns to infinity.
Innovation needs some short term returns.
Thousand monkey problem. If give them typewriters will get War and Peace.
Or get defecation and broken keys
Must recognize, if new to me but known to world, must tap into that knowledge.
Do not do strategy and then allocate resources.
If look at slack then can tell a company’s strategy.
Best innovation teams are small and focused.
Can get swarmed by zombie projects.
Wish could innovate more but do not have money or bodies.
People are working on the wrong things.
Fractionalized and working on dead projects. Capacity gets strained.
What time spent on value vs non value added meetings?
Work on one project 70%, 4 projects 40% value going down.
Raider’s of the Lost Ark problem
Inside lot of companies, if project fails, put in box, never speak of it again.
May fail through no fault of our own.
Requires deep cultural change to learn from failure.
Course of Abundance.
During early stage of idea, questions begin.
Competitors? Market demand? What about?
Go get more data, more analysis, and more tests, before goes forward.
Company has abundance. Is inhibitor of innovation.
Land of misfit toys.
Empower a leader, go build new teams, need people, no they are busy, so get people no one else wants.
Sometimes good, sometimes get wrong people.
Think carefully about the team you assemble
Get hung upon Fitzgerald failures.
Senior leaders must think about operational excellence like in pyramid world.
Hold opposed ideas in mind at the same mind.
Senior leaders use old mind set and do not make good decisions.
Educate leaders to ask right questions
Core activity, example: Microsoft, had ability to do Google type service, but concerned by cannibalism.
Borrow selectively from the core business.
Wool in sheep’s clothing, friends can be your enemies.
What do?
1. Be relentless be outside from where ideas, capabilities come from. Collaborate involve people from market.
2. Allow for innovation minor leagues. Draft young people and immediately bring them to big leagues. Test ideas
3. Constrain like crazy.
4. Work on the collective innovation muscles. HBR The Innovative DNA.

FEI Europe Keynote Session: Engaging with the Future Differently

Presenter: Josephine Green, Senior Director Trends and Strategy, Philips Design

Josephine Green began her presentation with this quote “we are going through of change of age and I believe that innovation is also changing.” Innovation is taking place all over the complex world at all stages and so is there a front end of innovation? The way we engaged with the future in the 20th century is different from how we will engage the future in the 21st century. She believes that social innovation will be the focus of the 21st century because that is what we need.

In the 20th century we supplied people with all the technology and industrial needs for consumers. It was based on mass production, mass consumption, and higher profits. The 20th century was based on raising profits through mass consumption.

When we journeyed into the 21st century consumers changed their values, beliefs, and lifestyles. New consumers are not passive because they are taking in consideration how different people live across the globe. People have been enabled by technologies to be more innovative and creative than before. In the 20th century natural resources were depleted and used to the maximum, but now conditions have changed and have already changed the way we use our natural resources.

The age has changed from the techno-market area to what Josephine calls the socio-ecological age. The new age is based on complexity and chaos, and this is the world that is not predictable and is not linear.

So the big question seems to be...How do we kick start the future?

Here are some of Josephine’s suggestions:

- Embrace new stories: New ideas that can lead us out into the otherside, towards a new way of acting and thinking in the new world.
- Find a new development model - find to alternatives to the GDP metric such as the Index of social and economic welfare. We need to figure out a new way to measure progress in the modern world.
- New economics (beyond growth) – new production and consumption (beyond big)– new lifestyles (beyond materialism) – new social industries (beyond product)

In the 20th century we centralized innovation, we need to start thinking about distributing innovation because its about community, systems, and people.

We need to develop solutions with communities and stakeholders and not develop solutions for communities.

Check out the footage of her Q&A session below.

