Page 314 - (DK) The Business Book

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YOUR MOST UNHAPPY

CUSTOMERS ARE YOUR

GREATEST SOURCE

OF LEARNING

FEEDBACK AND INNOVATION

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS A business asks Customers or the public
Open innovation its customers submit their feedback,
how it could improve a both positive and negative,
KEY DATES
product or service. to the company.
1989 The Berlin Wall falls.
Companies inside the former
Iron Curtain must now
respond to customer
complaints.
2000 The travel website Trip
Advisor, which enables users
to rate hotels and restaurants, Your customers Good ideas to improve
is founded by Stephen Kaufer. are your greatest processes or products
source of learning. are incorporated
2003 Organizational theorist into the business.
Professor Henry Chesbrough
publishes Open Innovation: the
new imperative for creating
and profiting from technology,
which urges businesses to be n the past, companies required emerged. Open innovation is based
open to learning from internal their own employees to design on the idea that companies should
and external sources. I and develop new products. The be less private with their product-
2009 US crowd-funding knowledge was developed internally development programs, reflecting
by the in-house research and the view that its customers can
website Kickstarter is set up
development (R&D) department, and make valuable contributions to the
to encourage individual
tended to be a closely guarded product-development process.
investment in small-scale
secret. This belief that a company
business projects.
should be in sole control of the Internet feedback
creation of its intellectual property is The Internet has kick-started a sea
known as closed innovation. In more change in how businesses get
recent times, a new approach has feedback from customers. Online