A NEW FRONTEER
Well, Fronteer in a new HQ, at least.
Welcome to the third installment of our very-loosely-twice-a-year newsletter, aimed at ‘sharing insights and inspiration from the things we do, with the people that we do them with.’
Biggest news - and project - of the past nine months has been the move to our new office. As of Jan 1st, 2011, Fronteer Strategy is housed in the former smith’s workshop of the NDSM shipbuilding company. Surrounded by amazing remnants of Amsterdam’s glorious dockland heritage, our neighbours include MTV, Red Bull and retail meisters HEMA.
We will dearly miss our old Prinsengracht pad in the middle of Amsterdam’s old town, but the views, energy, space and ‘sense of industry’ that NDSM offer have made us and our first visitors feel instantly ‘at home’. Please visit our website for the ferry timetables and route to our visitor-parking-friendly new HQ.
back to top NXNW
One of the great features of our new office is that it also houses our very own ‘creative space’, designed and decorated especially to host co-creation workshops, brainstorms sessions and temporary project teams. Separated from our office only by an industrial sliding door, our entire team is on hand to support clients, teams and projects where need be.
We’ve been dreaming of our own space for a long time; finally we’re able to modify and optimize all ‘indirect’ details that influence the quality and output of work subtly but ever so fundamentally: light, space, timing, materials, decoration, even the food.
First client reactions have been very positive (‘spacious’, ‘flexible’, ‘cool’, ‘welcoming’) so we look forward to many many inspiring sessions to come. Check out the NxNW website for more pictures and information.
back to top EXCITING NEW FRONTEER PROJECTS
Many of you will have read, seen or heard of Martijn’s categorization of co-creation initiatives based on 2 dimensions: Open-ness (who can join) and Ownership (who owns the output). If not, please read the white paper here
. So far, our efforts were predominantly aimed at ‘Expert Co-creation’. For these ‘time-pressured, multiple-perspectives-required, breakthrough-needed’ projects, we developed the Rooftop approach which has been successfully applied across a wide variety of categories.
Always eager to explore new territory, we’ve recently explored our boundaries and developed new methodologies for ‘Coalition’- and ‘Crowd’-type projects too.
‘Coalition’-type co-creation occurs when a select group of value chain partners ‘club together’ to create a hybrid business model, change the status quo, break category boundaries or set a new industry standard. This emerging practice requires a new set of procedures, support and paramaters, which we’ve captured in a new methodology called Clubhouse
. For the last months, we have been working on our very first Clubhouse project, involving 5 companies who - for 7 weeks - spend a few days a week in our creative space, co-creating breakthrough retail concepts. Keep an eye out whilst shopping later this year.
In a similar vein, we’ve also ‘moved upwards’ into crowd-sourcing territory. Together with Munich-based co-design experts HYVE
, we are exploring the merits and opportunities of combining on- and offline community-based co-creation. Together with HYVE, we have developed a structured approach that combines advantages of Online (established communities, reach, connectivity) and Offline (human interaction, selection, empathy, speed, inspiration) co-creation for application to marketing challenges. Since in this form ‘anyone can join’ for as long as they like, we’ve called this approach Campsite.
back to top A NEW WHITEPAPER - 9 WAYS
At the start of 2011, we finished our second whitepaper, called '9 Ways To Get Your Team Ready for Co-creation', focusing on the psychology of co-creation.
Implementation of co-creation is a process involving people, operations, policy and culture. In this paper, we identify various social, psychological and organisational barriers that can be encountered when starting co-creation within your organisation. These barriers are the result of the change process that is set in motion when changing from a closed to an open innovation approach.
In order to provide some guidance during the first steps into the world of co-creation, we offer 9 practical ways to overcome these barriers and to get your team ready for co-creation by providing clear direction, motivating them and creating a supportive environment. You can view the full whitepaper here.
back to top EMPATHY
The concept of Empathy (and its impact on marketing reality) has had our special attention this year. We interpret the term as ‘The capacity to take ‘someone else’s perspective’, share feelings and acknowledge their views and concerns.’
Beyond the fascinating anthropological perspective and humanitarian impact, we argue that so-called ‘customer-driven innovation’ strongly requires empathy towards the consumers in question. Interestingly, there appears to be a reciprocal effect too: our hypothesis is that consumers are more attracted - and potentially more loyal - to brands that listen to, empathise with and acknowledge them. Also, they might be more inclined to share ideas, co-create with and recommend such brands.
To learn more about the relationship between empathy, loyalty, approachability, attractiveness and innovativeness, we’ve teamed up with Ruigrok | Netpanel, one of the nation’s leading research agencies. Together we founded the Empathy Monitor
: a research programme that leads to an annual tracking and ranking of brands considered ‘Most Empathic’. Will Ikea - the most empathic brand of 2010 - have the high-score again this year? Stay tuned for the Empathy Monitor 2011, planned for late Summer.
back to top YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT?
As well as ‘greening up’ our consulting practice (we added a Sustainability Strategy development methodology called Rooftop Garden to our toolbox last year), we’ve recently decided to literally ‘eat our own advice’.
All breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks served at Fronteer’s new NXNW venue are as local and green as can be. Thanks to De Buurtboer - a company founded by our dear former colleague Nikki Wiesman - all our food comes from organic farmers bakers and producers as local as possible. Feeling peckish? Why not help yourself to a Donny Craves choc-chip cookie : the first officially organic cookie-bakers in the Netherlands.
back to top KENNEDY VAN DER LAAN & FRONTEER
In the fast world of co-creation and open innovation, intellectual property rights becomes a hot topic. Who owns what? How is value distributed? What new business models apply?
In order to address these important questions we have decided to partner with the most innovative Dutch legal firm Kennedy and Van Der Laan. We will explore this space in 2011 and hope to present a new IP model in the near future.
back to top CONNECTION, STRATEGY & TALENT
For Fronteer, finding, connecting to and recruiting the right experts to co-create with is a crucial part of our work. That’s why we decided to make it a full-time job and a separate function in our team, next to consulting. Our new colleague Nadine Levin is our in-house expert participant radar system, who finds remarkable, industry-defining experts in universes as far apart as Aerospace, Sustainability, Hospitality, Art, Packaging, Windmills, Airlines, Acrobatics, Sea Rescue and Military Operations.
Our main business is obviously still strategy consulting though, so we’re proud to announce two new additions to our consulting team too : Joost de Boer en Florine Beukers.
back to top 2011 AND BEYOND
At Fronteer, we want to give our clients Clarity & Inspiration. We do this by fine-tuning our services to the ever-changing world and market around us so they best fit our clients' needs. Our full range of services, that we put to use to solve challenges on innovation, co-creation and brand-development, can now also be found on our website.
As for inspiration, we are constantly on the look-out for both weak and strong signals the world gives us. You cannot predict the future, but you can notice big and small trends that can be of great influence on how you should run your business or what your innovation strategy should be.
This year we have identified 10 signals that we personally find very inspiring as well as important to pay attention to. Some may be obvious, but when you really stop to think what they mean to your business or category, interesting answers might pop up. That's why we will use these signals to paint our clients a picture of the world around us and inspire them towards innovation and new strategies.
Oh, and by the way: you're always welcome to drop in for a cup of coffee at our new office!
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