Mass Customization & Open Innovation News

#MCPC2011 Program Highlights - Mass Customization as a Driver for Sustainability

In a series of postings, we present some of the program highligths of the MCPC 2011 conference. The following is just one of more than 50 sessions we will host on Nov 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

The relationship of mass customization and sustainability has discussed since quite a while, but still there is very little knowledge about this field. A dedicated track at the MCPC2011 will provide a closer look on this topic.

Sessions 2.2, 3.2 and 4.2 (Nov 18): Environmental Sustainability and MC

Mass Customization and Sustainability - An Introduction

An introduction to the general topic of this session will be held by Frank Steiner (RWTH Aachen University).

Is Mass Customization Sustainable?

Mass Customizers are like other companies currently experiencing an increasing customer demand for environmentally sustainable products as well as an increasingly strict legislation regarding environmental sustainability. In this presentation Thomas Petersen,  Kaj Jörgensen, Kjeld Nielsen, Stig Taps (Aalborg University) will address the issue whether the concepts mass customization and sustainability can be integrated by asking the question: can mass customized products be sustainable?

Proposal of a  Reference Framework to Integrate Sustainability and Mass Customization in a Production Paradigm

Mass customization strategy is applied by firms in order to make them more customer-oriented and make each individual customer a source of opportunity and hence profit for the firm. Sustainability on the other hand brings not only eco-efficiency for the company, but also has a great impact on economic efficiency and social perspective of the firm. Donatella Corti, Marco Taisch, Golboo Pourabdollahian (Milan University), Andrea Bettoni, Paolo Pedrazzoli and Luca Canetta (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of South Switzerland) will show how integrating these two concepts together to develop a new strategy of sustainable mass customization can create a significant value for companies in today’s globally competitive environment.

Modeling Framework to Evaluate Sustainability Performance of Mass Customization Solutions

In this presentation Fazleena Badurdeen (University of Kentucky) and Ken Wijekoon will present a framework to optimize the configuration of customizable solutions (products or product-service systems) to ensure economic, environmental and societal sustainability requirements are satisfied. Activities across the total product life cycle are considered to develop a model to evaluate closed-loop flow assuming a modular product where customization can be achieved by selecting from alternatives.

Towards an Integrated Mass Customization and Sustainability Assessment Framework

The new challenge of sustainable development adds more requirements to be dealt with in order to keep their competitiveness and sustain their position in the market. For the mass customization enterprises, sustainability performance may depend on several mass customization enablers, thus these two concepts needs to be assessed together in order to foster both. Khaled Medini, Catherine da Cunha and Alain Bernard (Nantes University) will take a closer look at enterprise interactions with environment, society and economical environment and how they can be interpreted as a first step to establish an enterprise model in the mass customization and sustainability context.
 

Supporting Sustainability and Personalization with Product Architecture

Consumers as well as governments are applying constant pressure on companies to adopt a more sustainable strategy, consumers request greener products and governments applies rules for reuse and more eco-friendly manufacturing. There are several factors counting in favor or against the sustainability of MCPC products.

Modularization is a driver for MCPC and earlier research within product architecture has indicated that modularization could support sustainability. In their presentation Thomas Petersen,  Kaj Jörgensen, Kjeld Nielsen, Stig Taps (Aalborg University) will present their empiric work on the drivers for modularization with focus on sustainability and MCPC.

Smart Customization: The New Driver of Sustainability. A Case Study in Custom vs. Standard Men's Dress Shirts

In 2009 Ryan Chin and Daniel Smithwick (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) published "Environmental Impacts of Utilizing Mass Customization," a paper that focused on sustainability benefits of mass customized men's dress shirts by examining the manufacture, distribution, and use of custom vs. standard off-the-rack men’s dress shirts. In this presentation they will extend this research in breadth and depth by conducting a series of detailed experiments focusing on the total consumer experience of custom vs. standard men's dress shirts. 

Co-Creation and Mass Customization from a Triple Bottom Line Approach

Very often mass customized products are considered more sustainable than mass produced products. However, there is little evidence that this is the actual case, there are however components in those supply chains that do suggest that less waste is produced. Jonas Larsson, Joel Peterson and Klas Hjort (University of Boras) will map and analyse three supply chains with different offerings of mass customised or co-created products from a social, environmental and economic perspective i.e. the triple bottom line. It will not be possible to conclude whether these supply chains are sustainable or not but rather to compare the supply chains with each other from the triple bottom line perspective. The work is based on qualitative and quantitative data and case studies of three supply chains.

MCPC: The Enabler to Open the Next Age, It's Opportunity and Challenge, Report from Japan Post 3.11 Earthquake

Yasuyuki Cho (Wacoal) is an MCPC practitioner born and living in Japan. Under the deep impression of the Tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 he changed the subject of his presentation to reflect on MCPC and its chances and opportunities for a sustainable life and business.

Customization and Manufacturing Sustainability: General Considerations and Footwear Investigation

To adapt to global competitive pressures, European Industry must develop methods and enabling technologies towards a personalized, customer oriented and sustainable manufacturing. To this end, a key question to be addressed is whether Mass Customization can be regarded as one of the main driving forces to achieve effective Sustainability, or rather a burden.
Andrea Bettoni, Paolo Pedrazzoli, Luca Canetta, Marzio Sorlini, Claudio R. Boer (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of South Switzerland) and Donatella Corti (Milan University) will first portray the two concepts of mass customization and sustainability and will then propose a framework to establish a link and evaluate it, also with the support of concrete examples in footwear.

 

Listen to the full content of these talks at the MCPC 2011, Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco, Nov 16-19, 2011:

- Conference Website and Registration (reducted rates until Sept 30)

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- All posts about the conference in my blog

Executive Seminare an der RWTH Aachen zu Open Innovation und Social Media Strategy

I'am glad to be able two more seminars as part of the open executive education program of RWTH Aachen University. The seminar language, however, is GERMAN -- hence, the following posting is in German language, too.

Zusammen mit der RWTH International Academy haben wir unser Seminarangebot für Führungskräfte an der RWTH Aachen stark ausgebaut. Ich darf Sie zu zwei Seminaren einladen, die unter meiner Leitung im 4. Quartal 2011 in Aachen stattfinden:

Social Media Strategy (13-14. Okt.): Zusammen mit meinem Kollegen Prof. Detlef Schoder, Leiter der Wirtschaftsinformatik an der Uni Köln und ein führender Forscher (und zugleich erfolgreicher Unternehmer) im Bereich Social Media bieten wir eine strategische Einführung in das Themenfeld Social Media. Dabei geht es weniger um operative Aspekte der Umsetzung als vielmehr um strategische Fragen und eine Orientierung in diesem Themenfeld für das Management. Einen besonderen Schwerpunkt wird hier auch die Innovation spielen  –  Stichwort "Social Product Development". Mehr information zum Seminar hier.

Open Innovation umsetzen (20.-21. Okt.): Open Innovation ist dem Status des Buzzwords entwachsen, und viele Unternehmen haben intensive Pilotierungen abgeschlossen. Doch wie wird Open Innovation in das Innovationsmanagement integriert, welche Anforderungen gibt es an die Organisation? Wie messen Sie die "Open Innovation Readiness" Ihres Unternehmens? Darüber hinaus gibt der Kurs aber auch eine intensive Einführung in die verschiedenen Methoden von Open Innovation und Co-Creation.Mehr Inforation zu diesem Seminar hier.

Übrigens: Beide Kurse bieten wir auch im Rahmen von "Customized Education" auf Ihre Bedürfnisse zugeschnitten als Inhouse-Seminar an.  Weitere Informationen dazu gerne!

Ich würde mich freuen, Sie bei einer der Veranstaltungen in Aachen begrüßen zu dürfen!

#MCPC2011 Program Highlights - CEOs of Open Innovation Accelerators Share Experiences at MCPC

In a series of postings, we present some of the program highligths of the MCPC 2011 conference. The following is just one of more than 50 sessions we will host on Nov 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

In this session, the CEOs and founders of some of the most successful intermediaries for open innovation will reveal some of their secrets on how to employ open innovation and customer co-creation. I am personally looking forward very much to this session as in the past years, it has been these "open innovation accelerators" that have been the drivers behind the development of open innovation in practice.

Sessions 2.3 and 3.3 (Nov 18): Open Innovation Accelerators - CEO Presentations

9 Ways to Get Your Team Ready for Co-Creation

In this session Martijn Pater and Marieke Streefkerk of Fronteer Strategy, a consultancy specialised in innovation, co-creation and brand development, will identify various social, psychological and organisational barriers that can be encountered when starting co-creation within an organisation as a result of the change process set in motion when changing to an open innovation approach. They will offer 9 practical ways to overcome these barriers and to get your team ready for co-creation by providing clear direction, motivating them and creating a supportive environment. 

Open Innovation and Co-Creation: From Single Projects to Long-Term Programmes

Dr. Michael Bartl (CEO of Hyve) will  provide a conceptual framework how companies can implement co-creation activities in a permanent and enduring way. A holistic approach of collaborative innovation requires not only a skill set of tools and methods but also adapted innovation processes, organizational routines and cultures. The introduced programmatic approach implies the need to think of co-creation as a strategic programme rather than as a “just in time” outsourcing of innovation tasks.

The Co-Creative Organization of the Future

 While most brands embrace customer insight, direct involvement of customers in creative tasks is a relatively new approach. In this presentation Dr. Nick Coates and Jennifer Yazdi (Promise Corporation) will discuss why organizations that are going to move beyond tactical / sporadic co-creation will need to re-think some of their orthodoxies and start ‘being co-creative’. To demonstrate their points they will  present 2 case studies about co-creation approaches that start to show a pathway towards ‘co-creativity’.

Quebec Seeks Solutions: A Unique Setup to Profit from Open Innovation

This presentation will be held by Carl Viel and Christophe Deutsch. They will share the latest information on the Quebec Seeks Solutions conference -- a new form of offline co-creation.

To Be Or Not to Be - The Magic of Selecting the RIght Idea

In this presentation Andera Gadeib, CEO of Dialego, will reveal some very useful tricks that can help you to accelerate innovation process by reducing the great quantity of text based ideas using text mining techniques. The experiences discussed result from several innovation projects accompanied within different industries, mostly fast moving consumer goods companies (FMCG) in Europe.

The Creative Consumer

Current trends in consumer innovation have seen traditional market research focus groups and surveys increasingly replaced or complemented by crowd-sourcing, social media monitoring, neuroscience, and ethnography among others. Dr. Nick Coates and Jennifer Yazdi (Promise Corporation), however, believe that there is a bigger role for the customer which is supported by the development of prosumer technology and online collaboration tools. How can companies best use the creative potential of the creative consumer? Coates and Yazdi will try to answer this question by presenting their expert's guide to tools and techniques from our 15 years of experience working with organizations from all over the globe.

Listen to the full content of these talks at the MCPC 2011, Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco, Nov 16-19, 2011:

- Conference Website and Registration (reducted rates until Sept 30)

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- All posts about the conference in my blog

#MCPC2011 program highlights - MC and OI in Architecture and Construction

In a series of postings, we present some of the program highligths of the MCPC 2011 conference. The following is just one of more than 50 sessions we will host on Nov 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

One of the upcoming topics of in mass customization is the application of processes for  architecture and construction. A special stream of sessions will present the latest thooughts on this area. 

Sessions 1.6/and 2.6 (Nov 18): MC and OI in Architecture and Construction 

MC and OI in Architecture: An Introduction

Presented by track chair Poorang Piroozfar. Poorang also is the co-editor of an upcoming book (with Frank Piller) on Mass Customisation and Personalisation in Architecture and Constructio, to be published with Taylor and Francis in 2012.

Opening Innovation in the Built Enviroment -- Initial Lessons from an Open Innovation Initiative in Denmark

In this talk Mikkel Thomassen and Rune Westergaard (Smith Innovation) will discuss how open innovation can be used to leverage innovation in construction, based on empirical findings in the first analytical phase of a five year open innovation platform initiative launched 2011. They will debate if open innovation methods can be a way to shortcut the structural barriers to innovation in this major industry.  

A Digital Platform for Mass Customization of Housing

The concept of employing computer- based design systems towards mass customization of housing has been an interesting area of research during the last few decades as an outcome of emerging computation techniques in architecture. Different systems have been employed with the aim of efficiently engaging future home buyers in the design of their homes. Basem Eid Mohamed (McGill School of Architecture) discusses a systematically formalized approach for developing design systems for mass customization of housing. 

Open Innovation and the 'Patent Right' in Design: Striking a Balance Using the Game Theory

In Open Innovation, the factor of 'patent law', which is normally expected to result in higher costs, can become crucial. Building on their previous experience in introducing a toolkit based on Game Theory to facilitate MC in BE,  Poorang Piroozfar (University of Brighton) and  Ghashang Piroozfar (University of Calgary) use this theory to investigate whether or not a Nash Equilibrium can be struck between increased costs of intellectual property rights and the level of customer satisfaction as a result of open innovation in MC.

 

Mass Customization in Construction Industry: Closing the Gap Between Design and Production

Mass customization in construction industry is intended as a process able to give high level of personalization at lower costs, while increasing quality and meeting designers needs.Ingrid Paoletti and Elena Magarotto (Milan University) will discuss specific aspects of mass customization in construction industry with a swot analysis and present some examples of technologies by Italian suppliers in order to understand their skills or difficulties related to this specific context.

Adoption of a Modular Architecture in a Prefabricated System for House Building in the UK

Developing strategies that enable housing products to be customized within acceptable cost and order-to-delivery lead times is still a challenge. In this presentation Cecilia G. da Rocha, Carlos T. Formoso (Rio Grande University),  Will Swan, Carl Abbott and Michail Kagioglou (University of Salford) will examine the adoption of a modular architecture in the design of a prefabricated system for house building in the UK. They will give an overview of the state of the art and propose enhancements in modules design with the aim of increasing the economies of scope.

Modules in Historic Building Construction According to the Copenhagen Building Code

Christian Thuesen, Lars Hvam, Niels Henrik Mortensen (Technical University of Denmark) and Anders Kudsk (NCC.dk) will talk about their investigations, based on the theory of product architecture and product modularization, on whether examples of the use of well-defined interfaces can be found. They will show how the use of such interfaces has influenced former building processes and how they were implemented and kept stable over decades.

