APPLIED INNOVATION EXCHANGE

Consumers now have more power in how businesses operate than ever before. Through the advance of digital technology and data analytics, the customer's seat at the strategic table is here to stay.

The consumer is the center. They control everything now.

Kees Jacobs, Global Consumer Products and Retail, Capgemini's Insights and Data practice.

How should businesses respond to this changing landscape?
How do businesses use this to their advantage? What issues will be important to consider as enterprises continue to put their customers at the heart of their innovation journeys?

Capgemini's Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) enables organizations to take advantage of a global network of innovation spaces to rapidly and securely gain a competitive advantage in today's fast-paced innovation market landscape.

"It's really important not to lose track of the consumer in all this," said Didier Bonnet, Senior Vice President and Global Practice Leader, Digital Transformation. "That should be the starting point in everything we look at. Everything we do in the AIE will have a heavy dose of customer insights. They have more power because they have access to more data. In the old days, you had to brainstorm, and then went through materials, etc. The linear days are over now."

In no place is this dynamic more important than the supply chains that deliver products to their customers. Also, in no place is this more clearly illustrated than through Capgemini's Future Value Network report.

Linear value chains being replaced dynamic networks built around the consumer
The big message is that linear value chains will be dismantled and reorganized, becoming less sequential. It will be a dynamic network. This value network is now organizing around them.

Kees Jacobs, Global Consumer Products and Retail, Capgemini's Insights and Data practice.

With a massive and mutating network effect at play, the ability to understand and gain insights will be crucial, and companies must develop the ability to pull signal from the noise.

Traditionally in the supply chain, we've been focused on the products: How do I move, plan, design, and develop?

Chris McDivitt, NA Supply Chain Technologies Leader at Capgemini.

Beyond unstructured data available to companies, engagement with comprehensive Omni-Channel portals with multiple collaborative companies and seamless customer experience are now essential.

"Traditional supply chains are not wired to react with the amount of speed that consumers are demanding," said Chris McDivitt, NA Supply Chain Technologies Leader at Capgemini. "Consumers have the complete expectation that any product they want, they can go online and buy--then have the ability to ship from the store, pickup from the store, or maybe even return to the store."

Another way to keep the consumer at the center of innovation strategy is to consider the continuum of discovery and implementation as the technology naturally moves from the lab into the business environment.

"It's something that's done in a lab, but also on-premise with a customer," said Fernando Alvarez, Global Chief Digital Officer for Capgemini Consulting. "When I look at it from that perspective, it's difficult to de-couple everything."

Then, the rapid discovery and iteration of the AIE have a direct impact on a successful application to a client's business.

A key mandate – if we’re going to fail, let’s do it quickly. In order to satisfy the consumer demand to embrace digital technologies – how do we use innovation to experiment and fail quickly in order to understand what you don’t need to do.

Fernando Alvarez, Head of Group Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships for Capgemini

Understanding the consumers is one thing, knowing how to act is something else
The only way the lab is going to keep its relevancy is by staying close to the customers. Once the pain points are known, we determine the appropriate approach and technology.

While understanding the consumer's powerful new role is an imperative, so is the capacity to do something about it in a considered and methodical way, within a controlled environment.

"There's no cookbook for this," said Jacobs. "The reason why this is important is it positions this movement as a seismic change. It's not about an incremental step or a new technology. It's about a whole shift in the value network. And it won't be done in the corner of some building. It is now a fundamental activity."

Whether through the insights gained from new unstructured data, or the competitive advantage of an Omni-Channel strategy, this fundamental imperative will now place the consumer at the heart of all innovation.

The Applied Innovation Exchange will empower companies to find the right innovations for their consumers.