Specifics of the Fiat Mio Project - Case Study Example

Name: Lecturer’s Name: Subject: Date: The Fiat Mio Project Question 1 Initially, the Fiat Mio project was aimed at illustrating that it was largely possible to introduce and manage the design through an effective web-based discussion with the assistance of internet users as well as followers. As such, the project proceeded to attract the attention of thousands of internet users who constructively contributed massively towards the success of the project, thus providing numerous useful ideas, opinions, and suggestions. Perhaps, the internet platform hugely collaborated effectively, thus, the initial discussion saw each participant gaining and benefiting from the project massively (Saldanha and Pozzebon 3). Some of the benefits gained may include the fact that Brazil has largely portrayed the passion for cars as about 700 new cars are bought on daily basis. This instance has been proven by the Brazilian car market share, which is dominated by Fiat with a 21% portion, General Motors 19%, and Volkswagen 18% among other competitors (Saldanha and Pozzebon 3). As such, it is evident that Fiat commands a huge market in the Brazilian automobile industry. So, through the online discussion platform, Fiat was able to reach many people, who in return expressed their interests in the new car. In addition, the company was able to market the product to the customer indirectly, thus, increasing its market share significantly. Through the discussion Fiat was also able to gather a lot of information which was used in making surveys entailing marketing (Saldanha and Pozzebon 3). The other benefit was that those who took part in the open innovation experience and came up with a unique idea on the car would win a car. This was to act as a motivation to the participants since each would try and come up with the most original idea so as to get the promised award. Further, it is through the open innovation that many ideas emerged from the public and acted as guidelines to engineers and designers in coming up with the third fiat concept car .People were able to take part in the innovation through giving answers to questions and adding their ideas on the future car. The open innovation experience benefited the participants in that they got a chance to post their ideas and the imaginations they had on the future car and on the other hand Fiat benefited by collecting information on individual experiences concerning driving and cars. The ideas that were collected helped Fiat in ensuring that the wishes of the people were put into consideration and their needs were understood. It is also through the open innovation experience that designers and engineers were able to showcase their creativity and the challenges they went through as they invented the prototype. Through the platform, Fiat was able to relate with people and encourage them to make decisions and in the process the people were able to air their preferences concerning the future car. Through the platform engineers and designers were able to get responses from people on the colour of the car, its interior and exterior designs as well as trim. This acted as an added benefit arising from the open innovation experience .Participants of the open innovation experience benefited in that they had a chance to share any information or ideas from the fiat platform without restrictions as long as it is not commercial information (Saldanha and Pozzebon 5). Fiat through one of the managers, Joao Ciaco, learnt how to deal with frustrations as a result of leaving out positive contributions by the public. As such, the project team discovered out that engaging the public in a discussion would increase their chances of producing a satisfactory product. Consequently, the public is willing to provide sufficient ideas, in which they may select the strongest suggestions among the appropriate ones provided. For instance, no one can produce a car using over 21, 000 ideas and suggestions, therefore, the company was forced to pick the exclusive opinions. Initially, the company established a viable method of communicating with the public, while at the same time assimilating their contributions and knowledge. Question 2 Fiat Mio was merely a prototype or a model, which would never be produced meaning that it was not the real innovation. The real innovation was the crowd sourcing project which was invented in order to give people a chance to post their ideas, comments and suggestions on the third fiat concept car .It was also used to gather information from the crowd that was used by fiat in marketing survey hence coming out as more of a marketing campaign. This is by awarding a car to whoever came up with the most unique idea on the concept car. This project acted as a breakthrough for Fiat since it was an exercise that would change their thoughts on cars unlike the two previous prototypes they had produced and marketed without collecting data from the public. Peter Fassbender, yearned for a project that would challenge the fiat team to work differently by coming up with a collaborative car, so through him, Fiat came up with a website through which participants would share their ideas .Moreover, the website enabled Fiat to communicate with its clients .In order to start the process, there had to be a collaboration among three bodies that is Fiat, an advertising agency and the public. The advertising agency had the role of coming up with the Fiat Mio Logo in which Fiat Mio is an Italian term meaning ‘’My Fiat’’ in English. This name would make the people feel that the car belonged to them. Fiat on the other hand, came up with a key question that would trigger discussions on the website and also motivated internet users by allowing them to register into the website even before it was opened officially. People were able to participate and generate ideas to the project during the concept ideas phase. In this phase also, Fiat and the people were able to observe how the innovation platform would work and check its efficiency. The publishing of a post into the website was thrice per day in which facebook and twitter were used to invite people to follow and participate in the Fiat Mio website. Through this, the internet users were able to engage in the discussions as well as, post ideas of their imaginations of the future car. They also got inspired by the materials and publications that fiat was posting in the website. After people gave their suggestions and ideas of the future car on the website, Fiat designers had to look for images and references that matched to this. In their findings they found two that is the Organic and Winding style and the design that was defined and in square form. This two were divided into two lines which were the Sense line and the Precision line (Saldanha and Pozzebon 5). The internet users through the platform could now vote for the line that they wanted among the two and this got the Precision line winning. After this the designers now began to build the prototype that had been voted the best by the internet users but this did not mean that the open innovation process was over but still went on for the people to give proposals and preferences which helped the designers to have consistent and enough features of the prototype. This means that in each step of creating the prototype, the internet users were involved enabling the designers to build what the consumers needed. Finally, in six months the prototype was built and became a success as a result of the public participation in giving their ideas, suggestions and comments through the Fiat website hence the crowd sourcing project becoming the real innovation. Fiat for the very first time had now built a model car which suited the consumer’s needs (Saldanha and Pozzebon 10). Works Cited Saldanha, Fabio and Pozzebon, Marlei. “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). 1-20. March. 2015. Print. Read More