Listen to the full content of these talks at the MCPC 2011, Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco, Nov 16-19, 2011:

- Conference Website and Registration (reducted rates until Sept 30)

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- All posts about the conference in my blog

#MCPC2011 Program Highlights - Session on Design for Mass Customization and Personalization presents Roger Jiao and Dave Sloan

In a series of postings, we present some of the program highligths of the MCPC 2011 conference. The following is just one of more than 50 sessions we will host on Nov 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

One of the lestablished researchers in the mass customization domain is Roger Jiao from Georgia Tech University. He is chairing the "Design for Mass Customization" track of the conference, that looks into practices and methods to develop product architectures and modular product families.  The first session will provide a great overview of the field and developments leading to the state of the art. I personally are especially looking forward to the presentation by Dave Sloan from Treehouselogic (he has a great blog!!!) who will comment on the backgrounds why MC is taking off now.

 

Session 1.5 (Nov 18): Design for MC and Personalization

Design for Mass Customization And Personalization: A Review

 Product design has gone beyond the traditional objective of attaining functional requirements to meeting the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction. Design methods for mass customization can only satisfy customers’ functional needs by offering choices through configuration of existing components with pre-programmed configuration rules. Roger Jiao (Georgia Tech) provides a review of recent research relevant to the popular personalization concept with Special emphasis on user experience, customer participation and product differentiation.

How the Evolution of the Internet Has Spurred Mass Customization

In this talk Dave Sloan, CEO of Treehouse Logic, focus on how the Internet landscape and consumer demand for Internet tools have changed in the past 2-3 years. The Internet has become faster, more powerful, more adopted, more social, and more mobile. All these factors contribute to the adoption of online customization.

Understanding Socio Technical Modularity - Reinterpreting Modularity from Actor Network Theory

 Modularity has gained an increasing popularity as a central concept for exploring product-, process- , organization- and supply chain structure. The predominant understanding of modularity however faces difficulties in explaining the social dimension of modularity. In their presentation Christian Thuesen, Lars Hvam (Technical University of Denmark) and Anders Kudsk (NCC.dk) will address this gap, offering a reinterpretation of the modularity concept from a socio-technical perspective in general and Actor Network Theory in particular.

Listen to the full content of these talks at the MCPC 2011, Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco, Nov 16-19, 2011:

- Conference Website and Registration (reducted rates until Sept 30)

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- All posts about the conference in my blog

#MCPC2011 program highlights - Customer Co-Creation for Ideation

In a series of postings, we present some of the program highligths of the MCPC 2011 conference. The following is just one of more than 50 sessions we will host on Nov 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

One of the main topics of the MCPC 2011 will be co-creation with customes and users. We are glad that we could win a number of high profile researchers to present their latest studies on customer co-creation. This session focuses on co-creation for idea generation.  

Session 1.3 (Nov 18): Customer Co-Creation for Ideation

The Future of Crowdsourcing - From Idea Contests to MASSive Ideation

Johann Füller(CEO of HYVE), Katja Hutter and Julia Hautz (Insbruck University) provide an overview of crowd sourcing practices for the future and introduces the “MASSive Ideation” approach which supports generating and evaluating numerous ideas and allows for the further elaboration of top-ranked ideas into a handful of the most promising concepts. This is done in collaboration with a large and geographically scattered crowd. The software-based approach captures the advantages of both real-life innovation workshops and virtual online interaction to facilitate the generation of elaborated product or service concepts.

Coopetition in Virtual Communities: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Virtual communities provide an essential outlet for customer co-creation. Vera Blaszevic, Alexandra Gatzweiler and Evalotte Lindgens (RWTH Aachen University) and Sophie Einwächter (Bochum University) talk about how to use the concept of coopetition to study cooperative and competitive mechanisms in virtual customer communities and their effect on individual and community productivity. Learn how coopetition increases productivity and why it is important for the long-term survival of the community.

Value in Co-Created Content Production in Magazine Publishing: Case Study of Co-Creation in Three Scandinavian Magazine Brands

This talk taps into the evolving phenomenon of co-creation in publishing industry. Tanja Aitamurto (Stanford University) and Saara Könkkölä (Aalto University) identify the value emerging from content co-creation in three Scandinavian magazines in a shared content production process in which customers and editorial teams co-create a magazine. The study shares results of the business value of co-creation and its impact on reader-brand relationship,  increased revenue, more personalized products and other benefits.

The Relevance of Customer Co-Creation of Value for Service Companies: Does Co-Creation enhance Revenues and Satisfaction?

Ursula Grissemann and Nicola Stokburger-Sauer (Insbruck University) assess the effects of co-creation on customer satisfaction and service expenditures, highlight the effects of company support for the customer to co-create and analyze the consequences of customers’ satisfaction with their co-creation performance. They found that service expenditures increase the more customers are integrated into the service development process. Likewise, co-creation was found to positively affect customer satisfaction with the service company.

Listen to the full content of these talks at the MCPC 2011, Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco, Nov 16-19, 2011:

- Conference Website and Registration (reducted rates until Sept 30)

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- All posts about the conference in my blog

#mcpc2011 Program Highlights: 130+ session presentations, 20+ keynotes, and great networking

We are now working full pace to finalize the program planning for the MCPC 2011 conference. I don't know whether it was our co-chair Henry Chesbrough, the cooperation of four top universities like UC Berkeley, MIT, RWTH Aachen, and HKUST, our theme "Bridging Mass Customization and Open Innovation" or just the location San Francisco, but we go a really huge feedback on our call for proposals.

Also, the current news about the Cafepress IPO and rumors on more MC companies hitting Wall Street are building the excitement about the conference.

After a more critical review process compared to the previous years (about 35% rejection rate) of our program committee, we are proud to present more than 130 presentations in the main program and more than 20 plenary talks, panels, and keynotes in the business seminar.

The full program will be published in structured form on the conference website soon, but I will feature in a series of blog posts in the coming weeks some of the great content that will be presented at the MCPC.

Here some facts on the event:

Nov 16-19, 2011 - San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel - mcpc2011.com

- Speakers from more than 25 different countries -- meet some of the top researchers in the field or the entrepreneurs that shape the field

- At least 45 sessions over the entire program, providing an in-depth view on many topics to build, implement, and run a mass customization program or to profit from open innovation and customer co-creation.

- Featured showcase sessions on special topics, bridging mass customization and open innovation

- Case Study Sessions - learn from direct experiences of entrepreneurs and managers DOING mass customization and open innovation

- Plenty of room to learn from latest research and studies

- Exhibition of technologies and enablers for mass customization and open innovation

- Networking receptions every evening, plus plenty of space to discuss during breaks and lunches

(Hint: If you are really curious, you already can get a sneak preview of many presentations in the parallel sessions here in the conference submission system. But this has a rather messy layout and no structure -- wait for a better version and also all plenary talks on the main conference site)

More info on the MCPC 2011:

- MCPC 2011 Business Seminar: Nov 16-17. Main Conference: Nov 17-19

- All info here in one compact MCPC flyer

- Conference Website and Registration (reduced rates until Sept 30)

- Conference hotel and travel (rooms fill quickly, book now!)

- More news about the conference in this blog

Mass Customization -- The Movie

We all know about the opportunities and principles of mass customization -- and there has been plenty of research, talks, press reports, and media coverage about this strategy. Still, for the general public, mass customization (or better: the fact that consumers today can create their own products and services efficiently and at rather low cost on the internet, ) still is very new.

I am always astonished how many people never have heard about this opportunity. So, one idea of our project SERVIVE, funded by the European Commission, was to present the concept of "create your own" to a larger public by a free educational movie.

The clip (16mins) has been directed by the London College of Fashion (LCF), under the leadership of Susan Jenkyn Jones, and has been produced by a team of professionals working for large Euopean broadcaters like the BBC or Deutsche Welle. The Movie had its first screening at the CYO 2011 Event in Berlin, and is now available for download and streaming at http://vimeo.com/25132966

Create Your Own - Mass Customisation from Sue J-J on Vimeo.

CustomWeek 2011: MC companies collaborate to generate awareness for MC in general public

A group of more than 40 custom and personalized product companies will start a week long collaboration (starting at June 6) to bring attention to the growing “mass customization” movement by showcasing the breadth of customizable products now available in the market at http://www.customweek.com.

Custom Week 2011 is the first annual voluntary industrywide promotion for the mass customization and personalization industry. The event has been organized by volunteers from TreehouseLogic, GemKitty, and Create-A-Mattress to draw attention to the maturity of the mass customization movement, highlight companies currently offering thousands of customized and personalized items across a spectrum of categories, and emphasize that mass customization is a trend that’s here to stay. 

At customweek.com, consumers can discover a wide range of custom products, designing and creating everything from unique purses to new flavors of ice cream.  They can also enter to win a $2,500 “Customize Your Life” Grand Prize package, and take advantage of exclusive purchase discounts.

In April, Forrester Research issued a report titled, “Mass Customization is (Finally) The Future of Products” asserting, “Mass customization has finally hit an inflection point.”  The report continues to predict custom products will “explode” with accelerated growth in the coming years, painting a vivid picture of a consumer marketplace brimming with “rich, pervasive customization.”

The report also suggests made-to-order products will affect global economics as manufacturing is more likely to be in the USA or EU instead of Asia.

Inexpensive technology, advances in production techniques, and rapidly-evolving buyer expectations have unlocked the door to mass market customization.  These factors have advanced industrialization from a mass production/assembly line age into a new age where products are created or completed based on customer design choices.

I believe this to be a great initative to educate consumers and the press that customization of consumer products is here and a major market segment already, not an oddity or small niche!

Customising China

Nadia El-Imam (www.cookiesncode.com) interviews Oliver Hickfang (Partner in Taiwain-based 3digitalminds) about his experiences working with Mass-Customisation  in China ahead of his talk at CYO2011. Interview reposted from www.cookiesncode.com: Customising China.

Nadia: Hi Oliver, what are your personal associations with the term “mass-customisation”- what does it mean to you?
 

Oliver: When I first time ever heard about mass-customisation I thought, isn’t that just a new commercial buzz word or – even worse – a contradiction in itself? I asked myself, how can a company make money by following a single customer wish on a scalable mass production platform? Now, some years and some purchases of mass-customized products later I know better: the combination of smart management, smart production processes, the interactive web and last but not least the outsourcing of tasks to the customer makes mass-customization possible. And, by the way, DIY is nothing new but a re-invention of the “do it yourself” movement from the 50s and 60s when the mass effective production took place in the western world and some people just weren’t unsatisfied with style and image guidelines from the industry. The combination of our actual production and distribution knowledge with the creative and social knowledge of the customer will create the best customized products we have seen so far.

Nadia: Do you remember in which context you first came across it?

Oliver: As I remember the first time ever I purchased a customized product was some years ago during an Indiatrip where I found a custom tailor for suits. After measurement and agreeing on the style details the suit was ready to wear within 5 days. I had the chance to visit the production place and was surprised about the well organized processes: each tailor was responsible for sewing just very few dedicated pieces of the suit, one tailor sewed all pieces together and one was responsible for the final quality check. The concept of mass production with a personal touch was fully understood.

Nadia: Do you know why there is this sudden interest in MC and related concepts at the moment?

Oliver: First: people are sick and tired of wearing boring clothes or possessing mass products which they might find in their friends place as well. A person in an affluent society who basically has everything needs the next kick which is something special, personal, and individual. Second: The social web along with border-less interaction stimulates consumers to exchange and show their creations. Nothing is more appealing and worth talking about than own achievements and nothing is more interesting for friends to share and be proud of. Third: where a demand is also a supply. Companies are aware of the trend for customization and by answering it with products and services they even more stimulate the development.

Nadia: Why/ in which situation did you decide to employ MC/work with MC-  a little background?

Oliver: Some years ago I had the idea to open a company for mass customized business shirts but a great offer from an international consulting company came across so I skipped that idea. However, I never totally buried that idea. After living in Chinafor some years and experiencing the matchless demand of 1, 3 Billion people with black hair and brown eyes for appearing a little bit more individual I decided to open my own company in the co-creation field.

Nadia: How did that work out for you- what new challenges did it raise for you and how did you deal with them?

Oliver: Asian markets, especially China, are highly challenging and demanding. Not only concerning the set up and the running of a company but also the complex cultural background and history which effects consumer’s predispositions. For example, the color white in Europemeans beauty and virginity; in Chinait might be associated with death as well as the number 4. Especially China is facing a development from an agricultural based country to a modern industrialised country in now time. While Europeand the USAneeded some decades to introduce landline telephone to every household the Chinese just skipped the landline and introduced mobile smart phones. Very fast developments not seldom have their victims and often the law and reliably regulations stay behind the actual reality. From my opinion the biggest challenge in China is having a strong and reliable network, a long term vision and peace of mind.

CYO in a Nutshell:
Place: 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)
Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: CYO2011 Conference & MC Business Incubator Workshop
Registration: General registration for the event is 200,- Euro for the Early Bird Rate, 350,- Euro onsite.
Hosts: CYO2011 is sponsored and co-organized by OpenGarments and SERVIVE, two research projects financed by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Program. More information is available on the event website: http://www.cyo2011.com

CYO 2011: Final Agenda - European BtC Customization & Personalization Entrepreneurs meet in Berlin

The "Create Your Own" event on May 30-31, 2011 in Berlin at Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg, Moritzplatz 1, 10969 Berlin.

The CYO 2011 is a unique opportunity to explore the reality and future behind individualisation, co-creation, and personalisation -- mega trends that are shaping the European consumption landscape. The event is co-organized by a consortium of European companies and research institutes in the field of mass customization. Here is the semi-final agenda. Participation is 200,- Euro only -- but register until May 1.

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Monday, 30th of May 2011: CREATE YOUR OWN 2011 Company Showcase & Evening

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The opening event will feature over fifty co-creation entrepreneurs, makers, researchers, technology experts, policy maker, and investors from around Europe. A press conference and special exhibition will present the makers and shapers of personalisation and customisation in Europe to a wider audience.

