Fiat and the Participants Have Benefited from Open Innovation - Case Study Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Question 1 Throughout the process, both fiat and the participants have benefited from open innovation. Fiat benefits include: Fiat Mio main aim was to develop a prototype to be presented at Sao Paulo Auto Show, and they achieved this through an open innovation assisted by the internet users who participated and gave ideas. The participants gave their ideas, time and passion the concept car and this benefitted Fiat Mio. Therefore, Fiat benefited in the incorporation of the participants in the development process. The collaborative project attracted many partners who saw an opening to enhance communication with the clients. The participants and the experienced partners helped to raise ideas thus minimizing the research and development costs that Fiat Mio would have incurred. The company proved that it was possible to build a concept car design through a collaborative web-based platform. The concept presented the majority wishes and desires of the users that were commonly ignored thus showing the accomplishment of the project customer accepted prototype. Cars play a vital role in the Brazil culture, and this is evident with the continuous growth of the automobile industry and increase in the market demand. Fiat Concept Car contributed to the growth, and different view of customer wishes thus building a good reputation in the market. The Sao Paulo Auto Show acts as a platform to showcase company’s ideas and the investors, or other interested parties come to see. The show attracted media attention. The success of the Fiat Mio on the Sao Paulo Auto show car concept acted as advertising hence creating a market for potential interests. Fiat Mio collaborative project was awarded prizes indicating the advantages of the open innovation compared to a similar project in 2006 at the Sao Paulo Auto show. The Fiat Mio achieved the development of a disruptive idea that changed how Fiat perceives cars. According to Leonardo, the company got more ideas to develop a real-time interactivity site and give feedback. On the concept ideas phase, Fiat progressively discovered how and where the ideas would work. The open innovation increased the accuracy of the customer needs in the market research hence benefiting Fiat Mio. Registering of the concept through Attribution No Derivatives license would benefit the company financially. The participant benefits include: The project aim was originally to collect data for the marketing survey. When the project was changed into a marketing movement, participant with the most creative idea would benefit by winning a car. The internet users were excited to explore and develop the concept that would fulfill their needs and interests. The participants learned a lot as they were continually updated thus enhancing detailed understanding of how the car concept was to be developed. On the concept ideas phase, the participants progressively discovered how and where the ideas would work. The participants were able to view videos of the development stages on the concept design. They got the benefit of viewing these documentaries once a week. The videos were made in a black box in Fiat Style Center where the company’s products are developed in secrecy as it is traditionally off limits. The participants got to see the step by step collective efforts and of engineers, designers and executive in the creative process and the final showcase presentation at Sao Paulo Show. The participants got to follow all the steps in the design process and the challenges faced for free without restrictions. The internet users were viewed as the boss and their efforts appreciated by Fiat. The internet users with the resources had clear, detailed ideas and rights to develop the concept ideas or FCC III prototype. The internet users were invited via Twitter and campaigns to see the outcome at the showroom. Leonardo planned to gather more information about the internet users who participated to personalize the association with them. The participants benefited from the satisfaction of contributing to the car concept. Question 2 Fiat Mio was a prototype that would not be produced. The real innovation was the design of a concept that shows the appearance of cars in future and that would fulfill the wishes and demands of the users. The innovation involved imagining and discovery of disruptive idea that would change how Fiat perceives cars in future. Fiat Concept Car (FCC III) was a collaborative innovation through phases that included Mapping scenarios, concept ideas and concept design and modelling phase. On the Mapping scenarios, the idea was an ideal future car that satisfied all user needs considering factors including conformability, control, clean energy, and connectivity. On concept ideas, the phase initiated the process of generating ideas to help engineers and designers to build the third Fiat Concept Car. The process involved 21 topics that would outline the skeleton of the expected concept car that would be consistent and to the customer wishes. The concept design suggested posting the 21 question for the internet users to explore deeply and in a productive way. The aim of producing first jotting focused on two concepts designs that included organic and winding style and a squarish design that generated drawings grouped under Sense Line and Precision Line. Precision Line got most votes from the internet users and hence it was adopted but with some features of Sense line as it got substantial support too. On the Modelling phase, people expressed their preferences and designers produced consistent element regarding interior, exterior, trim and colour. The process involved 3D digital design and generating a mathematical equation. Modellers made a metal structure from the equation outlining the model skeleton. Later a shape manually covered with clay by the offset printing in Styrofoam. The interior was also made of clay that the designers could touch sit and fell with the capability of manual adjustment. The final product of third Fiat Concept Car was formed that mapped customer wishes with new features capable of been added to new cars. Therefore, third Fiat Concept Car was the real innovation. Reference Fabio Prado Saldanha and Marlei Pozzebon, The project that embraced open innovation, crowdsourcing, and creative commons in the automotive industry. Fiat Mio case (2016). Read More