Changing from a Pyramid World to a Pancake World

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

Speaker: Josephine Green: Senior Director Trends and Strategy, Philips Design

Worked at Philips 15 years ,looked at future looking at people, cultures and society
To get insights as brain food.
Change from technology as driver to technology as an enabler.
What if innovation is a circular process?
There is no Front End of Innovation, this is a linear model.
Complex chaotic lots of people doing lots of things doing it themselves.
In 20th century engage differently now in 21 century.
Will be about social innovation because that is where need is.
In 20th century it was about what consumers wanted. Imagine world before we had cars.
Based upon mass markets, economies of scale, mass products, etc. to drive growth.
World was linear based upon Newtonian physics.
Metaphor was a clock, keep oil all was predictable.
Techno-market era. Structure underneath top down command and control structure. A pyramid.
Crossroads of beliefs, values and lifestyles.
In diverse and complex world are increasingly not passive.
We see and we begin to become more creative. Become designers of our own lifestyle.
World Wide Web allows people to move from back end to front end of innovation.
People enabled by technology to be creators of their own lives.
This is not about consuming anything. About living side by side. All about customized personalized in an eco system.
3rd factor is the environment.
Techno-market era: people, technology, environment.
Not all right for 70 B people.
This is world we were born into. We are transition group.
Moving to Socio-ecological era.
Going from a model of a pyramid to a pancake (circular)
At bottom of pyramid are women and children. Men at top.
Pancake, quantum soup. Many walk to center. Not based on mass anything,
Based upon Customized, personalized, Context aware solutions.
Not have lines of command and control. Has systems thinking, connected.
Quite a very different world.
How do we deal with innovation?
Financial crisis great opportunity to think about our world.
May be pulled back to pyramid model. Those in power desperately trying to re-establish pyramid world.
Increasing evidence that the old paradigm is no longer fit for purpose.
We must embrace new stories.
One world view giving way to another world view. In history we have always told stories to give sense to what we do.
Shifts are underway
This is the moment to ask deep questions and to ask them urgently. All around us, shifts are under way which suggest that our whole way is changing.
GDP is a metric of productivity and consumption. How we measure progress.
Index of social and economic welfare (ISEW)
Nigeria and Mumbai are happy. Prince Phillip wonders, “Why are they so happy?”
If we are unhappy, then it is good for consumption. We engage in retail therapy. Buy more Prozac, buy more pills.
Need a new development model
Old model based on short term gain.
New Stories: a connecting narrative.
New economics, beyond growth. GDP versus ISEW.
1. New production and consumption, beyond big.
2. New lifestyles, beyond materialism.
3. Move away from concepts of ownership to sharing.
4. New social industries, driven by social need, beyond product.
Embracing the social.
True innovation must link back to a need.
Example: Create safer stove, new Chulla stove India 2007
Poor people have taste.
Maximizing innovation.
20th century, pyramid, centralizing innovation, market innovation, R&D and technology, consumer needs/insights, experts/professionals
21st Century, pancake model, social and sustainable innovation, people, communities/systems, stakeholder needs/insights, partners and value network

Social Innovation eXchange www.socialinnovation.org
The global community for social innovation
Co-create the future.
Engage with the different actors.
http://Urbanecomap.org
http://www.Patientopinion.org.uk/
www.Kiva.org/

Developing solutions with communities and stakeholders not to them.
Maximizing Strategy.
Centralizing, rolled out or deployed, from center
Distributing strategy, strategy is organization and organization is increasingly strategy.
New skills and competencies needed.
Develop the non rational skills, intuition, sensing, and feelings
Work across disciplines and across functions
New skills need new organization and cultures
Pyramid World: Management: planning, budgeting, measuring, evaluation, organizing, structuring, controlling
Pancake: Innovation, questioning, challenging, dreaming, imagining, experimenting, learning enterprising.
Must reinvent language.
Re-think our organizations and culture
Pyramid: standardizing complexity
Pancake: distributing complexity
Complexity. Simplicity and rules.
Mirror feedback loop.
Evolution about constant experimentation and keeping what works. Evolution refines and improves complex sys through the process of adaption.
Distributing complexity enables people to think and act with agility in the moment, to create, to innovate
Need transitional leadership with courage.
Embrace that the future is social
Maximize innovation and mission
Create the space for longer term investment and returns
Decentralize the organization
Let go
Women and generation Y are already in the pancake world.

Distributing complexity means distributing power, takes us too much greater democratizing of the future.

Innovation Needs Information

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

Companies are continually faced with decision-making situations. Some choices may be challenging and difficult to make, while others may be quite simple. The actual decisions facing your organization on any given day may range from very trivial like “What should be the theme for this year’s holiday party?” to the strategically important, “On what technological platform should we base our next initiative?” Whether trivial or strategic, every decision is based on information.

Decisions that affect innovation are no different than other decisions. They are based on information. How much information, what kind of information, whether a company chooses to use certain information, and how well a company interprets available information, is the key to decision-making success.

Information isn’t always easy to obtain however, which is probably a good thing actually. Information - having it and not having it - becomes the basis for competitive advantage. You can only hope your information is better than your competitor’s.

Competitive reports, statistical market studies, and other bits and pieces of information do not often magically fall into an organization’s hands – at least such things have never fallen into my hands. Voice of Customer data in particular, the virtual lifeblood of much innovation, can be tedious at best to obtain. Gathering data (not to mention interpreting data) takes time, effort, and more often than not at least a little bit of money. However discouraging, time consuming, and expensive gathering information may ultimately be, organizations must perform this activity in order to be successful. To not gather information would be akin to purposely blindfolding oneself and walking into traffic.

I’ll not attempt to suggest what information is most important for your organization or how you should go about obtaining it. I think information itself is important enough however for me to simply say this - should your organization not be gathering relevant Voice of Customer and competitive information, start now. Your success depends on it.

Day 1 in Pictures

Here's a look at the snapshots we took of our Day 1 coverage of the Front End of Innovation Europe Conference in Amsterdam. Remember if you're taking photos from the event make sure to upload them to our Flickr group pool.

BMW's New Concept Car: The Future Sustainability and the Joy of Mobility!

By Connie Harryman, Applied Concepts Creativity
Guest Blogger IIR USA

LIVE Front End of Innovation Europe 2010

LIVE! An exclusive preview of BMW's New Concept Car
Featured Keynote: The Future Sustainability and the Joy of Mobility #FEIEUROPE

Speaker: Adrian van Hookydonk: Director Design, BMW Group

Creation of a concept car by BMW.