16:00 Registration starts

17:00 Opening Talk: Greetings & Event Overview

17:30 Showcase Exhibition Opening: Experience some of the best European CYO consumer good companies

19:00 Press event, film screening and recpetion: Create Your Own -- The Official Movie, produced and directed by the London College of Fashion
 

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Tuesday, 31st of May 2011: CREATE YOUR OWN 2011 Business Conference and Workshop

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  The business conference will provide a detailed look at innovative European start-ups that are quite literally giving the people what they want. At the seminar, plenary presentations and panels will look into the market for mass customisation, new business models connected with the trend, and the latest technologies that make it happen.

8.00 Registration starts

9:00 Welcome Addresss: John Cleuren, DG Research, European Commission

9:30 CYO Opening Presentation: The Mass Customization 500 – A Benchmarking Report of 500 CYO Offerings, Frank Piller (RWTH Aachen) & Dominik Walcher (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences)

10:00 Best Practice: How to sell dreams – The Success Story of Personal Novel, Jan-Christoph Goetze (Personal Novel)

10:30 Coffee & Networking Break

11:00 Best Practice: To be announced

11:30 Panel I: The market for customization & personalization – where will we go?

Moderator: Prof. Frank Piller, RWTH Aachen

• Thorsten Harzer, Boston Consulting Group/RWTH: “What about the MC market today?”
• Tom de Bruyne, Boondoggle: “How to sell your innovativeness”
• Michael Bruck, Chocri: “How to take the plunge to the US”
• Oliver Hickfang, Juuway: “Perspectives for European Companies to Sell Custom Goods to the Chinese Consumer”
• Rolf-Christian Wentz, Business Angel: “When are MC start-ups promising?”
• Paul Blazek, CyLEDGE: “Mass Customization at the Edge: the most curious CYO businesses”

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Panel 2: The power of communities - Qualified open innovation and mass customization
Moderator: Prof. Thomas Fischer, ITV Denkendorf

Panel Keynote: How to realize the ideas of consumers, Hervé Francois (Color Textil) & Niels Hendriks (KH Limburg)

• Hervé Francois, Color Textil: “Designers as professional customers”
• Niels Hendriks, KHLim: “How to satisfy customer’s needs”
• Ellen Mutchler, Color Textil/ Digifabrix: “How to develop professional exchange platforms”
• Sue Jenkyn-Jones, London College of Fashion: “How to support the customer by Style Advice“
• Michiel Willemse, TNO: “3D printing of jewellery”

15:00 Coffee Break

15:30 Panel 3: Business models and platforms to run a successful mass customization business
Moderator: Sergio Dulio, Milano

Joint Panel Keynote: Platforms as collaborative business models for the future of mass customization: The cases of BivolinoServices and Customax, Bas Possen, Customax, and Michel Byvoet, Bivolino

• Andreas Kortmann. Matteo Dosso: “Being successful in a BtoBtoC market within 12 countries”
• Carine Moitier, Bivolino: “Bringing art into the customized apparel market”
• Philip Rooke, Spreadshirt: “How to let customers make money with their designs“
• Martin Meuser, Customate: ”How to collaborate with big players“
• Lotta Nordin, Adidas: ”Aligning mass production and mass customiaztion“

17:15 Wrap up and results of the the “Makers Incubator” (workshop)

17:30 Reception and Exhibition

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Participation at the CYO 2011 is 200,- Euro only -- but register until May 1.

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SPECIAL OFFER: If your company is offering mass customization products or services, participate at the CYO 2011 showcase exhibition. This will be a great opportunity to showcase your offerings to a wider public, the CYO 2011 participants, and a large group of invited journalists and multiplicators. Participation at the exhibition is only 250,- Euro (including the 200,- Euro participation fee at the business seminar), but place is limited. For any exhibition requests, just check the CYO website.

MCPC 2011 FAQ: Is the deadline for speaking submissions for the MCPC 2011 really April 7? Can I get an extension?

mcpc2011.com | Download Call for Papers | Submit your Proposal here

Here are a few questions I frequently get with regard to submissions of speaking and paper proposals for the MCPC2011. I hope this helps.

Is the deadline for speaking submissions for the MCPC 2011 really April 7? Can I get an extension?

Follow all steps of the submission process and read the updated call for papers first!

We will give you until May 7 to finalize your presentation by updating your submission files in the system or to create a new submission.

Do I also have to pay the registration fee as a presenter?

Yes, and even I as the conference chair will do so. The MCPC is a community event, and given the very broad opportunities to discuss your experience and research and get feedback, we only can run the conference if we follow this basic rule of academic conferences. So every speaker in the main conference (Nov 17-18) will have to register and pay for the "Innovation & research conference" (Note that the business seminar event is a seperate event, and you don't have to register for this.)

When will the final program be published?

Sometimes in late summer, but we hope to have a draft program ready in July/August.

Can I exhibit my company and our products at the event?

Yes, part of the sponsorship packages of the MCPC is the opportunity to book an exhibition table in the main conference area. This is a great way to show your support to the MCPC community and at the same time also to connect with potential new clients and customers. Look at the conference website for details.

What is the difference between the MCPC 2011 and the CYO2011 event you are hosting in Berlin?

The CYO 2011 – Create Your Own 2011 – is a networking event for European entrepreneurs and managers in mass customization. It shall connect people in Europe doing mass customization and allow them to build networks, exchange experiences, and learn about some recent projects in the area funded by the European Union. It will be a one day event in Berlin on May 31.

The scope and scale of the MCPC 2011 will be much larger, with many more presentations, and also a larger focus on in-depth research and technical advancements. It also will be much more international in participation.

At the MCPC we will have more managers from large global organizations; while at the CYO there will be more makers, designers, and European startups. In my opinion, both events are complementary and target to different audiences. So if you can, let's meet at the CYO and the MCPC.

Winning Logo of MCPC 2011 Crowdsourcing Competition – My Experiences with CrowdSPRING

Here is the new MCPC 2011 conference logo … to get it, we did what we preach and started a logo crowdsourcing competition at CrowdSPRING, one of the leading places in the internet to run design competitions.

I hope you like it … the logo will be used for the conference design and the final invitation brochures etc … I like the way how it connects the different backgrounds of our conference.

It was interesting to actually run such a contest. Here are my personal experiences with CrowdSPRING:

1. It is quite easy to launch a new project, even if you have never done this before and do not know anything about writing a briefing.
2. It is more expensive than often said. In some blogs or reports, crowdsourced graphic design competitions are said to be very cheap. Well, compared to hiring a design company for a new logo, CrowdSPRING is very affordable. But the average award is much higher today as it used to be in the past. As a non-profit conference and taking everything from my research budget, I decided to go low and just awarded $375 (The average contest is $1000 or more), On top, you pay about $150 transaction fees to the host (and expect to pay much higher fees if you want to have your contest promoted).
3. This is not much money, but for $500, you also will find many designers who will take such a job on a traditional contract base. But when you are new to the area and have not many great designers in your contact list, this is a great way to connect.
4. When you run a contest, reserve some time. Don't do it when you have a very full agenda. Participants expect instant feedback, and indeed your submissions get better when you give feedback just after every submission. I totally underestimated this.
5. You will not get better results when you keep the competition open longer than a week. Good entries only come in a few days before the closing deadline.
6. Get a few friends or colleagues involved helping you with the final voting. In the end, however, as usual, my wife made the decision for me :-).
7. The post-processing of the contest is very easy and well organized. Just a few clicks, and you have your files and the contract. This is where CrowdSPRING really provides value as a broker.

The winner of our contest was an experienced graphic designer who actually lives quite close to my German home, Raoul Camion. Raoul is a Belgium graphic designer who has specialized in logos projects. Without knowing, we selected a highly professional user: Raoul has participated in about 1000 projects at CrowdSPRING, and has won 87 of them. Sounds little, but is a lot given the large number of entries that are submitted for each contest.

So, we hope that you like the new MCPC 2011 logo!

Invitation to 9th International Open and User Innovation Workshop - July in Vienna

9th International Open and User Innovation Workshop
July 4-6, 2011, WU - Vienna University of Economics and Business

The Annual International Open and User Innovation Workshop is the leading academic seminar on Open and User Innovation. It has been initiated and is co-chaired by Eric von Hippel from MIT. Around 200 researchers from various disciplines (like entrepreneurship, innovation management, strategic management, organization design, marketing, intellectual property right management, and public policy) meet annually, in order to exchange recent research ideas and findings in Open and User Innovation.

State-of-the-art research findings and methods will be discussed in research fields like lead user innovation, user entrepreneurship, mass customization, crowdsourcing, producer-user-co-creation, collaborative innovation, policy towards open and user innovation as well as open business models.

The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Profs. Nikolaus Franke and Christopher Lettl) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) is hosting this annual event  for the second time.

The workshop used to be by invitation only. But as this is a bit contradictionary to the theme of "open innovation", now there is a broad call for papers and abstracts! Submission deadline is April 17.

CYO 2011: European Networking Event on Mass Customisation and the Creative Consumer, Berlin, May 30-31

This year will become the year of mass customization. First, the MCPC 2011 conference promises to become the biggest networking and knoweldge event ever. But it will be only at the end of November 2011... But before, there is a great opportunity for everyone in Europe to meet and network:

Supported by the European Commission, a consortium of European companies and research organisations is hosting the Create Your Own 2011 (CYO 2011) event in Berlin, Germany, May 30 and 31st, 2011.

The term "create your own" denotes a growing trend of start-ups and corporate entrepreneurship in Europe to create offerings catering to the creative consumer and serving the personalisation movement.

Together with local post-industrial design collective Cookies And Code and RWTH Aachen, EU research projects OpenGarment and SERVIVE will bring the vibrant global conversation about the future of making and selling personalised goods and services to Berlin.

The group is presenting its first annual "Create Your Own" event on Monday May 30, 2011 at the IMA Design Village in Berlin (17-20 h).  The opening event will feature over fifty co-creation entrepreneurs, makers, researchers, technology experts, policy maker, and investors from around Europe. A press conference and special exhibition will present the makers and shapers of personalisation and customisation in Europe to a wider audience,

On the following day, May 31, a full day business seminar will provide a detailed look at innovative European start-ups that are quite literally giving the people what they want. At the seminar, plenary presentations and panels will look into the market for mass customisation, new business models connected with the trend, and the latest technologies that make it happen.

The event "Create Your Own 2011" is a unique opportunity to explore the reality and future behind individualisation, co-creation, and personalisation -- mega trends that are shaping the European consumption landscape. 

The CYO event has three core objectives.

1. Give participants a thorough overview of what is happening today, what can be learned from the past, and what future already is here from key thought leaders in the field.
2. Help people in different fields of practice to explore how they can use mass customisation, co-creation and personalisation to get more out of what they do as a creative producer. This purpose will be served by a special workshop, the "MC incubator". 
3. Showcase some of the best and most promising products and customization offerings to a general public.

As the event is supported by the European Commission, registration is Euro 200,- only if you register early.Visiting the CYO2011 exhibition is free and open to everyone.

All information and registration at http://www.cyo2011.com

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SPECIAL OFFER: If your company is offering mass customization products or services, participate at the CYO 2011 exhibition. This will be a great opportunity to showcase your offerings to a wider public, the CYP 2011 participants, and a large group of invited journalists and multiplicators. Participation at the exhibition is only 250,- Euro (including the 200,- Euro participation fee at the business seminar), but place is limited. For any exhibition requests, just contact Evalotte Lindgens at [email protected]

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MCPC 2011: Submission System Open: Submit your speaking proposal now!

The 2011 World Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation (MCPC 2011): San Francisco Airport Marriot Hotel & Conference Center, November 15-19, 2011 
mcpc2011.com | Download Call for Papers | Submit your Proposal here

The system to submit ypur papers and speaking proposals for the MCPC 2011 is online! The most important information follows below, but you also can download the updated MCPC 2011 Call for Papers here.

The MCPC 2011 wants to engage academics, business leaders, and consultants in fundamental debates through a set of plenary presentations, discussion panels, and paper presentations.

The 2011 conference will consist out of four major elements:

• The "Research and Innovation Conference" is an academic-style conference, with a broad call for papers. All contributions are peer reviewed by at least two reviewers. An international program committee and many ad-hoc reviewers support the program chairs with this process. Presentations are organized in parallel tracks, with plenty of time for discussions and feedback. The conference has the policy of "all participants, including presenters, have to pay the registration fee" that is characteristic for academic conferences.  This open call for papers & presentations relates to this part of the event!

• The "Business Seminar" provides an innovative platform for managers DOING mass customization and open innovation as the core of their business.

• Networking events: A sponsor's marketplace & exhibition, social events like networking lunches, conference dinners, and cocktail receptions.

• Pre-Conference Show: A press event and pop-up exhibition in a great offsite location.

How to submit your paper and presentation proposal

We invite you to submit your best work, addressing the conference theme along one or more of the questions asked in the detailed call for papers (PDF). We especially seek papers which follow the idea of "engaged scholarship", i.e. which are relevant to both practice and research.

You can submit three types of proposals (Page limits include references and figures):

1. Full papers: Max. 10 pages, according to the formatting guidelines (http://bit.ly/g8y1Tr). This is the preferred form of submissions.
2. Short papers / extended abstracts for work in progress (3-5 pages), but including comments on the research question, the methodology, data and empirical methods used (if applicable), and a discussion of the results. Please also use the formatting guidelines for preparing your extended abstract (http://bit.ly/g8y1Tr).
3. Presentation proposals (PPT slides) by managers: In order to accommodate practitioners who have interesting results but are not familiar with writing papers, this alternative way for contributing is offered. Mass customization business proprietors, open innovation project managers, services and technology providers are invited to submit a presentation outline in form of a slide presentation (PPT of max. 20 slides, transferred into PDF). 

Please check the detailed Call for Papers for more details on what we expect from a good proposal, how to format your paper, and how to submit it!

To submit a paper (practitioners: presentation proposal), head here. 

Important dates

April 7, 2011: Deadline for submissions for paper and presentation proposals (via this online submission system only)

June 15, 2011: Final notification of accepted contributions

Aug. 1, 2011: Presenter registration deadline

Nov 16-17, 2011: MCPC 2011 Business Seminar (optional registration required)

Nov 18-19, 2011: MCPC 2011 Research Conference and Presentation Sessions

More information

• Download full call for papers & presentation as PDF (with much more information!)

• Download MCPC 2011 Conference Briefing - An extended "About the Conference"

MCPC 2011: Call for Papers and Presentations - Bridging mass customization and open innovation

The 2011 World Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation (MCPC 2011): Bridging Mass Customization & Open Innovation

San Francisco Airport Marriot Hotel & Conference Center, November 15-19, 2011 
mcpc2011.com | twitter: #mcpc2011 | download Call for Papers

Finally, the MCPC 2011 is ready to go public: I am really excited about the next large MCPC conference, as we finally will bridge between the two topics that have been driving my research since many years: mass customization and open innovation. There are many common themes and topics between these two domains. In a separate posting, I have provided an overview about the connections between mass customization and open innovation.

For this endeavor, we could win the best possible conference co-chair representing this topic: Prof. Henry Chesbrough from the Center for Open Innovation, Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. I believe Henry needs no introduction at all to anyone reading this blog. But head to his blog and web site for recent information about his work.

The second local 2011 co-chair will be Solomon Darwin, Associate Director at the Center for Open Innovation, University of California Berkeley. Solomon already was of great help in finding the venue and setting many details of the conference!

But the most important ingredient of the conference is YOU! We need YOUR best ideas, papers, and presentations to create an exciting and truly innovative program. And so I am happy to present today and here for the first time the upcoming Call for Papers & Presentations for the MCPC 2011.

The most important information follows below, but you also can download the MCPC 2011 Call for Papers in pdf form.

The MCPC Conference Series

As you may know, the MCPC conference series started out in Hong Kong in 2001 as a bi-annual conference devoted to Mass Customization & Personalization. The content has broadened in recent years, including also customer co-creation, user innovation and other strategies of customer-driven value creation (hence, MCPC = Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation"). The event frequently brings together hundreds of the world's most remarkable people in the field.

For reports and reviews of the previous conferences, check here (MCPC 2007 at MIT) and here (MCPC 2009 in Helsinki).

The MCPC 2011

The MCPC 2011 wants to engage academics, business leaders, and consultants in fundamental debates through a set of plenary presentations, discussion panels, and paper presentations. The conference will take place on Nov. 15-19, 2011 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.  Located in Burlingame, CA, just minutes from the San Francisco International Airport and between downtown San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, the hotel offers a perfect location with great views of the San Francisco Bay. Its inviting waterfront location and great conference center will provide an inspiring conference setting.

The 2011 conference will consist out of four major elements:

• The "Research and Innovation Conference" is an academic-style conference, with a broad call for papers. All contributions are peer reviewed by at least two reviewers. An international program committee and many ad-hoc reviewers support the program chairs with this process. Presentations are organized in parallel tracks, with plenty of time for discussions and feedback. The conference has the policy of "all participants, including presenters, have to pay the registration fee" that is characteristic for academic conferences.  The open call for papers & presentations relates to this part of the event!

• The "Business Seminar" provides an innovative platform for managers DOING mass customization and open innovation as the core of their business. The seminar's foremost idea is to connect managers in peer-to-peer interaction to foster an intense discussion, facilitated by presentations from industry leaders and the seminar faculty. In 2011, the Business Seminar will kick-off the entire conference event. Presentation at this seminar is by invitation only.

• Networking events: A sponsor's marketplace & exhibition, social events like networking lunches, conference dinners, and cocktail receptions, but also site visits to local companies provide unique opportunities to connect and exchange ideas among participants. The event has a long track-record of successful business relationships and even a number of start-up companies that has been launched thanks to new connections during participants of the conference.

• Pre-Conference Show: The first day of the conference, Nov. 15, will be used to host a public event in a central location in Palo Alto or san Francisco to showcasre to a wide public that customization and co-creation are new future trend but a broad reality. A press event and exhibition will be part of this pop-up sho of MC excellence.

How to submit your paper and presentation proposal

We invite you to submit your best work, addressing the conference theme along one or more of the questions asked in the detailed call for papers (PDF). We especially seek papers which follow the idea of "engaged scholarship", i.e. which are relevant to both practice and research.

You can submit three types of proposals (Page limits include references and figures):

1. Full papers: Max. 10 pages, according to the formatting guidelines (http://bit.ly/g8y1Tr). This is the preferred form of submissions.
2. Short papers / extended abstracts for work in progress (3-5 pages), but including comments on the research question, the methodology, data and empirical methods used (if applicable), and a discussion of the results. Please also use the formatting guidelines for preparing your extended abstract (http://bit.ly/g8y1Tr).
3. Presentation proposals (PPT slides) by managers: In order to accommodate practitioners who have interesting results but are not familiar with writing papers, this alternative way for contributing is offered. Mass customization business proprietors, open innovation project managers, services and technology providers are invited to submit a presentation outline in form of a slide presentation (PPT of max. 20 slides, transferred into PDF). 

Please check the detailed Call for Papers for more details on what we expect from a good proposal, how to format your paper, and how to submit it!

To submit a paper (practitioners: presentation proposal), head here. 

Important dates

April 7, 2011: Deadline for submissions for paper and presentation proposals (via this online submission system only)

June 15, 2011: Final notification of accepted contributions

Aug. 1, 2011: Presenter registration deadline

Nov 16-17, 2011: MCPC 2011 Business Seminar (optional registration required)

Nov 18-19, 2011: MCPC 2011 Research Conference and Presentation Sessions

More information

• Download full call for papers & presentation as PDF (with much more information!)

• Download MCPC 2011 Conference Briefing - An extended "About the Conference"

MCPC 2011: The connections between mass customization and open innovation

The 2011 World Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation (MCPC 2011): Bridging Mass Customization & Open Innovation

This blog has been titled since many years "MC&OI News" – the most creative name I could imagine to denote my two interests I am writing about here: mass customization (core topic, about 70% of all posts) and open innovation.

However, in the past, these two topics were standing next to each other, with very few posts connecting the two. But I always believed that there are strong overlaps and complementarities between both topics.

And now there even will be a conference to explore these connections: the MCPC 2011 (Nov 15-19, 2011) in San Francisco!

Mass customization, personalization, and co-creation (MCPC) strategies aim to profit from the fact that people are different. Their objective is to turn customer heterogeneities into profit opportunities, hence addressing the current trend of long tail business models. Mass customization means to provide goods and services that best serve individual customers’ personal needs with near mass production efficiency. 

Open innovation is the idea that companies should make greater use of external ideas and technologies in their own business, and allow unused internal ideas to flow out to others for use in their business. It is the antithesis of a closed innovation process which relies on internal R&D and deep vertical integration (source).

While developed separately and founded in different theoretical and conceptual backgrounds, mass customization and open innovation are closely linked and can benefit from a broader exchange between both schools of thought:

Open innovation and mass customization are both paradigms that motivate people to participate, to create, to learn, and to recover in order to effectively provide innovative goods and services for satisfying heterogeneous customer needs. 

Mass customization can profit from new forms of open process innovation. Implementing mass customization demands new processes and services – new capabilities that are not into place in most organizations. The principles of open innovation provide efficient access to this knowledge and can support the implementation of MCPC business models.

Similarly, open innovation can benefit from mass customization thinking. Using approaches like modular architectures, process re-configuration, solution space design, or choice navigation, open innovation initiatives may become more scalable and efficient while still fitting perfectly to the innovator's situation.

Open innovation and mass customization thinking are merging into innovative business models. Consider the success of MC platforms like Zazzle, Spreadshirt, or Cafepress. These companies have established open business models that enable anyone to co-create their own business, share designs and developments for a fee, and benefits from the experiences of others. The frameworks and theories of open innovation provide new opportunities to study these phenomena.

Open or permissive intellectual property policies are often at the heart of new business models.  How do organizations share what they can, protect what they must, and stimulate the widest participation possible in their communities?  What can Creative Commons licenses and similar approaches contribute to mass customization and open innovation?

Open hardware is enabling new dimensions of customization. Hardware products (electronics components, but also entire structures like automobiles or even rockets) are increasingly created in community-based models of contributors. IP is distributed via open licenses. One of the core motives of open hardware is to allow high degrees of customization – to offer the next level of customization!

Many mass customization businesses are user innovations. A core principle of open innovation is user innovation. Many innovative products or services originate in the customers' domain – including many mass customization offerings that are the result of an innovating customer becoming an entrepreneur. Looking closer on the origins of mass customization businesses will provide a fascinating area for research on user entrepreneurs and open innovation in start-ups.

In addition, methods for open innovation like co-creation toolkits or idea contests strive to facilitate the input from customers for a firm's innovation process. These tools are closely related to the design of configuration and co-design toolkits. Connecting research in both areas may offer opportunities for better toolkit design.

Mass customization is a service business. Much of the academic research in the field, especially in marketing and configuration experience design, is rooted in the service marketing domain.  Here we see plenty of opportunities to bridge between open service innovation and mass customization. We also need to explore how to scale up mass customization in cases where economies of scale are powerful.  How do companies like Amazon deliver customization and scale at the same time?

At the same time the MCPC conference is designed as a platform for open (process and business model) innovation: Our objective is to assemble a diverse and experienced audience with different backgrounds to share learnings and what worked (and what did not) in different settings, industries, and countries. We want to stimulate new ideas and to invoke new aspiration for entrepreneurial drive and technical advances.

If you find these conncetions as exciting as I, have a look at the call for papers & presentations for the MCPC 2011 and consider to submit your proposal!! The PDF of the Call for Papers also has many more questions exploring the themes of the conference!

MIT Event on Feb 16 -- Mass Customization: Massachusetts' Hidden Tech Cluster

Panel Discussion and Demonstrations by Local Mass Customization Companies at MIT Media Lab

More mass customization at MIT! Amy Goggins from the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge has put together a great MIT networking event on Feb 16, evening !

(NEW DATE DUE TO SNOW STROM! Event has been shifted to the 16th of Feb.)

On Feb 16, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge will present "Mass Customization: Massachusetts' Hidden Tech Cluster," which will feature a panel and demonstrations by local companies Artaic, Blank Label, Custom Made, FashionPlaytes and Gemvara.

Mass customization combines individual consumer desires with mass production pricing. The internet and automated manufacturing systems are fueling the growth of these businesses in order to enable consumers to customize everything from jewelry and clothing to books. The trend is also fueling the growth of businesses that identify individual consumer needs not previously met and create products to meet those requirements.

Panel Moderator: Katie Rae is the founder of Project11, a firm that invests in and assists early-stage startups, and the director ofTechStars Boston

Panelists:

• Ted Acworth is the CEO and founder of Artaic, a site that allow customers to design their own mosaics
• Sharon Kan is a co-founder of Tikatok, a site that provides consumers with the ability to author and publish children's books
• Matt Lauzon is the founder and president of Gemvara, a site that enables consumers to design their own jewelry
• Sarah McIlroy is the CEO and founder of FashionPlaytes, an online clothing design studio for girls ages 5-12
• Sung Park is the president and founder of Umagination Labs, a partnership that identifies and develops new products for consumers

Demonstrations:

• Artaic custom mosaic design and fabrication
• Blank Label allows consumers to co-create their own dress shirt
• Custom Made connects expert artisans with discerning customers who work with a maker to design a project crafted individually for them
• FashionPlaytes an online clothing design studio for girls ages 5-12
• Gemvara enables consumers to design their own jewelry

Program: February 16, 2011

5:30pm: Networking mixer & appetizers
6:15-8:00pm: Talks and demos
8:00-9:00pm: Networking reception

Where:  MIT Stata Center (Building 32), Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA

Registration and information:
http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/uncategorized/mass-customization-massachusetts-hidden-tech-cluster/
http://twitter.com/@MITefcmb

Pricing: Forum members: $25, Non-members: $45. Students from all universities are free with college ID. Pre-registration is encouraged!!
 

Conference Report: MCP-AP 2010 - Mass Customizaton in Asia Pacific

 Just coming back from two weeks of heavy travel that brought me from Cologne to Frankfurt, Bangkok, Taipei, New York, Quebec, and Brussels, and today finally back to Aachen and Cologne.  One of the core events of this trip was the MCP-AP 2010, the "Mass Customization & Personalization Conference Asia Pacific".

The idea of the MCP-AP is, along with other regional conferences, to create a platform for exchange and collaboration on mass customization and personalization. We were a great crowd of people in Taipei. As expected and targeted, about 80% of the participants came from Asia, representing countries like China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam.  The rest was a nice circle of old friends and MC enthusiasts from Europe, Canada, and the US. In total, about 300 different people participated over the course of the three conference days.

The event took place at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, a premier university of technology in Taiwan (with one of the best industrial design schools in the world (recently ranked #4), and hence all the conference graphics and setups really were innovative and great).

We had a number of great conference keynotes, and also some very interesting PhD student papers. This is what I learned from the days (very subjective report, just what stuck in my mind):

• Research on MC and sustainability is coming. Slowly, but steadily. We had a number of good presentations on the topic. But still there are plenty of measurement problems and especially questions on where to draw the boarder of the system analysis. Claudio Boer from SUSPI in Lugano presented a very interesting new European project on sustainability drivers of MC.
• The term "mass customization" is getting more and more fuzzy. Roger Jiao had a nice keynote presentation with a very good summary of research in the field from the last 10 years, and he proposed the term "personalization" to denote the concept of really "personal" products as those being created for example by rapid manufacturing or other digital / parametric manufacturing technologies that do not any longer demand a pre-defined set of options. I am not sure whether I will adopt this definition, but the trend is there.
• Also, we had a great presentation by Dr. Yih-Ping Luh, CEO of OLE Technology Ltd. Canada. He is working with some of the largest companies in the world to organize flexible supply chains, and had a nice concept of assortment customization in large scale for different retail formats. This definitely is mass customization thinking, even if the unit of analysis are batches of products, and not individual solutions.
• Quasi or defacto standards for configuration systems are developing, as Paul Blazek from Cyledge in Vienna showed in his presentation. This means that consumers start to learn how to operate a configuration toolkit, and that companies have to make wise decisions whether to meet a standard (like placing the configuration progress bar in a specific corner) or breaking with it as a point of differentiation.
• Confortable high-heels are possible (even very high ones). It was great to see again Prof. Ravi S. Goonetilleke from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, one of THE world experts in footwear design, and an old friend in the mass customization domain. He presented a new "scanning" (measurement) device to evaluate the perfect and most comfortable heel for an individual woman. Not that I am personally in the need for it, but it is leading edge research that really addresses the needs of MANY people.

On top, there was a great social program with excellent food (Taiwan has, in my opinion, some of the best Asian cuisines) in great locations like the world's highest restaurant (in Taipei 101) or the historical Palace Museum.

Thanks a lot to the local organizers around conference chair Prof. Shuo-Yan Chou and the great head of the organizing committee, Ms Hime Wang, for a great MCP-AP experience!

More information: For more information on the conference and a documentation of the program and presentations, please head to the conference website.

New Open Innovation Method 'Quebec Seeks Solution' -- Challenges for this event have been pubished: Do you have a solution?

A few weeks ago I wrote about a new approach to open innovation: The Problem Conference.

The core idea: Turn a conference upside down. Instead of presenting "solutions" and "best practices" to impress the other participants with your successes, present your hardest challenge. For the first event of this kind, taking place in cooperation with the ISPIM 2010 Winter Symbosium, in Quebec City, Canada, on December 14, 2010. now the problems have been published.

These problems will be addressed by capitalizing on the participants’ intelligence and expertise:

Aluminerie Alouette: Energy autonomy for industrial equipment

Kruger Inc.: Finding innovative applications using offline coaters at Kruger’s Trois Rivières plant

Stéris Canada: Efficient, environmentally viable and cost-effective system for cooling hot humid air produced by a surgical instrument washer

Stéris Canada: To find the best, most cost effective technology of flexible hose connections capable to resist temperature variations of 150F, pressure variations of 100 psig and requiring no adjustment or tightening once installed.

DMR (a division of Fujitsu): Sensor Networks for the analysis of Dynamic Complex Phenomena: Challenges and Perspectives

Labrie Environmental Group: Remove hydraulics from refuse trucks

Silicycle: Classifying mesoporous spherical particles (1-15µm)

Living Lab de Montréal: Designing a smart urban bike helmet

Norbord Inc.: Replacing wax in oriented strand boards (OSBs)

Non-disclosed: Versatile motorized support for camera lenses

Benefits for participants include:

• New contacts with individuals with complementary expertise
• New opportunities with firms that could benefit from your own expertise
• New technical ideas in line with the potential solutions you’re exploring
• Potentially valuable and useful discussions
• Concrete experience with open innovation

Please spread the word!

For more information on this event and the tool, go to http://www.quebec-solutions.com. The conference will be organized in cooperation with the 3rd ISPIM Innovation Symposium.

The Business Impact of Additive Manufacturing: Conference at Euromold Frankfurt

I have been invited to keynote the "12th Annual International Wohlers Conference: The Business Impact of Additive Manufacturing", taking place on Friday,  December 3rd, 2010, 09:30 – 17:00, at Frankfurt/Main, Germany, as part of the EUROMOLD Trade Fair.

Additive fabrication (AF) refers to a group of technologies used for building products from 3D computer-aided design (CAD) data, medical scans, or data from 3D scanning systems. Unlike CNC machines, which are subtractive in nature, AF systems join together liquid, powder, or sheet materials to form parts that may be impossible to fabricate by any other method.

Additive manufacturing (also: rapid manufacturing, fabbing, 3D-Printing, laser sintering) is a key enabler of mass customization. Recent developments have shifted this technology from prototype state to a full-scale manufacturing technology. Hence, today developments in additive manufacturing (AM) are influencing strategic decisions in aerospace, defense, medical, dental, automotive, motor sports, consumer, and other industries.

The idea of this conference is to provide an overview how AM technology is presenting vast opportunities for product development and manufacturing around the world. Speakers comment on the business impact of AM and how recent activities and trends are fostering ideas that were unthinkable in the past. The conference is organized and chaired by AM guru Terry Wohlers.

Full conference program here.

Registration Form here: http://euromold.com/index.php?id=115&l=1

Webinar: Open Innovation Readiness - Results from our study of 386 European Companies

Some self promotion:

Webinar: Open Innovation Readiness: What internal practices do you need to succesfully innovate with external partners?

Date: 21 Oct 2010 15:00 - 16:00 BST (London time)
Location: Your Office

About this Webinar

Open innovation is an ongoing process that requires a company to approach innovation in a fundamentally different way, both externally and internally. In this Webinar Frank Piller will share insights from in-depth case studies and recent surveys of more than 380 European companies and in so doing, discuss what really is new and different to conventional practices in innovation management.

According to the research (and on-the-ground experience from many projects with companies) in order to profit from open innovation or customer co-creation, the successful implementation of these approaches demand not just tools and methods to acquire external knowledge and ideas for innovation, but also the establishment of internal capabilities to bring these inputs into practice. The outcomes from this unique study shows that many companies are still failing in exploiting external input internally.  Put succinctly, companies lack "open innovation readiness".

The session will discuss the drivers and components that define an organisation's open innovation readiness as well as the need for open innovation to be seen and treated as an ongoing process that requires innovation to be treated in a fundamentally different way, both externally and internally. It will identify how and where a new set of organisational capabilities are required to transfer external inputs into successful innovation.

Mass Customization on the International Book Show, Frankfurt: Two Panels on the Present and Future of Personalized Books

Next week, the Frankfurt Book Show will start, the largest trade show of its kind in the world. As a side event of this show, Jan-Christoph Goetze from PersonalNovel has organized two high-profile panels
on mass customization in this industry -- topics include "contend printed on demand", "individual books", and "personalization of books as a driver of ebooks?".

I originally wanted to participate, but in the end couldn't make it, but I believe that this is one of the most interesting topics in mass customization today. A blogger who covers this theme frequently in her writings is Anita Windisman. Read her blog flexistuff for much more info on customization and personalization in the printing industry!

Here is some more information on the Frankfurt event in German (the language of the trade show and the panels).

„Auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse treffen sich die Macher der Branche“ wirbt die Frankfurter Buchmesse auf ihrer Webseite und innovative Macher braucht die Branche in der Tat, denn redaktionelle Inhalte werden zunehmend über elektronische Medien konsumiert.

Vor dem Hintergrund sinkender Absatzzahlen im klassischen „Buchmarkt“ könnte „Content printed on Demand“ (CpoD) eine Lösung sein. Diverse Geschäftsmodelle beschäftigen sich bereits mit Weiterentwicklungen des Mediums „Buch“, in denen der Kunde durch seine Mitgestaltung wesentliche Bereiche klassischer Verlagshoheiten übernimmt: vom Verfasser bis hin zum Verleger.

Zwei Panel betrachten diese Thematik:

Panel 1: „Das individuelle Buch – Konzept der Zukunft?“  Der Kunde wird zum Regisseur und konfiguriert seine Produkte. Wie wird sich diese Form des Buches weiterentwickeln? Worin liegt der Reiz für den Einzelnen? Sind individualisierte Bücher Zeitgeistprodukte oder entwickeln sie Nachhaltigkeit?

Donnerstag, 07. Oktober 2010; Frankfurter Buchmesse, Halle 4.2, Stand P451, 10:00 bis ca. 11:00 Uhr

Moderation: Dr. Michael Bartl; Vorstand „Hyve AG – the innovation company“, München,
Experte im Bereich Mass Customization

Teilnehmer:      
Christoph Hünermann – Geschäftsführer, wissenmedia; Bertelsmann;
Marion Meyer – Leitung Neue Produkte, Süddeutsche Zeitung;
Christoph Kepper – Business Developer, PediaPress;
Sabine Kochendörfer – Gesellschafterin, brandbook.de;
Jan-Christoph Goetze – Gründer & Inhaber, PersonalNOVEL.

Panel 2: „Mass-Customization: Verkaufsmotor für Bücher im E-Commerce?“ Immer mehr Kunden werden zum Regisseur und konfigurieren ihre Produkte. Was gilt es bei dieser Buchgattung im Vertrieb zu beachten? Sind individualisierte Bücher trotz steigender Verkaufszahlen nur eine Modeerscheinung? Bestimmt der mündige Nutzer, wie die Vertriebswege in Zukunft aussehen? Wie hoch ist das Potential?

Freitag, 08. Oktober 2010, Frankfurter Buchmesse, Halle 4.2, Stand P451, 14:00 bis ca. 15:00 Uhr

Moderation: Jochen Krisch - Director E-Commerce, Optaros; Betreiber des Branchen-Blogs „Exciting Commerce“ und Autor „Buchreport“

Teilnehmer:        
Helmut Ament – Geschäftsführer, Pegastar;
Dr. Michael Fries – Vorstand, CeWe Color;
Dr. Jörg Dörnemann – Geschäftsführer, epubli;
Claudia Hollingshausen – Marketing Managerin, framily.de; Oetinger;
Dirk Delbrouck – Director Marketing & Sales, PersonalNOVEL.

Aktuelle Infos unter http://www.personalnovel.de/romane/presse_buchmesse

A New Approach to Open Innovation: The Problem Conference – Quebec Seeks Solutions

A very fresh and innovative approach to open innovation is coming from Quebec, Canada: The Problem Conference.

The core idea: Turn a conference upside down. Instead of presenting "solutions" and "best practices" to impress the other participants with your successes, present your hardest challenge. Present what you could not solve, and ask openly for help! The (beginning of the) solution then will be co-created with the participants.

The first event will take place in Quebec City on December 14, 2010.  Organized by DTEQ and the Quebec Innovation Council, the hosts invite you to experience open innovation in a new format. Large companies, SMEs, R&D centers and universities will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with this principle by sharing their problems – and co-creating an innovative solution. For one day, proponents of complex problems from various industrial sectors will challenge attendees. The goal is to broaden the understanding of the issue and possibly to seek for potential solutions.

The conference shall become a place where concrete problems of small, medium, and large companies will be discussed to deepen the understanding of the issue and to seek potential solutions. At the same time, this will become a laboratory for experimenting with and implementing open innovation. Participants shall be able to use the intelligence of experts in various fields to find solutions to your problems. While most OI initiatives have been organized on online platforms, this conference shall become one of the first large-scale offline events!

Problems can be submitted within one of three different categories (until the end of this week):

• Innovation Problems: These problems are usually upstream of innovation, but have a significant impact on an organization’s innovation capacity. Such problems are economic, organizational, social, or political in nature.
• Industrial Problems: Industrial problems with a strong technical component will be submitted by companies facing innovation problems in new technology development or in product design or improvement.
• Large Scale Problems (with multiple components): At least one large scale problem will be the focus of a group intelligence activity that will involve all participants and will have the potential to advance understanding of the problem. This problem will be submitted by an international organization facing a number of complex innovation issues.

I am personally very proud of this initiative, as it has been born during a workshop in spring of this year. During this workshop, I first provided an introduction into open innovation to an audience of about 50 companies and research institutions from the Quebec region. We then continued with some open space discussions on possible applications and ideas for the Quebec region. The Problem Conference was one of the idea, which then was followed up and refined by a team in Quebec in the last months.

For more information on this event and the tool, go to http://www.quebec-solutions.com. The conference will be organized in cooperation with the 3rd ISPIM Innovation Symposium. I will participate in person in December and am very curious to see how it will work and what will be the results.

MCP-CE 2010 Program Published - 4th International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe

Robert Freund, Co-Organizer of the MCP-CE 2010 (September 22-24, 2010, Novi Sad, Serbia), just has informed me that the program of this conference has been finalized and is available at the website. And he invites you all to join the conference:

 "Now taking place for the 4th time, the biannual MCP-CE Conference is the leading event in the field of Mass Customization and Open Innovation in the Central European Region. After meetings in Rzeszow/Poland (2004/2006), and Palic/Serbia in 2008 the conference is coming to Novi Sad/Serbia. The main goal of the conference is to bring the Mass Customization and Open Innovation concept closer to companies and scientists in Central Europe. This year we focus on MC&OI in the Financial Crisis – Challenges and Opportunities.

In cooperation with the regional Chamber of Commerce and with support of GTZ, the German development agency, we will have a  pre-conference workshop on September 22 focused on SME, interested in Mass Customization and Open Innovation. On Thursday and Friday (September 23-24), we will have 29 interesting presentations starting with the keynote of Prof. Cipriano Forza (Italy). So join us at MCP-CE 2010, where developers, business people and researchers intersect with entrepreneurs and corporate managers in Eastern Europe to discuss the latest best practices in mass customization. Yours, Robert Freund."

More information: http://www.ftn.uns.ac.rs/MCP-CE2010/

I am personally very happy about these regional MCP conferences ... next to the MCP-CE, the MCP-Asia Pacific is coming up later during the year, and a Dutch MCP at the beginning of next year.

Invitation: Let's Meet at Customer Co-Design Event in Munich on July 15

Are you living in the Munich, Germany, area? Then you may be interested in this event on July 15 at the BMW Corporate Headquarters:

Customers as Co-Creators: Implications for theDesign Profession

  Organized by Bayern Design, an association of industrial designers in Bavaria, and Hyve AG (an OIA - Full Disclosure: I am on the board of directors of Hyve), this shall become a nice evening event that will allow a good update on co-creation and open innovation with customers, and also will offer nice networking opportunities for the Munich community.

The event is in German language, and so is the following announcement:

Der Kunde als Mitgestalter. Einfluss von Social Media und user-generated Content auf die Gestaltung - 37. Unternehmerforum Design

15. Juli 2010 -- 17 bis 21 Uhr -- BMW Welt, München

Das Web 2.0 bietet Unternehmen ganz neue Möglichkeiten, innovative Produktideen zu generieren. Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Communities, durch Ideen- und Design-Contests im Internet oder in Workshops mit Lead Usern werden Kunden aufgefordert, sich aktiv an der Produktentwicklung und -gestaltung zu beteiligen und Produkte am Bildschirm zu kreieren, die individuell und einzigartig sind. Doch können Nutzer tatsächlich komplexe Gestaltungsaufgaben übernehmen? Welche Chancen und Risiken liegen in der frühen Kundenintegration? Wie kann effektiv und sinnvoll das große kreative Potential der globalen User genutzt werden? Steht uns ein Paradigmenwechsel in der Produktentwicklung und Kundenbindung bevor?

Antworten auf diese Fragen geben Wissenschaftler, Unternehmer und Gestalter in der BMW Welt in München. Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, aktiv an der Diskussion teilzunehmen. Es sprechen:

• Martin Ertl, Chief Innovation Officer, BOMBARDIER Transportation Deutschland GmbH, Berlin
• Dr. Johann Füller und Michael Schmidt, Vorstand, HYVE AG, München
• Dr. Gregor Matjan, Client Relationship Manager, KISKA GmbH, Salzburg
• Prof. Dr. Frank T. Piller, Direktor des Instituts für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement an der RWTH Aachen

Teilnahmegebühren: 70 € zzgl. ges. MwSt. (50 € zzgl. MwSt für für Studenten).

Anmeldung ueber dieses Formular:  Download Anmeldung 15_07_2010

MCP-AP 2010: Present your work at the MCP Regional Conference in Taipei, Taiwan

The MCPC conference series is the premier event for the international Mass Customization community. Every two years, we organize the large global MCPC conference (the previous event was in Helsinki in 2009, the next one will be in Oct. 2011 in North America). But in the last years, a number of side events has been organized with a topical or regional focus. Since several years, a MCP event is organized for Central Europe, the MCP-CE  (the next conference takes place in Serbia in Sept. 2010, see the call for papers and participation)

Now, MCP is getting a new Asian-Pacific outpost with the MCP-AP, MCP-Asia Pacific. The first event of this kind will take place in December 2010 in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. As a central manufacturing and innovation hub of the world, the Taiwanese economy has been focused since many years on flexible and customer-centric manufacturing strategies. But also in other countries of Asia, the concept of mass customization has been adopted to a large extend. Japan probably is the leading MC country in the world, and also China is rapidly adopting MC methods.

So if you can make it and are interested in networking with the Asian side of mass customization, consider to participate or even present at the MCP-AP.

The event is taking place on Dec. 6 and 7 at the prestigious National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and will be followed by a business seminar on Dec 8 in Taipei. The MCP-AP has an open call for presentations, and next to scholars, especially managers are very much invited to participate and present their MC experiences.

Topics of the Call for Papers include, but are not limited to:

    * MCP Product and Process Design
    * MCP Manufacturing and Logistics
    * MCP Information Systems
    * MCP Communities and Personalization in E-commerce
    * MCP and Services
    * MCP and CRM/Branding
    * MCP Case Studies: Industrial Goods, Consumer Goods, Services
    * MCP for Assistive Devices/Technologies
    * Technology-enabled MCP
    * Strategy-aligned MCP

To participate and present, submit an abstract until June 15, 2010 to the conference organizers.

For more information, head to the conference website: http://mcp.im.ntust.edu.tw . or download the conference flyer and CfP here as a PDF.

Meet 100+ CEOs of Mass Customization Companies and VPs Customization & Personalization of Global Organizations at the MIT SCS 2010

We are finalizing the preparations of the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2010 -- only one week to go! And I am really excited -- it will become a great event. I just checked the registration database and was amazed about the prominent participant rooster we will get. Indeed – many of the participants could be keynote speakers on other conferences as they really represent the state of the art of innovative business thinking today.

Also the final speaker line-up is terrific, and I am looking forward to learn a lot from our presenters. The final agenda has been published … just the session of the MIT research briefings on Day 2 will be further fine-tuned. And Zazzle will come up with another surprise!

The deadline for online registration for the event has passed, but if you still want to participate, please send me an e-mail ([email protected]) and I will take care that all readers of my blog will get a seat at the event.

MIT Smart Customization Seminar (SCS 2010) - Update and Agenda - Registration now open

The MIT Smart Customization Seminar (SCS) 2010 provides a unique opportunity for thought leaders and reflective practitioners working on, implementing, or considering mass customization, personalization, and customer co-creation. It will take place in the new Media Lab Extension building.

The 2010 seminar's foremost idea is to connect managers in peer-to-peer interaction to foster an intense discussion, facilitated by presentations from industry leaders and the Smart Customization Group faculty. Following the success of similar events at MIT in October 2007 and November 2008, the objective of the 2010 seminar is to take an intensive look on the success factors and "how to do it” aspects of implementing mass customization, personalization and customer co-creation in a smart way.

The seminar also will provide great networking opportunities for everyone interested in mass customization, personalization, and customer co-creation – inspired by the creative environment of the famous MIT Media Lab.

  Presenting companies at the SCS 2010

 The companies selected by the MIT SCG in 2010 represent some of the most prominent and interesting examples of mass customization, personalization, and customer co-creation in North America and Europe. Each of these companies has made some major achievements and has established a number of best practices for the industry.

For a more detailed description of companies that will present at the 2010 seminar, please have a look in the following postings:

- Leaders in mass customization ...

- Leaders in personalization ...

- Leaders in customer co-creation at the MIT SCG Seminar 2010 

In addition to these company presentations, there also will be two sessions where we share the latest research on mass customization, personalization, and customer co-creation.

Agenda

The final agenda has been published! Download it here !

Registration: Reserve your participation at the SCS 2010 @ MIT

This is an exclusive MIT Executive Education event. Space in the seminar is limited, so reserve your seat now, and also enjoy the early registration discount until May 10, 2010. The regular registration fee is $2400, or $1795 for registrations until May 10. So just save $800 by registering early! 

Register here

Special Start-Up Scholarship: For members of start-ups focusing on mass customization, personalization and co-creation, a number of MIT SCG seminar scholarships are available: If you qualify, your participation will be co-sponsored by the MIT SCG and will be $490 only -- an 80% discount! To apply for this scholarship, just send a short e-mail describing your business to Frank Piller ([email protected]).

For more information on the seminar, please head to the official event site: scg.mit.edu

Leaders in Mass Customization Presenting at the SCS 2010

Managers from the following companies will present during the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2010 (SCS 2010) how they surprise their customers with truly customized products. A special emphasis will be placed on scaling mass customization up and making it a "serious" business model.

Even if you will not make it to the seminar, I believe this is a nice case study selection! Note: "Best practices" named in the following are my personal opinion.

---

Founded in 1997, Build-A-Bear Workshop today has become a synonymous for mass customization. With more than 400 stores world-wide, it the largest chain dedicated to the create-your-own trend in the United States. Best practices:

• Scaling up a mass customization business
• Creating a truly unique customization experience in a retail environment

---

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton is reinterpreting the individualization trend that has defined the luxury industry since many decades. Mixing modern interactive media and craftsmanship, LV creates entirely new experiences for its customers by customization and personalization. Best practices:

• How to utilize the latest personalization services on the internet
• How to combine a strong company heritage with latest technologies

---

Lego Group is one of the most recognized toy companies in the world. In many ways, its core building system – based on the LEGO® brick- is a classic example of effective modularization. In recent years, the LEGO Group has added entirely new layers of customization to its offerings, including LEGO Design ByME, a true mass customization experience on the internet. Best practices:

• Using customer communities to test and launch a mass customization offering
• Effective change management towards adapting established manufacturing, supply chain and marketing processes for customized products

---

myMuesli has become one of the largest and most successful European mass customization companies, building on today's mega-trend of customizing food and nutrition. Learn how the company became an international leader in just a few years and what will be next. Best practices:

• How to scale-up a mass customization start-up to become an international category leader
• Customer interaction systems for repeat orders in mass customization

---

Since many years, Archetype Solutions enables large US brands in the fashion industry to offer customized items. In 2008, Archetype went BtoC by opening indiDenim and indiTailored, two of the leading consumer-direct services that offer truly custom-made jeans and dress shirts. Best practices:

• Building a platform to enable established brands to offer mass customization
• Latest trends in customer interaction for fashion related products

---

Named "start-up of the year" by Business Week Germany, chocri offers consumers the opportunity to design their own chocolate bars online, an inherently viral product due to its fit as a gift. It is also the first German mass customization startup that expanded to the American market. Best practices:

• Starting a mass customization business with very limited funds and manage a period of strong growth
• Mastering the international expansion

---

Combining high-tech production technologies adapted from semiconductor manufacturing with design skills and a 2000-year old craft, Artaic makes the old art of mosaic accessible to every artist as a medium to work within in the building and construction industry. Best practices:

• Setting up a flexible manufacturing system for mass customization
• Building an network of interaction partners along the value chain

---

Bivolino is one of the leading mass customization companies in the European apparel industry and also a lead partner of the EU Open Garment initiative. It has enabled large retailers like Marks&Spencer, Otto, WE, and many others to offer customized items within established e-commerce sites. Best practices:

• Enabling established companies to enter mass customization
• How to make customer co-design as simple as possible

---

This posting is part of a series on the MIT Smart Customization Seminar. See all relating postings here. Or register here to the event!

More companies presenting at the 2010 Smart Customization Seminar in May 2010 at MIT:

• SCS 2010 - Leaders in personalization
• SCS 2010 - Leaders in customer co-creation

Leaders in Personalization Presenting at the SCS 2010

Managers from the following companies will present during the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2010 (SCS 2010) how to create value for customers – and outstanding profits for your own company – by personalizing the service encounter and relationship with your clients.

Even if you will not make it to the seminar, I believe this is a nice case study selection! Note: "Best practices" named in the following are my personal opinion.

---

Pandora Radio creates thousands of personalized music streams every day. Based on an automated music recommendation system, Pandora Music, the company is a textbook example of simple but highly effective personalization.  Best practices:

• How to create a simple but highly effective personalization mechanism
• How to profit from personalization in the entertainment industry

---

Pfizer Inc. is the world's largest pharmaceutical company. The presentation will share for the first time how Pfizer uses personalization and mass customization in the marketing and sales process of pharmaceuticals to establish win-win relationships in the professional market. Best practices:

• Customization and personalization in the professional sales system
• Managing change towards personalization in a global company

---

Etrl/Renz became a leading European specialized sports good retailer by changing the way how ski equipment, golf shoes, and running shoes are being sold. Based on a unique scanning solution by corpus-e, the company combines personalization in retail and product customization to offer a one-of-a-kind sports experience. Best practices:

• Value-based up-selling in retail environments by personalization
• Using a new generation affordable body scanning solutions

---

Bixi is the North American champion of shared city bicycles. Different to other companies in the field, Montreal based Bixi has connected its bike sharing service with a set of personalization offerings that enable a truly custom mobility service. Best practices:

• Using personalization to change consumer behavior in the mobility domain
• Personalization beyond the product: from smart products to smart cities

---

This posting is part of a series on the MIT Smart Customization Seminar. See all relating postings here. Or register here to the event!

More companies presenting at the 2010 Smart Customization Seminar in May 2010 at MIT:

• SCS 2010 - Leaders in mass customization
• SCS 2010 - Leaders in customer co-creation

Leaders in Customer Co-Creation Presenting at the SCS 2010

Managers from the following companies will present during the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2010 (SCS 2010) how to co-create innovations with their customer community.

Even if you will not make it to the seminar, I believe this is a nice case study selection! Note: "Best practices" named in the following are my personal opinion.

---

Smart is the microcar by Daimler AG (Mercedes Benz). Recently, smart launched a highly successful customer co-design contest where consumers created more than 10,000 custom designs within just a few weeks. The presentation also will present Daimler's new mobility service Car2Go which can be seen as another example of personalized mobility in the city. Best practices:

• Implementing customer co-creation in a traditional organization
• Thinking beyond the product by customer co-creation of services and experience

---

Founded in 1999, Zazzle is one of the world's leaders in mass customization. But with its platform-based system, the company also has democratized the selling and retail process by enabling everyone in the world – being it Disney or the average consumer – to open their own merchandising store with a custom assortment. Best practices:

• Bringing mass customization to the next level by customer co-creation
• Cooperating with established brands and manufacturers to enable mass customization

---

Quirky is a social product development company. It has established an entirely new model to cope with assortment variety and heterogeneous customer demands, crowdsourcing the entire new product creation process to its community. Best practices:

• Bringing customer co-creation and community innovation to a new level
• Establishing an entirely new business model in the consumer market

---

This posting is part of a series on the MIT Smart Customization Seminar. See all relating postings here. Or register here to the event!

More companies presenting at the 2010 Smart Customization Seminar in May 2010 at MIT:

• SCS 2010 - Leaders in mass customization
• SCS 2010 - Leaders in personalization

Background info: What is the MIT Smart Customization Seminar?

Registration is open  -- more information is here!

After a big success in the last year, we just have finalized the set up of the next MIT Smart Customization Seminar. It will take place on May 20 and 21, 2010, in the brand-new Media Lab Building II on the MIT Campus in Cambridge, MA (Boston).

While the MCPC conferences are large networking events and focused on the latest research and a broader range of topics, the MIT Smart Customization Seminar is an Executive Seminar focused on implementing and managing mass customization and personalization successfully in a corporate setting. It is organized by the MIT Smart Customization Group, a research-industry group I co-founded with a bunch of great individuals at MIT in 2007.

If you want to get an idea of what the seminar is and what to expect, have a look at a great summary of the last seminar (Nov. 2008), as compiled by bestselling author Patricia Seybold:

Smart Customization Comes of Age: Best Practices from the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2008. By Patricia B. Seybold, CEO and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group January 8, 2009.
Download Patricia's report of the November 2008 seminar here. (c) Copyright by Patricia B. Seybold, P. Seybold Group 2008.

Registration is open  -- more information is here!  It will become THE smart mass customization event 2010 in North America.

50%-Discount on 3-Day-Executive Seminar: Building a Customer-Centric Organization: Mass Customization, Co-Creation, and Relationship Management

(updated)  Building A Customer Centric Organization: Outperforming your Competition in Profitability

IE Business School, 2, 3, and 4th of March 2010 in Madrid, Spain

We are please to offer the first 2010 seminar of our highly successful Executive Education Program "Building the Customer Centric Organization" - An in-depth introduction into mass customization, user innovation. customer co-creation, and modern relationship management (CRM).

50% Discount for Readers of my Blog: While the program is expensive (but IE has been frequently ranked #1 Business School in Europe for this kind of programs), the organizers are offering a Pay1-Admit2-Deal. So when you want to participate with a colleague or friend, business partner or peer, let me know and I send you the info for a 50% reduction! And if you can not find a partner, let me know (e-mail), and I am happy to make a match!

The stagnation of consumption and the proliferation of highly heterogeneous and diverse customer needs are forcing executives today to refocus their product and service portfolios and respond to their client’s needs or risk losing them to the competition. Yet, for any organization to be able to manage this changing dynamic all aspects of the business must be aligned with the goal of understanding customers, revamping their product and service offerings to match the target customer-value proposition, while redesigning organizational culture, incentives systems and processes accordingly. Today’s executives must develop a holistic view of the principles around which organizations can redesign themselves to tap into the benefits of customer-centricity and gain insight into the issues and solutions associated to such vast organizational change processes.

Building a Customer-Centric Organization is a challenging three-day international executive program designed to help executives build their own winning customer-centric strategy and outperform their competition.

Program Objectives: This international program equips executives with the latest thinking and cutting-edge strategic insights to help them build a successful customer centric organization.

Participants will develop a sound understanding of how to:

• Analyze the impact of customer centricity on revenues, profitability and growth.
• Understand the organizational implications of customer-centric strategies and the changes that need to be made.
• Structure their organization by customer segments that establish ownership of the customer experience.
• Delight their customers by delivering value propositions that competitors cannot match.
• Achieve customer satisfaction by understanding and adapting to customer needs rapidly and efficiently.
• Identify and exploit all customer channels.
• Measure customer value for long-term profitability.
• Implement a customer-focused culture within their organization.
• Innovate by improving the value propositions offered to customers.

Program structure:

Strategic capabilities for customer-centricity: Building a customer-centric organization is appealing but also difficult because it involves profound changes in virtually all the value-adding processes of a firm. Yet the payoff can be enormous. This module examines the fundamental capabilities that a company has to develop in order to become customer-centric, and offers a comprehensive view of the scope and content of the organizational changes associated to customer-centricity. Special attention will be devoted to the issues associated to connecting front-end and back-end areas of the firm for a fast and efficient adaptation to customer needs.

Placing the customer / user at the center of the innovation process: A key challenge in new product and service development (NPSD) is to match new designs to customer preferences. The growing heterogeneity of demand, the advent of “long tail markets”, exploding product and service complexities and the rise of the creative consumer are making this task more difficult than ever. This module will explore new strategies to navigate NPSD more efficiently by utilizing the firm’s periphery for innovation.

Focusing on the individual customer relationship: Delivering what customers value provides competitive advantage in today’s business arena. No matter in which sector it finds itself competing in each company needs to focus on the customer’s point of view not only to improve the customer experience, but also to increase the customer’s contribution to the business. This module will explore how to determine the value of each individual customer for your business and how to retain the ones that offer the highest value, as well as, switching costs associated with their loss.

Faculty:

• FABRIZIO SALVADOR. Professor of Operations Management IE Business School, Spain.
• MARTIN BOEHM. Professor of Marketing Strategy IE Business School, Spain.
• FRANK PILLER. Professor of Innovation Management, RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

More information:

• Download Program Flyer (PDF)
• Program website
• And consider the 50%-deal described at the beginning of this posting!
  

Designed to Surprise -- EU Conference on Consumer Goods Research Brings Three Major Research Programs Together - Free Participation

Designed to Surprise: How Strategic Research and Innovation can Extend Europe’s Leadership in Design-based Consumer Goods on the Global Market

European Conference on Consumer Goods Research

Hotel Bloom, Brussels, 4th February 2010 -- Free Registration

For this first time, three major European bodies representing some of the main fields of application for mass customization meet in a joint conference to discuss visions and strategies for current and future European Consumer Goods research.

The European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing, the European Platform for Sports and Innovation, and the European Footwear Products and Processes Technology Platform jointly organize this international conference featuring high-level speeches from industry, leading researchers and the European Commission (I got the challenging task to provide the closing remarks and summarize the discussion over the day).

In previous meetings preparing the conference, mass customization and personalization, but also customer co-design and consumer co-creation, frequently popped up as some of the key trends unifying these areas.

During the conference, ten major European research projects in the field will present their current developments in the area, with Open Garments, Dorothy, Fit4U, and our own SERVIVE project presenting pure mass customization research.

With this first event we expect to have an important impact on future EU research & innovation policies at a time when important EU policy decisions such as the EU2020 Plan are under preparation and new European Commission leaders start their work.

Thanks to this cross-platform collaboration which started in early 2009 and which we intend to strengthen and deepen in the future, interesting research funding opportunities are expected to emerge during the remainder of the 7th Framework Program (starting from 2010).

This event is the place to be to learn more about this and to make contacts for future collaborations -- and best of all, participation is free! But we have an upper limit of approximately 200 participants and places will be assigned on a “first come, first served basis”.

Download the conference flyer & program and the registration form

Call for Papers: International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe (MCP-CE 2010)

Robert Freund , our long-term collaborator, is co-organizing again a mass customization conference in Central Europe. Here is his invitation and the call for papers:

"On behalf of the Organizational Board and Scientific Committee of the 4th International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe (MCP - CE 2010), we would like to invite you to participate and to share your research ideas, efforts and results with other scientists ...

Organized for the fourth time, the biannual MCP-CE Conference is the leading event in the field of Mass Customization and Open Innovation in Central European Region. After meetings in Rzeszow/Poland (2004/2006), and Palic/Serbia in 2008 the organizers are taking the conference to Novi Sad/Serbia.

MCP-CE 2010 provides an interactive platform for learning more about Mass Customization and Open Innovation strategies and the possibility to discuss the latest technologies and enablers like Product Configurators and Toolkits for User Innovation.

The main goal of the conference is to bring Mass Customization closer to companies and scientists in Central Europe. Join us for MCP-CE 2010 in Novi Sad, where developers, business people, and researchers interact with entrepreneurs and corporate managers looking for applications in order to gain competitive advantage in times of financial crisis."

For all information about the conference, and the call for papers, head to the conference site.

MCPC 2009: My Personal Conclusions and Learning from this Year's Conference

(updated on Oct. 17) After almost one week of discussions, lectures, keynotes and many personal interactions -- and four long postings about the conference --, what were my key insights from the MCPC 2009 (2009 Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization)?

(1) Don't mention the crisis: While still talking about the economic crises dominates the conversations of many business people, it was no topic at all during the conference. So is mass customization crisis resistant? Well, many of our participants told me that they saw it as unaffected or even an answer.

Take consumer goods. The more conventional retailers are coming under cost pressure, the more they are streamlining their assortments. The less likely it is that customers find exactly what they want -- the larger the appeal of customized offerings. This was a pattern reported frequently from participants from the apparel and clothing sectors. At the same time, mass customization is "affordable" luxury. When I am not sure about the future, I am postponing the purchase of my new car. But I still reward myself by paying a tad more for a pair of customized ski boots. This was a good sign – and a positive mood (To be honest, however, there also may have been a self selection effect: Branches of industry interested in mass customization but affected by the crisis did not show up – and so there was no one to complain).

(2) Configuration Technology: A new generation of customization logic is coming up: While Joe Pine, Lars Hvam, and myself still preach that modularization and product family structures are the key to efficient customization, Dr. Yusel from Certusoft Inc. and Konstantin Krahtov from the Open Experience GmbH both provided presentations that turned the common argumentation upside down:

I normally tell my students that for manufacturing companies mass customization means to move from ETO to MTO or ATO (engineer- => make- or assemble-to-order). But in these presentations, the idea was presented that instead of combining pre-defined modules, the configuration toolkit will engineer the components on the fly in real time. As Dr. Yusel said: "Conventional configurators replace what engineers do. Our system replaces how engineers think." He has implemented his configuration system within large US truck makers with amazing results -- and really opened my eyes to a new way of thinking of configuration. Similar Open Experience from Karlsruhe in Germany. Their vision is that in the end you just doodle what you like, and the system turns this into a component.

Perhaps the future of configuration is indeed beyond arranging pre-defined modules to a product, but developing components and production patterns in real time (you need, however, a very flexible manufacturing system for this).

(3) Customization & Personalization are becoming "the new imperative of business". In our MCPC community, we have to make the connection to industries like financial services, health, computer gaming, media, etc ... All these industries are very much driven by personalization but have not really been part of the mass customization debate (and community) yet.  This is one of my goals for the next 2011 conference: Broaden the conversation of mass customization from the domains where we are today into these new fields of applications.


(4) Customization is the true luxury – no matter the price. There is a long debate about the future of luxury goods. But a repeating theme during the conference was the notion that for many consumers, being able to customize a product is the true luxury, whether it is a chocolate bar for $4 or a custom trunk by Louis Vuitton for $25K.

Positioning mass customization in the "mass market" and regarding it as a "democratization" of manufacturing perhaps has misplaced the concept – and also has communicated it wrongly towards consumers. Even if mass customized goods still should be affordable and should not lift the offering into different market segments, its appeal for consumers still is the luxury and personal service connected with it (see the report about the MCPC 2009 Fashion Lab for more).

Mass customization means to "take away the need of products which are full of stuff and replace it with products full of meaning", as one of the participants of the discussion during the business seminar said. We have plenty of research on this meaning for consumers in mass customization offerings, but still have to find better ways to communicate and transport it to consumers.


Concluding, the MCPC 2009 again was a great experience. It really became a gathering of friends and colleagues, many of them joining the conferences since 2001 and becoming a great community of practice. Our community has started several companies, made important business connections, created many PhDs and master students, and really advanced the thinking in an important field!

What is next?

The next MCPC World Conference will be in October 2011, probably at a convenient East Coast location in the U.S. We will extend the name MCPC to "Mass Customization, Personalization & Co-Creation" to acknowledge the larger scope of the conference.

In 2010, a number of focused, smaller events will take place:

• We are planning again a German language MC event. My idea is to focus on the new wave of entrepreneurs that we find in Germany in the moment.
• I envision a similar event for the US, perhaps in connection with the next MIT Smart Customization Seminar, planned for late Spring 2010.
• Stefan from "Milk & Sugar" is planning a MC event in the Netherlands.
• Finland will continue to host an important MC meeting with the FIMCP 2010 in Tampere.

Context Information: More reports about the MCPC 2009 conference:

==> Twitter reports about the MCPC.

==> Great reports by Mass Sinclair in his blog no-retro.

==> Personal impressions of our keynote speaker Bruce Kasanoff.

==> Ran Machtinger, CEO of Optitex, about his presentation on Virtual Fashion.

==> Raul Lansik has a great new blog on customer co-creation in general, and a nice posting about the MCPC.

==> Teemu Arina, a speaker at the business seminar about real-time business, shares the ideas of his presentation.
==> Uche, Author of Luxury Online and panelist in the business seminar, will report about the conference at her new blog.
==> Mikkel Thomassen wrote a blog (in Danish) about the MCPC. And Robert Freund in German. And Chris Chatzopoulos has a report for everyone understanding Greek. Satu Miettinen wrote a nice report about the conference and service customization, in case you can read Finish.
==> Kate Herd has some pictures on Flickr.

(please let me know if you also have a blog post about the conference)

My previous reports about the MCPC 2009:

- Part 1: Day 1 of the Research Conference
- Part 2: Day 2 of the Research Conference
- Part 3: Business Seminar
- Part 4: MC Fashion Lab

MCPC 2009 Report Day 3: Business Seminar: Co-Creation, Louis Vuitton, Spreadshirt, and why self expression is the true luxury of our time

MCPC 2009, Helsinki, Day 3: Business Seminar.  Many people called this the most interesting day of the conference. I wouldn't make the judgment, as the MCPC Business Seminar is different in nature to the main conference, and serves a different purpose, but without any doubt: it was a remarkable day and perfect line-up of speakers.

One good thing was that I personally could relax a bit, as Kristian Möller, a marketing professor at the Helsinki School of Economics, was our host and chaired the seminar. The day started again with Joe Pine who this time focused on customer centricity, defined by him as "the one who pays you money ... placed at the center of everything you do." The talk was a good wrap-up of his previous thinking … and humorous and insightful as always (reminder: check out the personalization/customization strategy of Progressive).

The following panel on Creativity and Customer Value Co-creation started with Teemu Arina, a Finish thinker on Web 2.0. What I liked, was his presentation's title, "Interactive Value Creation" (the title of our 2006 book on customer co-creation). The presentation itself remained a bit philosophical, building on Stafford Beer's 1970 utopian vision of establishing a "real time economy" in Chile.

Afterwards, Prof. Harri Oinas-Kukkonen from University of Oulu commented on the connection between social media and personalization. He was followed by Raul Lansink, from the Dutch open innovation consultancy Favela Fabric. His most memorable claim "Customer co-creation starts inside". When moving into customer co-creation, start within your own company first before reaching out. Do an idea contest with your employees or sales partners to get a better understanding and internal commitment.

After lunch, the perhaps most interesting session of the conference started, titled "Customer-Centricity, Luxury, and Personalization". The keynote was provided by Louise Guay from MVM.com, who rocked the hall as usual. Her statement: Real personalization is the reduction of choice complexity while keeping the experience of browsing. She introduced the new 3D creation kit that allows the generation of "try-able virtual garments" for free by an user (a service for which MVM has charged $2000 in the beginning and §300 later).

Afterwards, Kamel Ouadi, Director for everything online and interactive at Louis Vuitton, provided a great insight into personalization at LV. At LV, they see "mass customization and personalization as a great opportunity to expand the interaction with consumers." Interestingly, today this starts not with the products (here, monogramming and customizing the interior of 25K trunks still is the only option), but with the brand experience. For their recent space campaign, Kamel created a great site where users can become a film director and cut a LV movie according to their own desires. Their objective: Using personalization to emotionally engage consumers with the LV experience.

