Benefits of the Open Innovation Crowdsourcing Experience - Case Study Example

Innovation at Fiat Mio Student’s Name University Affiliation Innovation at Fiat Mio Fiat Brazil’s crowdsourcing project engaged over seventeen thousand contributors from 160 diverse countries for over 15 months. Fiat Brazil engaged dialogue, which involved laypersons, car experts, and professionals (Prado & Pozzebon, 2015). In the process, the company ended up collecting over ten thousand ideas and more than forty-five thousand comments, which were implemented to develop a concept car through a collaborative procedure. Fiat Brazil and the internet contributors both took part to creating the car to demonstrate a new design, which was to be featured at the motor to gauge the customer’s reaction to new and vibrant designs for likely mass production (González & Estellés-Arolas, 2012). The prototype produced generated benefits to the participants and the company. Fiat was able to develop a product and interact with consumers. The company optimized the ideas given by the sourced crowd to create an innovative automobile. The participants were guided and nurtured from the experience. Fiat Mio was merely a map of what would have been a real innovation, which was basically a prototype of customer’s aspirations, and several of the new components, which could finally be assimilated into a brand new automobile made to be sold. Benefits of the Open Innovation Crowdsourcing Experience Benefits to Fiat Fiat expected to create a car in collaboration with internet users beginning from a simple idea. From the collaboration, Fiat foresaw an advantageous circumstance to attain two goals i.e. develop a product and interact with consumers (Wentz, 2009). The project was advantageous to employees of Fiat. According to one company executive interviewed, the project changed the way all employees at the facility work. Another manager added that the idea sent the entire automobile sector into psychoanalysis. According to the executives, surprising innovations descended from the periphery. The innovation moved towards a more central placing in the organization. The project was originally created to be a small venture that would only engage a few car enthusiasts within the firm, however, the company benefited from the idea as it took shape, changing the objective of the company from a peripheral to a key concern for the company (Saldanha, Cohendet & Pozzebon, 2014). The project enabled Fiat to reinforce its relations with its clients as it gained more.   In addition, concerning the information exchange, by giving useful, clear, and relevant material to assembling contributors, the business exploited the value of the concepts given by the sourced persons being innovativeness and feasibility. Thus, the ideas provided were meaningful for the specialists. Through the experience, the participants provided a challenge including the provision of helpful content connected to the desired solution (Prado & Pozzebon, 2015). The ideas alongside the free association of applications and uses were helpful, innovative, and original in the expert’s eyes. The crowd was helpful to Fiat Brazil. The inspirational posts delivered by Fiat in the form of purposeful content and references supplied to the crowd, the company’s advertising agency hoped to stimulate contribution and enhance the crowd sourced participant’s awareness. In turn, this was expected to help to enhance the debate and receive extra concepts that are accurate. Subsequently, the company prompted the crowd to give better answers linked to challenges stated. An important benefit for Fiat Brazil as a crowdsourcing organization would be an effective tool for promotion and managing the client relations in the long-term through the activities of luring, collecting, and inspiring groups of lay persons, users, clients and ultimately several professionals from the group via a planned social contact strategy (Prado & Pozzebon, 2015). In the end, the successful plan would assist to recognize upcoming groups of persons from contributing in one venture, thus bringing together both specialists and non-specialists. The crowdsourcing experience further subverted and introduced a limited level of cognitive discord into Fiat. One of the executives of the company who was interviewed, the opportunity provided an exceptional opportunity for the company to comprehend changes and developments in the market settings (Wentz, 2009). The association of “the profane” and “the sacred” also favored the discussion between ordinary and complex concepts, which for the company executives was significant for rethinking several of their own organizational paradigms and routines. Some executives of Fiat Brazil recognized that the sample itself was nearly not appropriate. Instead, it mirrored the result of a dynamic debate and an association established between the firm and its customers. The relationship eventually, made the company to acquire knowledge on effective communication more effectively with individuals, by also integrating their information. Possibly, the critical Fiat Mio legacy is the interaction opportunity established between the company and clients as well as