Joy of mobility is like a dog with his nose in the wind, enjoys the speed. Is deeply ingrained.
Kids enjoy riding tricycle after first steps.
Einstein enjoyed speed on a bicycle, enjoyed moving around.
People give a personal spin to mobility.
Then there is extreme sports, motorcycle racing.
Automobile racing. Not just about moving also about going fast.
For most people, Grace Kelly in open car, Gary Grant thinks she is going too fast.
Allows us to experience different things, experience different people.
This is the joy of mobility.
You may imagine BMW to be an engineering company. Yes, heavily driven by engineering and technology.
Showed us movie that is “Manifesto” for BMW.
We shape the future.
How you make people feel is important. We make joy.
Joy is core brand value.
Key reason for purchase is emotional.
We dream of blue sky, empty landscape, and great view.
Reality is different.
Crowded highways. Grey skies.
Difficult to find space to build another road.
What can we as designers do?
Need a change, not a change back. We will not forget joy of movement.
Will not be able to convince people to give us these feelings.
Takes him to the profession of car design.
It is a form of art.

Beauty, sensuality is associated with our profession. Sex appeal or timelessness.
Still design cars like did 50 years ago. Begin with sketches.
Bring lines onto a technical drawing.
Lay claim onto parts like a seat or complete car.
Can shape every millimeter of vehicle. Now trying to create in 3D by digitizing data.
Present models to board of management. Process takes one year.
Select shape, then takes another two years for prototype.
Have to take care of tiniest detail.
Design is the promise.
Use sharp lines is meaning of precision. Unseen things like steering.
Launching 6th generation.
Do not like to do retro design.
Only fits modern design that takes brand into the future.
1972 Munich Olympics, oil crisis underway.
BMW launched electric car.
Launched electric car in January in Munich.
Why? Brand built on ideas of movement and joy. Engineering heritage.
Looks like normal BMW. Put on stickers to explain how special it is.
Built 1500 minis. Largest producer of electric vehicles but no one knows this because it is not what they are known for.
Efficient dynamics technology was already available.
If had clean sheet of paper what layout would you choose?
Selected plug in hybrid, two electric motors with much smaller 3 cylinder diesel engine. Drive on purely electric power. Zero emissions.
Showed 2009 at Frankfurt motor show.
Shows a way forward.
Had sketch competition, won by some young designers. Could be science fiction, but had to be positive.
Make futuristic, but a positive futuristic.
Car should explain itself the technology is carries. Purpose is to help us understand what mode we are driving in.
Weight and aerodynamics will be key in the future. Extends driving range.
Control airflow to improve aerodynamics with design.
Body panels seem to float.
Seats are lightweight and thin. Seats four people. Sustainability kept in mind with materials.
Cloth from Denmark where it is being pioneered.
Think about manufacturing, cost, how used.
Driver orientation: all lines seem to pick up speed to focus you on road.
In future believe there will be fewer knobs.
Helps to focus you on the road to enjoy the drive.
Expresses aerodynamics and light weight. New drive train will be important in the future.
Differentiating factor will be design.
Come up with shapes that the future has come.
Can make the change so attractive people cannot resist and connect to mobility.
“The most thrilling periods in design history are the ones of the greatest change, when designers interpret shifts in science, technology, behavior and politics for the rest of us.”
The New York Times by Alice Rawsthorn

FEI Europe Kickoff Keynote Presentation: The Future Sustainability and The Joy of Mobility

Presenter: Adrian van Hooydonk, Director Design, BMW Group

Adrian begins his keynote by discussing how BMW's key motive is to drive mobility. Mobility allows people to travel, meet different people, and even dream of going to anyplace that they desire. BMW is heavily geared in engineering, but how does this translate to design and mobility? Why do people have to buy BMWs? There could be plenty of reasons but we can all agree that it is probably an emotional one.

Here's a clip from their Joy advert in which BMW explains how its technologies reduce fuel consumption and emissions while at the same time increasing the driving pleasure.



Here are two things will be key in vehicles in the future according to Adrian:
1). Weight – needs to go down because it will increase your driving range
2). Aerodynamics –needs to improve

Every aspect of the vehicle has to be looked at and you need to see the whole car through. Even the interior matched the lightweight and futuristic design of the exterior. Interior cloths were made of a lightweight sustainable material that BMW’s supplier manufactured. Overall, even though the design was born from the technical layout and wanting to address aerodynamics and lightweight, BMW believes that they have come up with an innovative shape. Design will play a key role in pushing aerodynamics and lowering emissions.

Adrian closes his presentation with this quote from the NY Times:

The most thrilling periods in design history are the ones of the greatest change, when designers interpreted shifts in science, technology, behavior and politics for the rest of us.

And of course, attendees got a chance to view the concept car! Take a look below at the shots.


Here's some footage from Adrian's Q&A session. Enjoy!