Next, Philip Rooke, new VP at Spreadshirt, provided his perspective on luxury: self expression. The main claim and vision of Spreadshirt, to support self impression, can be seen perhaps as the ultimate form of self expression (a theme that also came up during the Fashion Lab on Thu, more on this later). While the products and presentations of Spreadshirt could not be different to LV, they shared a joint vision: True luxury is when you are able to express yourself as you like.

The next panelists reinforced the trend to customization and personalization in the luxury industry. Uché Okonkwo, Executive Director & Founder of LUXE COR, and Sandy Carter, Social Media Evangelist at IBM, provided a number of further case studies how luxury houses today enable consumers over the internet to create custom items of their choice.

The last panel started with perhaps the most entertaining presentation by Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman and Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne Worldwide Ltd. He applied behavioral economics on personalization and customization (a bit) and marketing in general (a lot). The panelists, Bo Harald from Tieto, Johan Wallin, CEO of Synocusm and Jarmo Suominen brought Bruce Kasanoff's vision from the first conference day into practice. Their talks focused on personalization in the service industries and true mass matching, and provide a good outlook and summary of the conference.

Overall, another great day! And while being already a bit tired, we closed the day with a reception by the mayor of Helsinki in City Hall and then drinks and dance in a Helsinki night club.

MCPC 2009 Report Day 2: Benedict Dellaert, Zazzle, and Joe Pine

The first day of the MCPC ended with a great dinner in the center of Helsinki and one drink too much in the bar later. Still, everyone was back in time for the second day.

For more impressions and summaries, also check out the many Twitter feeds on the MCPC 2009 that report live!

MCPC 2009 Day 2: Prof. Benedict Dellaert from Erasumus University in Rotterdam started the second day with a great keynote on "Designing the gateway -- gateways to product spaces". He provided a very good overview of the state of research in marketing on the space where customers and suppliers interact today.

He started his differentiation of personalization and customization: Personalization is often a strategy of retailers to passively support customers to find the right selection, e.g. by using profile data or collaborative filtering. At the same time, mass customization is seen as a strategy by manufacturers to actively integrate customers in a co-design process. Along this line (a continuum, not two alternatives), Benedict then addressed the crucial question how to match solution options available in general with the capabilities of customers to make the choice: "It is nice to have the flexibility [to mass customize], but consumers also have to have the capabilities to make the right choice."

James Johnson from Avery Dennison and Jeff Beaver & David Gross from Zazzle followed with the second plenary presentation. The project that they presented was actually initiated during the Business Seminar of the Smart Customization Group at MIT last November: There at our meeting, the multi-billion incumbent  Avery Dennison met the much smaller Zazzle.com and started a cooperation that was launched last Thursday.

Custom binders are the first product that shoppers can customize under the new business alliance. Shoppers will be able to generate custom binders for contests, promotions and sales, or business binders for the office. They can select from thousands of templates, or start from scratch with a blank canvas. Like with every Zazzle designs, people can create stores and make money by selling designs in the Zazzle marketplace.

The interesting thing is that Zazzle is not offering its manufacturing system. "At Avery, we've been looking at Mass Customization for several years. Our focus on Enterprise Lean Sigma has allowed us to develop the expertise in manufacturing to be able to provide custom-made one-off products while still enjoying the benefits of mass production," said James Johnson who is the Director of Business Development at Avery Dennison Office Products. "Zazzle's software capabilities plus their partnerships with leading branded content owners complement our manufacturing core competencies." So it takes more than flexible manufacturing to do mass customization successfully.

Consider what the cooperation with a MC platform provided for Avery. The company was offering custom binders already since about one year over their own website. In just three days on Zazzle, there already were 60 times more designs created than in 365 days on their own website.

After these exciting keynotes, the conference participants again spread out into parallel sessions on all issues being custom and personal. Again, it is impossible to cover the breadth of discussion here.

After lunch, Fabrizio Salvador and I provided a plenary presentation based on our recent Sloan Management Review paper. I am sure some blogging participants will cover it soon, and will refer to them for a review.

After many exciting more parallel sessions, the day ended with Joe Pine, who provided some outlook.

His last slide probably was the most memorable:

• In 1987, when Stan Davis coined the term, mass customization = oxymoron.
• In 1993, when Joe wrote his first book, mass customization = "the new frontier".
• In 2009, when we all came together to the MCPC 2009 in Helsinki, mass customization = imperative!

I believe that the first 2.5 days of the provided great evidence that now mass customization and personalization are really becoming an imperative for businesses of all kinds -- and also for other organizations like education, public management, or non-profits.

The conference continues tomorrow with the business seminar at the Helsinki School of Economics.

MCPC 2009 Report Day 1: Joe Pine on the Future of MC and Bruce Kasanoff on Personalization

Just coming back from a long conference dinner and drinks (so excuse the typos), but here a first report from the MCPC 2009:

The main MCPC conference today took off with an opening presentation by the CEO of KONE. Matti Alahutha very neatly showed that for a multi-billion company like KONE, mass customization in an  essential driver of value and competition.

Next, Joe Pine -- brilliant as usual -- inspired us with some ideas on the "Future of mass customization"

He started with his famous 4*4 picture of process change / product change, placing invention (craft businesses), mass production, continuous improvement, and mass customization in it (if you haven't seen this argument, look up for Joe's speeches in YouTube).

From there, he moved into four themes where he sees mass customization is going. Here are his key thoughts in a nutshell (as I believe they are the roadmap for his next books :-):

1) From mass customization to continuous innovation: In order to build a sustainable mass customization business, you cannot stop with an existing MC solution space.  So what Joe sees next is connecting mass customization with tools of user co-creation and user innovation to continuously work on the solution space of a MC offering.

2) From markets of one to "one of markets": The traditional notion is that mass customization serves super niche markets, up to the market of one. But Joe thinks this is not the end, and we will move to "one-of markets". This very neatly addressed our conference theme of "mass matching". Consider you as a traveler. When YOU are traveling for business, your needs with regard to hotel selection, plane scheduling , or eating are very different compared to the (same) YOU when are traveling with your family for vacation. So the same YOU are representing different markets.

This is where personalization and mass customization meet. And a large future of mass customization will be to work not just on creating new products, but bundling (matching) them according to different "markets'"needs.

3) From reality to virtual reality. This is the theme of the next new book of Joe coming up. When the physical world is not offering enough variety, you move to the virtual space. Here, not only ultimate variety is possible, but also variety with regard to the self. Just as you are different person in front of your children as you are in front of your spouse, you can be a different person in a virtual world. So virtual reality is offering the opportunity of personalizing the self.

4) From MC of offerings to MC of management. This probably was the largest development Joe suggested. His idea: Why not take the tools and thinking of mass customization and transfer them to the way of managing a company. For this idea, Joe referred to Kim Korn of Business Architecture who originally came up with the idea of the Progression of Innovation Value. It reminded me also to a number of similar lines of thinking on "management innovation", as sketched for example by Gary Hamel. We today know that there is not "one best way" to manage a company. But at the same time, also "craft customizing" an organization may be not the best way. So I am curious to see what our community takes out of this and how "mass customization of management" will look alike. Johann Wallin, for example, in his presentation already was building on a similar idea, called "mass-co-configuration" of a value chain.

With so much food for thought, we entered into the parallel sessions. There was too much to listen to and to learn that I can summarize this here, so I just invite you to browse through the conference abstracts.

After lunch, Bruce Kasanoff, got everyone excited with his keynote: "Personalization will be THE driver of the economy within the next 8 years!" (yes, not "a", or "one of", but "THE"). He very much broadened the perspective of everyone but illustrating that the theme of customization and personalization is much larger than we cover today here.

His argument: the basic mechanism of personalization, "sense - reason - respond", can be applied for many markets -- or are already being applied. Consinder the revolution in media.DailyMe, MeeHive, DailySnooze, or FanFeedr are all start-ups that recently started with offerings for the future of media. All these companies' core is an algorithm to match user preferences to existing content. Still no one in this industry uses the term mass customization or personalization to address this.

Bruce made a second very interesting case about the development of personalized medicine ... go to hi blog for the full argument!

His second main point was: "To work on personalization means that we need much more interdisciplinary work". Well, in innovation management, the cure for all problems is seen in the interdisciplinary team. But Bruce has a point here that to understand the full consequences of personalization and customization, a firm really has to bring together people from inside and outside and different disciplines to make personalization happen. Sounds difficult? Yes, but when personalization is THE driver of competition, this effort is well invested.

I am looking forward very much to the second day of the main conference tomorrow!

Context information: ==> Great report on Day 1 also by Mass Sinclair in his blog no.retro.

Canceled - German Mass Customization Event: Mass Customization of Industrial Goods

Did you miss the MCPC Conference in Helsinki? Do you understand German? Then there is an opportunity to follow up. On 22 October 2009, RKW is organizing a mass customization event for BtoB companies in Marburg close to Frankfurt.

UPDATE: I just learned that RKW has canceled this event.

The event is in German language only, and so is the invitation:
Kunden verlangen zunehmend individuell zugeschnittene Produkte und Dienstleistungen. Wie können Hersteller von Industrie- und Investitionsgütern darauf reagieren? Dies ist das zentrale Thema der am 22. Oktober 2009 in Marburg stattfindenden Fachtagung "Kundenindividuell und wirtschaftlich produzieren" Ziel ist es, zukünftige Herausforderungen für Industrie- und Investitionsgüterhersteller zu identifizieren und Lösungen für eine kundenindividuellere Produktion zu diskutieren. Dazu stellen hochrangige Vertreter aus Wissenschaft und Industrie neue Erkenntnisse aus Forschung, Entwicklung und Praxis vor. Einen besonderen Schwerpunkt legen sie dabei auf die Wettbewerbsstrategie der "Kundenindividuellen Massenproduktion" (Mass Customization).

Kundenindividuelle Massenproduktion verbindet die Kostenvorteile der Serienproduktion mit der Flexibilität der kundenindividuellen Fertigung. Viele Konsumgüter-Anbieter machen es vor: Ob Müsli, Turnschuhe oder auch das neue Auto - sie erreichen diese scheinbar widersprüchlichen Ziele, indem sie ihre Produkte modular gestalten und entsprechend der Kundenwünsche individuell konfigurieren. Auch für Hersteller von Investitions- und Industriegütern bietet diese Strategie Chancen: Module und Konfiguratoren ermöglichen kundenspezifische Produkte und damit entscheidende Wettbewerbsvorteile.

Wie kann eine solche Modularisierung umgesetzt werden? Welche Konsequenzen hat das für die Produktionsorganisation? Und wie können Kunden mit Hilfe von Konfiguratoren in die Auftragsabwicklung eingebunden werden? Über praktikable Lösungsansätze zu diesen Fragen wird im Rahmen der Veranstaltung diskutiert. Die Fachtagung wird gemeinsam vom RKW Kompetenzzentrum, der IHK-Innovationsberatung Hessen und dem TechnologieTransferNetzwerk Hessen organisiert.

Mehr information, Anmeldung und vollst. Programm hier.

Master Co-Creation and Crowdsourcing: Executive Masterclass, 12 Nov 2009, Amsterdam Airport

Thursday, 12 November 2009
Dorint Hotel Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport, Netherlands

A key challenge in today's new product and service development is to match new innovations with ever faster changing customer expectations. This Masterclass will teach industry proven tools and methods on how to place your customer and consumers at the center of your innovation process.
 
During this highly interactive and hands-on workshop, I will provide you with proven tools and methods to:

• Evaluate various Co-Creation and Crowdsourcing methods for your business
• Harness new ideas and innovations residing within your external community
• Overcome limitations of traditional consumer and statistical research methods
• Generate new ways of thinking, new product opportunities and new profit streams
• Understand why Co-Creation needs to part of any Open Innovation strategy
• Demonstrate how companies like Adidas, Levis, BMW, 3M, LEGO and many more have used Co-Creation and Crowdsourcing to fuel their Innovation Process

Download program brochure with full information (PDF)

Reserve your place and call +44 (0)1325 345 810 or register online at www.regonline.co.uk/co-creation

Conference Announcement: HYVE InnovationCampus09: Consumer Co-Creation

 Friday, 6th November 2009, SOFITEL Munich Bayerpost, Munich, Germany

After a successful Netnography08 last year, Hyve proudly present this year’s “InnovationCampus09” conference in Munich (full disclaimer: I am a member of the board of directors of Hyve).

Thought Leaders and Decision makers from the innovation drivers amongst brands and enterprises will meet in Munich also this year. Best practice cases from different business fields will show innovations based on consumer integration that created successful products, services and brands.

Open Innovation, Social Branding, Brand Equity, Personal Metrics, Customized Innovation or Design Thinking are buzzwords to be discussed and to be complemented with actual suggestions on how to use Social Networks and Digital Marketing for brand leadership, communications and product management.

The InnovationCampus09 addresses executives, managers, brand responsible and scientist being active in topic fields such as Innovation, Digital Marketing, Social Media / Web 2.0, Market & Consumer Insights, Product management, New Product Development, Business Development, Strategy, R&D and Product Design.

Further information & registration: www.innovationcampus09.de

MCPC 2009 Conference Update: Why you should travel to Helsinki in 42 days! Early registration deadline ending soon!

Now taking place for the 5th time, the biannual MCPC Conference is the largest and leading event in the field. After meetings in Hong Kong (twice), Munich, and Boston, the conference is coming to Helsinki. For this first time, the conference is organized not by Mitch Tseng and myself, but by a great local organizing and program committee, chaired by Prof. Jarmo Suominen from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki and the MIT Media Lab. He and his team have created a great conference with many innovative contributions to the program layout. More than 100 presentations have been selected from the submitted proposals, plus many invited speakers.

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UPDATE: Full conference program has been published !! More than 100 presentations and speakers! Registration is now open. more info here

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Have a detailed look at the conference web site (when you are browsing around, you will see that the site is quite "Intelligent" and adapts to your navigation behavior!! After registration, you will also be able to create your personalized conference program).

Why is the MCPC different to your usual business meeting? