Co-Creation: Market Research, Market Adaptation and Customer Service At Its Best

Co-Creation is a not a new term.  The idea has been around for a long time under different terms.  The most frequently used phrase seems to be a partnering relationship.  Personally, I like “Co-Creation” because it is more specific in its definition and intent.

University of Michigan Ross School of Business Professors and strategy thought leaders C K Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy first publicly introduced the concept to the world of business in their 2000 Harvard Business Review article, “Co-Opting Customer Competence.”  “Value will be increasingly co-created by the firm and the customer”, they argued in their Harvard Business School Press book The Future of Competition, “rather than being created entirely inside the firm.”  “Co-creation in their view not only describes a trend of jointly creating products, it also describes a movement away from customers buying products and services as transactions, to those purchases being made as part of an experience,” according to one review.

I would add to their definition by positing that Co-Creation is more than a strategy or marketing slogan to replace the term “partnering relationship.”  It is a business philosophy and a leadership way-of- life that requires time and hard work. 

Co-Creation is market research, market adaptation, and customer service at its best.  

Co-Creation is not a phrase you can tack up on the wall for your employees or on your website and win greater market share.  It is a new framework for doing business.  To start down what will be a new way of managing has its risks.  Asking for client participation – their time and effort necessary for effective collaboration – and then repeatedly failing to act is akin to a high-speed expressway to client conflict and dissatisfaction. 

 If you doubt that, let me provide an analogous example of what will happen if you fail to follow through:  just repeatedly ask your spouse for his or her advice, and then appear – repeatedly – to ignore it.  There will be what I like to call “noisy consequences.”

 In our quest at JohnGSelf Associates to practice transformational executive search, we are adopting Co-Creation as a way of life.  For a small firm that is working to break out of the crowd, we know this approach has its risks.  The time it takes to ensure that there is a beneficial relationship between our company and our clients is not insignificant.  But, we believe that in this new healthcare economy, it is the right approach.  

John G. Self is President of JohnGSelf Associates, Inc.in Dallas.  The Firm provides  comprehensive high-touch executive search and talent advisory services to clients from Hawaii across the U.S. mainland and Canada. You can contact John at 214.573.5095, or [email protected]

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