Yesterday I spent the day in conversation with Prof Venkat Ramaswamy (in 2004 he wrote “The Future of Competition” with C. K. Prahalad).Β The subject of the conversation was co-creation, and the power of tools such as Spigit. In essence, co-creation is working alongside stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers etc) to create a win-win situation.Β It’s a powerful concept, and something that I’ve been working on with a couple of clients for a while now.
This morning I read a great example that broadly fits the concept: designer works with the masses to get funding for his idea, he takes pre-orders to ensure that there’s enough demand, brings it to market and then Apple comes to the party:
Itβs the ultimate Kickstarter success story. Unable to secure a manufacturer, the Chicago-based designer Scott Wilson placed his TikTok and LunaTik wristbands — which convert the Nano into a watch — on the funding site. Within a month, he raised nearly $1 million from 13,500 backers — a Kickstarter record. All of a sudden, retailers came calling, including the most prestigious of all: Apple, which is rolling out the wristbands in North American stores this week.
via Kickstarter’s Biggest Success Ever: Nano Wristbands Raise $1M, Jump To Apple Store | Co.Design.
The story above broadly fits the concept – however I’d recommend a closer look at the concept in Prof Ramaswamy’s book called “The Power of Co-Creation.” It’s attracted some very powerful reviews, including a Twitter recommendation from Tom Peters (which conveyed so much excitement I thought his next Tweet was going to be requesting paramedics).