the huge data volume, which the business gathered from the participants (Araujo, 2016). Furthermore, the company obtained new working mechanisms, synapses, and links, which they would never have established by themselves. Most importantly, the “Fiat Mio” project provided a new perspective to the company on different challenges making them to reflect on several of their models. According to one Fiat executive, with the gathered naïve and simplistic opinions concerning something, which has become deeply complex and technical for them, they experienced some kind of disconnection, which according to them was a good thing. Benefit to Participants The project provided useful benefits to the participants by emphasizing the fact that the users would feel that the “Fiat Mio” commonly called “My Fiat” in English belonged to them. Thus, Fiat provided guidance and nurtured the participants through the internet. The social interaction also addressed the Internet users’ needs including providing networking and eventually providing them with the recognition for value of their concepts. Undoubtedly, the internet interaction between “the sacred” (engineers and designers of Fiat) and “the profane” (lay persons and crowdsourcing participants) embodied by the prototype (Fiat Mio) provided numerous other reasons apart from just providing the constructive interaction sessions. Most importantly, the investment created in delivering useful content was gainful because it assisted in improving the subjectivity of the users. Moreover, the opportunity minimized the customer’s cognitive fascination, or merely an attribute that impedes or frustrates the effective conclusion of different kinds of mental undertakings. These included activities such as those entailed in solving problems, remembrance, and coming up with innovative ideas. Even expert professionals undergo through such a situation (Prado & Pozzebon, 2015). The individuals from the crowdsourcing experience also benefited from the possible eventuality of working from outside the firm. Thus, through the experience, most of the participants gained from the developed network making them to obtain recognition depending on their ideas success. Undoubtedly, the internet experience established great enthusiasm concerning co-creating an automobile, which was crowd sourced. One participant was heard saying that the Fiat Mo came from them and that through the participation, even though from outside the company, they feel as if they are working in the factory. Most critically, many of the contributors became well-identified briefly as owning specific ideas, which materialized in the prototype. The Real Innovation of Fiat The plan by Fiat Mio was expected to develop the third model (FCC III), which the company would show at the Auto exhibition of Sao Paulo in 2010 (Muller et al., 2012). Coincidentally, that same year, the company had demonstrated its original FCC I the project crew established at the Company’s Style Center. After a couple of years, FCC II (the second demonstration) was exhibited at the Sao Paulo Auto Show 2008 edition. Pursuing inspiration to establish the third design (FCC) III, one of the directors of the company documented the lesson that manufactures of automobile incline not to reply to comprise the actual needs of consumers because a few of their expectations are misplaced in the course of ensuring time lag between promotional assessments and closing the initiation of an invention. For the time being, a manager of Fiat’s promotional body, AgênciaClick Isobar based in the home country sent some duplicates of the writing ‘What Google Could Do? (Idea Connection, 2016) to some executives of the company to arouse their cognitive aspects concerning improving the company’s tactic to develop an model grounded in the teachings from the writing (Araujo, 2016). Intrigued by the manner in which the new approaches could influence the designs of producing cars by carmakers, the Fiat director had a vision to establish a cooperative process of co-production for a model automobile via a blog on the company’s web individuals contributed their opinions. The concept of the project was deliberated amongst the other company directors. Through the platform, a chance for the company to enhance its methodology to communicating with various users was established. The outcome was that the promotional agency was given the objective of coming up with a strategy for communication for the creation process talked to arouse the contribution of users of the Internet around the globe. The organization would also assist to direct the idea by providing references to the participants through texts and images concerning the feasible aspects. The advertising agency developed an application, which segmented the development into three major stages being plotting situations, concept situation, and design concept. Therefore, this project started with the simple crowdsourcing methodology to create a current model automobile, and it developed through five more stages, which culminated in the prototype’s launching. After obtaining adequate content and discussed by the crowd, the company drew off to handle the data from within, after which it released a fresh challenge briefing to be solved. They realized that two concepts summed up the aspirations of the Internet users’ i.e. a winding and organic style and a squarish and defined design (Araujo, 2016). These alignments offered diverse drawings, which were categorized into two lines i.e. the sense (organic line) and the minimalistic line. Internet contributors were instructed to respond to specific questions and thereafter elect their favored alternative. Furthermore, they were asked to specify their likings for suggested fresh designs details and technologies. A major objective of the mapping scenario meant to produce a major question, which could propel deliberations on the platform and thereafter be availed to the company’s website for the crowd-sourced contributors. The company subcontracted research to six automobile specialists to examine “future’s vehicle” as well as “the future of cars” (Idea Connection, 2016). They did this while aiming to interview experts and chart future scenarios and trends. The result of their activities was a widespread report, which was later condensed and demonstrated in a yard scheduled by the company. The project’s platform continued to acknowledge comments and suggestions by stretching the duration for obtaining content from its customers concerning habits, their preferences, and likes for later use. During the whole period, both the company and the crowdsourcing contributors knew that the model car might not be created or marketed for commercial purposes. Moreover, the prototype of the car suggested that it was costly to develop with possibilities that it could not be driven (Prado & Pozzebon, 2015). The development was to perform as a three-dimensional demonstration of an idea. In spite of Fiat Mio being a merely illustration of an idea, which invigorated the project was a proof that the design’s management through a cooperative web-based opportunity was possible with the help of many Internet users. Thus, as a car manufacturer, Fiat expected to modernize and optimize real novel ideas in the manner in which it develops new automobiles. Most car manufacturers would most probably begin with an idea, develop a concept, build and design prototypes, test them and obtain feedback, create a new prototype, and test it again. Such a cycle is repeated until the company is prepared to generate, generate, and sell the completed product to potential clients. Initially, the concept design was meant to be a small demonstration, which would comprise only a few car enthusiasts within the firm, but it rapidly took momentum and transformed from a marginal to key issue at Fiat. As a prototype, the car was merely a map of what would be a real innovation. The real innovation, which was to come from the customer’s wishes and expert’s attributes, could eventually be assimilated into vehicles made for sale. According to a director at the company, “little things, which do not cost a lot and introduce more satisfaction to customers, but which have not been accorded adequate consideration. According to him, many of the customer’s ideas would find a way into the company’s cars (Muller et al., 2012). The deliberations by Fiat through their website, welcoming people to imagine with freedom the future by posting comments, photos, and videos was originally meant to endorse a marketing survey for the real innovation. However, with the surging popular interest, it was changed into a marketing movement. To sum up, Fiat Brazil’s crowdsourcing project engaged over seventeen thousand contributors from 160 diverse countries to produce a prototype, which would be featured in the annual motor show. Fiat Brazil and the internet contributors both took part to creating the car to demonstrate a new design. The prototype produced generated benefits to the participants and the company. Both the the company and Fiat gained from the interaction. Ultimately, the prototype was merely a demonstration of what would have been a real creation. References Araujo, D., (2016). Fiat mio the first crowdsourcing car. Retrieved from: http://cargocollective.com/diego/Fiat-Mio-The-First-Crowdsourcing-Car Estellés-Arolas, E., & González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, F. (2012). Towards an integrated crowdsourcing definition. Journal of Information science, 38(2), 189-200. Idea Connection, (2016). Fiat mio, the world's first crowdsourced car. Retrieved from: https://www.ideaconnection.com/open-innovation-success/Fiat-Mio-the-World's-First-Crowdsourced-Car-00273.html Muller, A., Hutchins, N., & Cardoso Pinto, M. (2012). Applying open innovation where your company needs it most. Strategy & Leadership, 40(2), 35-42. Prado, F., & Pozzebon, M. (2015). Fiat Mio: The project that embraced open innovation, crowdsourcing and creative commons in the automotive industry. International Journal of Case Studies in Management, 13(1), 1-9. Saldanha, F. P., Cohendet, P., & Pozzebon, M. (2014). Challenging the Stage-Gate Model in Crowdsourcing: The Case of Fiat Mio in Brazil.Technology Innovation Management Review, 4(9). Wentz, L. (2009). At Fiat in Brazil, Vehicle Design Is No Longer by Fiat. Advertising Age, 115, 173-184. Read More