Chris Lawer points to Prahalad’s new book, The Future of Competition: Co-creating Unique Value with Customers. The blurb for this says it’s about
the evolving role of the consumer from passive recipient to active co-creator of value. Managers need a new framework for value creation. This book is about the emerging “next practices” in value creation.
Increasingly individual customers interact with a network of firms and consumer communities to co-create value. No longer can firms autonomously create value. Neither is value embedded in products and services per se. Products are but an artifact around which compelling individual experiences are created. As a result, the focus of innovation will shift from products and services to experience environments that individuals can interact with to co-construct their own experiences. These personalized co-creation experiences are the source of unique value for consumers and companies alike.
Beyond Branding is on to this already; for instance there’s a chapter “Whose Brand is it Anyway” about co-creation, as well as thinking about how valuation methods must change to reflect a changed, connected economy.
Coincidentally, Ton Zijlstra does a clear diagnosis of an event that does not seem to have figured out the co-creation of value. Commenting on last years KM Europe event, Ton unravels why it didn’t work to well for all involved. It’s a good example of the way thinking needs to change.
