Case Studies Nike

When Nike partnered with their running customers, they discovered that, apart from running shoes and apparel, they also needed sport watches, MP3 players, and heart monitors. Nike developed these offerings and their equipment business boasted sales in excess of US$400 million within few years.

Value Innovation: Yin-Yang Strategies

Case Studies  BMW

In partnership with its customers and external innovators, BMW is constantly seeking to discover new technologies and design features to put into future cars. To harvest the insights of creative minds outside the BMW Group, the firm's Virtual Innovation Agency (VIA) is the point of contact for all external innovators who do not as yet have contacts within the firm. VIA makes it easy for car fans to communicate their ideas through its web-site, with additional online discussions that solicit ideas from enthusiasts around the world... More

New Product Development: 10 Best Practices

Case Studies Nypro

Nypro Inc., a largest plastics injection molder in the United States, is a global contract manufacturer. It operates 24 molding companies in 10 countries. As a truly customer-directed enterprise, Nypro cultivates a culture of quality and service with their customers, offering flexible and innovative solutions to their molding requirements. This emphasis on partnership between customer and molder epitomizes the business environment at Nypro.

The company transformed itself from an undistinguished also-run to an internationally heralded leader in zero-defect production. Nypro searched out sophisticated customers, initially targeting cutting-edge manufacturers of health-care products whose needs for product safety demanded far higher specifications than any existing injection process could deliver. Nypro designed new injection process for each customer, sharing insights with the customers' own engineering and marketing teams to solve their specific problems. They worked together: partners in innovation. Nypro situated its new plants next door to its customers and integrated its new process with theirs. As a result, Nypro's customers got more sophisticated products produced at lower costs with a faster cycle time and fewer defects. For its part, Nypro saw annual net income rise 14 times in less than a decade.

 

 

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

 

 

Case Studies Dell Inc.

Dell Inc. start their innovation process with asking their customers, "What would you really want this thing to do? Is there a different way to accomplish that?" Then they meet with their suppliers and ask, "Can we do this in a different way?" Then they try to come up with a totally different approach that exceeds the original objectives.

From the start, the entire Dell business – from design to manufacturing to sales – was oriented around listening to the customer, responding to the customer, and delivering what the customer wanted. Their direct relationships – first through telephone calls, then through face-to-face interactions, and now through Internet – has enabled Dell to benefit from real-time input from real customers regarding product and service requirement, products on the market, and future products they would like to see developed. While other companies had to guess which products their customers wanted, because they built them in advance of taking the order, Dell knew – because their told them before they built the product.

To continually bring information from the outside world into Dell, with an eye toward staying as competitive as they can, Michael Dell, the Founder of Dell Inc. used a variety of innovative approaches. He says, "I also enjoy roaming around outside the company to see what people think of us. On the Web, nobody knows I'm a CEO. I'll hang out in chatrooms where actual users commonly chat about Dell and our competitors. I listen to their conversations as they discuss their purchases and their likes and dislikes. It's a tremendous learning opportunity."

"When we've made mistakes, we've benefited from faster correction because our customer input was more immediate," says Michael Dell. "We often cut our losses before there's a chance for them to develop into bigger problems and make corrections quickly. And we know how to cut them off because of the valuable advice we get from our customers."... More

Creating Sustainable Profits: 9 Questions To Answer

Case Studies Corning

Corning keeps it's customers, end-users and OEM suppliers well informed of its product development plans. It uses road-mapping as a co-innovation tool that allows customers and suppliers to work together to build products... More

Case Studies GE

Involve customers, urged  Jack Welch. Quality program is aimed at enhancing satisfaction of your customers. Find out what customers want. Involve them to participate in your work, to drive it, to "manage your enterprise."... More