Post for Mberiah

One result of Ford's chief

executive officer encouraging

better idea sharing among

employees is its new Ford

Focus shown here.

QR 9-3 P&6k Tide Fods Ad

Procter & Gamble's new Tide

Pods launch shows how it has

improved both planning and

implementation bY involving

consumers earlier in its

innovation activities.

An important part of Ford's current turnaround has been chief execut

officer ALn Uutatty's encouraging managers and employees to speak

and volunteer ideas to improve its technology and line of new caIS-

openness lacking in U.S. auto companies in the past.23 Furlher, Mulally

made clear that managers and employees in different departments

rivals. Instead of the not-invented-here (NIH) thinking of past Mulally has encouraged managers and employees to see themselves as

of the i.One Ford,, team and share information and help one another.

emphasis on improved employee communications has helped Ford

new models, add new technologies, and redesign its supply chun'24

customer and supplier suggestions Firms ask their sales ple to talk to customers and ask their purchasing personnel to talk to

pliers to discover new-product ideas.2s Whirlpool gets ideas Customers on ways to standardize components so that it can cut the

ber of different pioduct platforms to reduce costs'26 Business

tell firms to actively involve customers and suppliers in the new-qil

development process. This means the focus should be on what the

produci will aitually do for them rather than simply what they wa* A. G. Lafley, cEo of Pro cter & Gamble (P&G), gave his executives a revolfiia

thought: "Look outside the company for solutions to problems rather than

P&G knows best." when he ran P&G's laundry detergent business, he had to

Professional R&D and innovation laboratories that are

of large corporations are sources of open innovation and can

prod-uct ideas.32 IDEO is a world-class new-product devel

having designed more than 4,000 of them. IDEO designs Apple mouse and the Crest Neat Squeeze toothpaste dispem-Brainstorming

sessions conducted at IDEO can gr

ideas in an hour. IDEO's "shop-a-1ong" visits with

the laundry boxes so they were easier to open. why? while consumers said

laundry boxes were "easyto open," cameras they agreed to have installed in the

dry rooms showed they opened the boxes with screwdrivers!28

With a $150 million marketing budget, inZOlZP&G launched Tide Pods, a

ary three-chamber liquid dose that cleans, fights stains, and brightens- P&G

Tide Pods as "its bigtest laundry innovation in more than a quarter century'"

Tide Pods has produced the highest consumer-satisfaction scores the company

seen for a newlaundry product-. But after its successful new-product launch, Pl

signed its packaging afier discovering that some children thought the pods

and tried to eat them.2e

Itesearch and Eevelopment Laboratories Another source of I is a flrm's own research and development laboratories. Apple's sleek iPad'

iMac models came out of its Apple Industrial Design Group, which

driven by the obsessive concerns of its co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, fort

industrial design in atl the company's products. one secret behind Apple's

ability to convert vague concepts into tangible products: an action-item

from every meeting. This focuses on who doeswhatby whenl3l

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