Experience Co-Creation Partnership

As customers become more informed, connected and active, with the ability and motivation to take control of their interactions with companies, these companies must escape traditional approaches of delivering products and services that are based on a firm-centric view of value creation. Experience co-creation breaks down the process through which customers create their own interactions with companies. It offers a practical starting point for tapping into the new sources of competitive advantage

and changing the rules of the game. This reconceptualization of the interaction process leads companies to new insights on how to redesign their customer contacts, thereby leading to an innovation process in touch with customer needs. More

The Co-Creation Effect:

Francis Gouillart's blog on co-creation

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Co-creation in the fish tank

“I’m not like them” this attractive young branch advisor tells one of her customers. “I’m much more like you than I’m like them. I invested in the same shares you did. I too have lost 40% of my assets.”

The “them” is the management of her French bank. Or any bank for that matter, for she hates them all. “They” are the ones that took excessive pay, invested in subprime and derivatives and caused the global financial crisis. That she might be lumped with these high-fliers galls her no end.

The bank has, rightly, become concerned about the signs of Stockholm syndrome in its advisors. Advisors and customers are becoming
increasingly co-dependent and advisors are progressively distancing themselves from the bank. In its desire to reengage advisors and customers, the bank has decided to start a co-creative dialogue in two test regions. Here’s a story about how the process unfolded and how a few folks learned to swim.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Why the excitement for business in emerging countries will displace the cynical economies of the West

I am just back from a tour of duties with a large agricultural chemical company where I participated in co-creation workshops with Indian, Brazilian, Spanish and US farmers. There was so much excitement in India and Brazil that we had to say no to many local sales and technical people who wanted to take us to their farmers, while in Spain and the US, getting those workshops organized was like pulling teeth. Why is that, I wondered.

The greatest asset of emerging countries is their enthusiasm for business and their eagerness to discover new ways of competing. The people simply do not know they should be all-knowing and cynical. You can see the excitement everywhere, even at this time of global economic crisis. In India, the workshop involved a huge tent with a large group of farmers and close to twenty managers of the local subsidiary of the firm. The senior company leader for the Asia Pacific region, a highly-respected Indian gentleman now based in Singapore, role-modeled with great humility how to engage farmers in the development of new ideas. Life was fun. I was at home in the universe.

The Experience Co-Creation Partnership provides workshops, executive education and consulting services to disseminate experience co-creation concepts and support their practitioners. We are committed to the global application of ECC practice and travel extensively all over the world. Typical engagements with companies start with an introductory workshop and evolve into a combination of cascading workshops, coaching and consulting interventions. Our primary role is to coach members of the organization in the application of the experience co-creation concepts and help companies migrate to the next practices of value creation. More

"Co-Creating Strategy with Experience Co-Creation" by Venkat Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart
Balanced Scorecard Report, Jul-Aug. 2008

Three principles of the experience co-creation (ECC) paradigm of strategy innovation.

The Future of Competition by C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy (Harvard Business School Press, 2004) Winner of the 2004 MIT Sloan Management Review/Pricewater- houseCoopers Award, a BusinessWeek "Top 10 Book of the Year 2004" and one of Strategy+Business magazine's "Best Business Books 2004: Strategy"

Babson 2.0 Innovation Summit, March 17–18, Wellesley, Mass. – Francis Gouillart led a workshop on co-creation, offering attendees a hands-on experience and the analytical process for uncovering co-creation opportunities.

Ross School of Business Executive Education Special Event, April 17, Ann Arbor, Mich. – C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan, colleagues of Venkat Ramaswamy, will lead a colloquium on their book, The New Age of Innovation.

Strategic Account Management Association Annual Conference, May 10–12, Hollywood, Florida – Venkat Ramaswamy will deliver an executive-level presentation, "Co-Creating the Future," and Francis Gouillart will lead a workshop on "Unleashing the Power of Co-Creation in Strategic Account Management."

HSM Expo Managment 2009, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, Sao Paulo – Venkat Ramaswamy will join business and thought leaders including Jack Welch, Carly Fiorina, Michael Porter, and Paul Krugman as a keynote presenter to deliver "Co-Creating the Future."