Benefits of Open Innovation to Fiat - Case Study Example

Student name Tutor’s name Course name Date Benefits of open innovation to fiat Fiat did benefit a lot from open innovation. The major advantage is that the firm benefited from the wide range of experts that contribute to the designs. The corporations and ideas for the external environment can create a vast number of ideas that could not be generated by individuals working for the organization from within (Saldanha and Pozzebon). Being a prototype, the open innovation was a good strategy for fiat to market itself. This is because so many people were involved in the development of the idea on the model of a car that they wanted fiat to come up with. The website created by the company drew so much attention into the ambitions of the company. The team created an interactive media platform that became a success from a marketing point of view. The company website had been visited by over 4 million people in a single year. Because so many people were involved in the initiative, the car was advertising it in the long run (Saldanha and Pozzebon). The other benefit of open innovation for fiat is that the company gets an opportunity to find out the desired specifications of their clients. Since the project was open to any individual who wanted to contribute, and in just fifty days, the company had received over 170,000 designs from individuals all over the world. The individuals came up with so many ideas and suggestions that would fit for the new car (Saldanha and Pozzebon). All the people created a car that everyone would love to drive. Open innovation benefited Fiat Company in terms of reducing the cost of research and innovation. Normally, a company would be required to spend so much money on their research and development work that will improve the company’s productivity and its competitiveness. This is because the company sources ideas from people who do it without being paid to do so (Saldanha and Pozzebon). Fiat had the benefit of staying ahead of the competition. By keeping their company and public in an engagement and at the same time being on the lookout for ideas that will make sure that the company will remain relevant in the society. Most companies will want to be competitive through pricing, advertisements, engagement in corporate social responsibility, but certainly the concept of open innovation is the cheapest means of engaging the public and shaking off your competitors (Saldanha and Pozzebon). Benefits of open innovation to the participants There are a number of benefits that the participants of the open innovation receive from their participation. First, they get an opportunity to showcase their talent to the company. The advantage is that with so many participating, the participants will be able to track how their innovations are developing into becoming a blueprint for the company. The other benefit of the open innovation to the participants of the innovation is that they can be able to interact with so many other people throughout the world. The fact that the company website had been visited by over 4 million people in a single year means that each participant has a good opportunity of interacting with so many other people (Saldanha and Pozzebon). Because so many people were involved in the initiative, the car was advertising the company in the long run. The participants of the initiative also benefited because they got a rare opportunity expressing their desired car samples to the car manufacturer. The importance of this is that the prospective customer is able to know whether their desired car models can actually be made into practice. It is important to note that the joy of any customer is that, having the designs that they participated in developing (Saldanha and Pozzebon). The participants in the initiative had an opportunity of interacting with their favorite car manufacturer, together with the opportunity to get information on all the car brands that the company has in store for them as well as a the future plans they have as far as improving the brands is concerned. 2. If the Fiat Mio was merely a prototype that would never be produced or marketed, what was the real innovation? Fiat Mio which is an Italian word meaning “my fiat” was just a prototype. The initiative was about an online initiative by the executives of the company to enable the customers of the company from all over the company to give their ideas on the car designs. True to their plan, the reaction was so overwhelming and the company got so many proposals for their vehicles. The idea was not about the construction of the car. The initiative of developing a car was just a prototype and the real idea was a marketing strategy by the company. The project was open to any individual who wanted to contribute, and in just fifty days, the company had received over 170,000 designs from individuals all over the world. The individuals came up with so many ideas and suggestions that would fit for the new car. All the people created a car that everyone would love to drive (Saldanha and Pozzebon). The project became a success on a marketing point of view. The traffic handled by the company’s website was so enormous. The whole idea of open innovation was part of an online advertisement campaign by the company to create awareness to their customers as well as the prospective customers. So many people participated in the development process and that’s how the company managed to take their brand image to another competitive level (Saldanha and Pozzebon). The idea initially developed as a way in which the executives of the company could interact with their clients. It got everyone excited and in the long run, it was agreed that the company should seek the input of the prospective clients on the car models that they would want the company should start developing. The prospective clients were supposed to participate in an online development of a car that the company was going to develop. It was a prototype and it ended up reaching so many audiences and the objective of the advertising agency contracted to do the marketing had achieved its objective (Saldanha and Pozzebon). Works Cited SALDANHA, Fabio Prado, and Marlei POZZEBON. Fiat Mio: The Project That Embraced Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing and Creative Commons in the Automotive Industry.” 13:1. (2015). Read More