Author / YannigRoth

by YannigRoth

Is Theodore Levitt’s article “Creativity is not enough” still accurate today?

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

 

I just finished reading Creativity is not enough, an HBR article that Theodore Levitt wrote more than 40 years ago. As the title indicates, the father of globalization theory says the creativity is a good thing, but that companies should not pay too much attention to creative types because they might be harmful to the business. My first thought was “Wow, Theodore Levitt was pretty tough on creatives“… but it’s still an interesting read, especially today where everybody is praising creativity as the panacea for innovation and competitiveness. Here are some excepts of this crusade against creative types, and some thoughts about today’s situation. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Quelques extraits du webinar sur Local Motors et la co-création

Vendredi dernier, le Co-Creation Forum organisait un webinar sur Local Motors, une entreprise dont j’ai déjà parlé sur ce blog. Durant ce webinar (ou slidecast, enfin quel que soit le terme…) on a pu écouter Damien Declercq, directeur du développement commercial de Local Motors, présenter Local Motors ainsi que son rôle au sein de l’entreprise. Damien Declercq est français (Normand même), mais l’ensemble de la présentation a été faite en anglais. Voici quelques passages retranscrits en français pour ceux qui ne maitrisent pas tellement la langue de Shakespeare… ou qui n’ont pas envie d’écouter trois quarts d’heure de webinar! Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

David Butler, Coke’s VP of Design about crowdsourcing

David Butler_Coca-Cola Design+ Award from jovoto on Vimeo.

Check out this great video from the German crowdsourcing company jovoto. They’re holding a contest for Coke at the moment, and it’s a great interview of the company’s VP of Design, David Butler. I already mentioned him in a past blog post about the Freestyle Fountain, and if you’re interested in what he’s doing, check out Fast Company’s page (it’s a little bit outdated, but still relevant). This video interview is very insightful, especially regarding branding, design and crowdsourcing. I particularly like the emphasis that he puts on the cultural aspect of crowdsourcing i.e. peoples’ different approaches of the same problem across cultures. Comments are welcome!

by YannigRoth

Understanding participation on a massive crowdsourcing platform

Hompage of crowdsourcing platform TaskCN

As time goes, we can see that crowdsourcing platforms gain momentum and attract both companies (seekers) and consumers (solvers). Some platforms are used to innovate in science (InnoCentive, Hypios, NineSigma), others to connect creatives and companies (Jovoto, eYeka, Poptent), and others are huge marketplaces of work or creative task (Mechanical Turk, Witmart, TaskCN). This blog post is about a piece of research that tries to understand participation on the latter platform: the Chinese marketplace TaskCN. What type of contests work best? Does more money attract solvers? And what role does peoples’ experience play in winning contests? Their finding can have strategic implications for designing online contest. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Les distributeurs français se mettraient-ils à la co-création?

page d'accueil

Comme l’a gentiment partagé @Ccollab, le groupe Casino vient de lancer une plateforme communautaire. Un pas vers une stratégie de co-création?

Il y a des modes, il y a des tendances et il y a des boulversements. Aujourd’hui, avec l’avènement d’internet et la légitimisation des actions participatives, on ne peut plus dire que la co-création est juste un effet de mode ; c’est une tendance de fond. A l’étranger, il existe de nombreux exemples innovants de distribution: l’enseigne américaine Target a conclu un partenariat avec la plateforme de crowdsourcing Quirky, son concurrent Walmart s’ouvre à la foule pour référencer de nouveaux produits, l’allemand Tchibo a une communauté en ligne qui lui suggère de nouveaux produits… et quid des distributeurs français? J’ai l’impression qu’on va au-delà du design de logo, aujourd’hui, et qu’ils se mettent à intégrer la co-créations dans leurs stratégies. Un petit tour d’horizon de ce qui se fait aujourd’hui. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Merging two crowdsourcing platforms: what challenges?

innocentive-omnicompete

A week ago, InnoCentive announced the aquisition of OmniCompete, another innovation-contest platform. To my knowledge, it’s the first acquisition of one contest-platform by another (correct me if I’m wrong). In the blog post that announced this strategic move, InnoCentive’s and OmniCompete’s CEOs explain the rationale for this merger, but I think that this type of operation also implies interesting challenges concerning platform- and community-management. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Reinventing classical brands and famous products through crowdsourcing

renault-lacostettagheuer-victorinox-4711

Iconic brands and designs… are being reinvented by creative crowds

Do you recognize the above brands and products? Probably you’ve recognized the Lacoste Crocodile and the Swiss Knives, maybe even the colors of n°4711 Eau de Cologne… iconic brands and/or products that with worldwide recognition. The book Mythologies described this type of symbols of the consumption era back in 1957, there has even been an updated version about current myths like the GPS, the iPod or Nespresso. This post is not about books, though, but about a couple of creative crowdsourcing initiatives that asked creatives to reinvent old classics, namely the Renault 4 and Fiat 500 (on Designboom), 4711 Eau de Cologne (on Ideanet), Lacoste and Tag Heuer (on eYeka), the Swiss Army Knife (on Jovoto) and Nokia’s Ringtone (on Audiodraft).  Take a tour. Continue reading →