Executive Interviews: Interview with Venkat Ramaswamy on Co-Creation
April 2010 - By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary

Venkat Ramaswamy
Professor of Marketing and Hallman Fellow of Electronic Business at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

• Many argue that co-creation can at best work in B2C companies. Do you think co-creation can work equally well in B2B businesses? And moreover, how can co-creation be adopted in such industries as steel, petroleum, airlines, pharmaceuticals, electronics, etc., where the industries are either stable (from the viewpoint of their value propositions) or their primary job is to preempt any latent customer need?
  In the new expanded view of cocreation expounded in my new book, wherever there is “interaction” there is an opportunity for co-creation. This is important. Interactions are the new focus of value. And interactions are everywhere in the system, isn’t it? So, B2C, B2B or the public sector or whatever, once you think of interactions as the driver of experiences, then it becomes obvious that firms need to change how people “interact” with their processes and offerings, and thereby create mutual value. Again, I have several examples in my new book. Once the book is out, I will be happy to discuss any of these examples further.

• One of the critical success factors for co-creation is networking capabilities of companies? How do you think these networking capabilities can be built, and what are the other critical success factors of cocreation? What kind of organizational capabilities must be built up before embracing co-creation as a new way of doing business?
  These are good questions. In fact, “becoming a co-creative enterprise” is the title of the first chapter of my new book. Half the book is dedicated to the “transformation” of the management processes of companies. In my experience, change the management processes, and the rest will flow. Capabilities cannot be talked about in a vacuum, because in the new view, every organization is different, and the capabilities that are required are a direct function of the nature of innovation, which is often a function of the management processes and culture of the organization. So, change should begin in the bowels of the company. And this is a key point: those that are affected by change must be involved in it. The way to get to cocreation is through co-creation. In other words, co-creation is both the means and the end. A huge critical success factor is to recognize cocreation as a journey and the need to pay constant attention to keeping platforms alive through a focus on experiences.

• What is the role of leadership in preparing organizations to embrace the new value-driven philosophy of co-creation?
  Leadership is even more critical, and at all levels. The transformation to a co-creative enterprise can however be bottom up, middle out, or guided top down. In the new book, we discuss a diverse set of examples from Intuit, La Poste – the French Post Office, and HCL to Cisco and ERM, a professional services organization.

• Did you observe any co-creation attempts from emerging economies’ companies? Do you suggest companies from emerging economies should also look at co-creation as their next frontier?
  Yes, we actually found a greater interest in emerging economies, as they have less to forget. But cocreation is equally applicable to whether the economy is emerging or developed, and regardless of industry as I mentioned earlier.

• What would innovation mean in the light of co-creation attempts? What changes do you foresee on companies’ innovation efforts?
  In the new book, we discuss how innovation must be co-created. This goes beyond crowd sourcing and mass collaboration. It is about focusing on the innovation experiences of all stakeholders participating in the innovation process. Co-creation is agnostic to the type of innovation, whether it is operational, product-/serviceoriented or a new business model. Within each of these innovation approaches, co-creation can reduce risk and make the innovation much more effective and efficient. Cocreation is not about building it and they will come. It is about building it WITH them; they are already there. Engage and innovate in co-creative fashion. That’s the key.