Table Of Contenti
Customer
Innovation
ii
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
iii
Second Edition
Customer
Innovation
Delivering a customer-led strategy
for sustainable growth
Marion Debruyne
Koen Tackx
iv
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book
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material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the authors.
First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2014 by Kogan Page Limited
Second edition 2019
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be repro-
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© Marion Debruyne, 2014
© Marion Debruyne BVBA and Kotasco BVBA, 2019
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has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Hardback 978 0 7494 9778 1
Paperback 978 0 7494 8418 7
eBook 978 0 7494 8419 4
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Debruyne, Marion, author. | Tackx, Koen, author.
Title: Customer innovation : delivering a customer-led strategy for
sustainable growth / Marion Debruyne, Koen Tackx.
Description: 2nd Edition. | New York : Kogan Page Ltd, [2019] | Revised
edition of Customer innovation, 2014. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018051295 (print) | LCCN 2018060993 (ebook) | ISBN
9780749484194 (ebook) | ISBN 9780749497781 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780749484187 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780749484194 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Customer relations. | Customer services. | Strategic planning.
Classification: LCC HF5415.5 (ebook) | LCC HF5415.5 .D43 2019 (print) | DDC
658.8/12--dc23
Typeset by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry
Print production managed by Jellyfish
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
v
CONTENTS
List of case studies ix
List of HOW TO boxes xi
Preface xii
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: connect–convert–collaborate: how to
build a customer-driven innovation journey 1
Connect 4
Convert 4
Collaborate 5
The strategic case for customer understanding and market
insight 5
The antecedents 8
Desperately seeking 9
Firm-centric paradigm versus customer-centred perspective 10
How to read this book 14
Notes 16
PART ONE The zoom lens – Laying the foundation
for outside-in strategy 19
01 Connect using the zoom lens: five practices to zoom in
on your customer 21
Establish a feedback loop from customers 23
Immersive customer understanding 27
Using every source of information you have 32
Customers as a source of ideas 35
Customers as developers 38
Organizing the customer connection 41
Conclusion 46
In short 48
Get started 48
Notes 49
vi Contents
02 Convert using the zoom lens: how to create a culture of
daily innovation 55
Harness the potential of incremental innovation 56
Leverage a connected development model 60
Close the customer feedback loop 62
Make innovation organization wide 63
In short 69
Get started 70
Notes 70
03 Collaborate using the zoom lens: placing the customer
at the heart of your activities 73
Building a bridge between the inside and the outside 74
Harvest all customer roles 77
Towards a truly customer-oriented culture 90
Conclusion 95
In short 95
Get started 96
Notes 97
PART TWO The wide lens – How to innovate your
current customer journey 101
04 Connect using the wide lens: understanding your
customers’ journey, goals and outcomes 103
How to enhance the existing customer journey 109
An opportunity to innovate by rethinking the customer journey
entirely 113
Rethink segmentation 116
In short 118
Get started 120
Notes 120
05 Convert using the wide lens: creating innovative
solutions to the challenges that customers face 123
What is solution thinking? 124
The outside-in value proposition 127
The integration solution 129
Contents vii
The disintegration solution 134
The solution-focused organization 137
The trap of competence thinking 140
In short 142
Get started 142
Notes 143
06 Collaborate using the wide lens: creating customer
value by collaborating along the value chain 145
Connect downstream value with upstream collaboration 147
Defining the assets that ensure your role in the ecosystem 151
Re-create the value chain 157
In short 160
Get started 161
Notes 162
PART THREE The fisheye lens – Expanding your
customer base to new horizons 165
07 Connect using the fisheye lens: how to learn from
customers you don’t have 167
Learn from the customers you don’t have 172
The competitors of the future 173
Traps to be avoided – on blinkers and biases 176
Driving attention to the outside 180
How to exploit the fisheye lens 183
In short 186
Get started 186
Notes 187
08 Convert using the fisheye lens: should business-model
innovation be on your agenda? 191
Business-model innovation: fad or fab? 193
The enemies of business-model innovation 195
How to organize to enable new business creation 205
On persistence and patience 213
In short 214
Get started 215
Notes 215
viii Contents
09 Collaborate using the fisheye lens: creating adaptable
ecosystems for change and expansion 219
Embracing uncertainty 221
Orchestrating ecosystems 224
Agility versus commitment – a balancing act 227
Platformization of industries 228
In short 230
Get started 231
Notes 231
PART FOUR Conclusion 233
10 Conclusion – three essential capabilities: the playbook
for continual customer-based growth 235
Step 1 – Connect 235
Step 2 – Convert 236
Step 3 – Collaborate 237
Notes 241
Index 243
ix
LIST OF CASE STUDIES
Customer innovation at KLM 02
Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes: the struggle of
Exubera 11
Delivering happiness at Zappos 24
The magical bracelet at Disney 34
Learning from customers in a high-tech market 36
An exchange of ideas at Eurex 44
How users create ideas for LEGO 59
Asos: connected development 61
Feel at home at Châteauform 64
Getting all ideas to the surface in a consumer electronics company 68
A pioneer of the sharing economy: Zipcar 74
Rockstar customers at Salesforce 79
Harvesting ideas for Starbucks 82
Eat your own dog food in products and services industries 87
Love for the customer at Châteauform 91
The Disneyland magic starts the moment
you tell them 104
How Zagat lowered restaurant goers’ search and selection costs 111
Bringing patients together on PatientsLikeMe 113
Orica selling “broken rock” 115
How Dow Corning applied needs-based segmentation 117
Implementing a solution-centric strategy at Betafence 125
WeWork ensures you only need to focus on work 132
Xiameter: the disintegrated solution of Dow Corning 136
Big-data collaboration to increase customer satisfaction at KLM 146
Connecting the upstream and downstream value chain at Barry
Callebaut 148
Carglass leveraging customer experience-based assets 153
Otis Elevators leveraging data-based assets 154
Netflix’s answer to what you should watch next 156
Smartbox intermediating the gift market 159
How Airbnb built the biggest hotel in the world without
owning one 168
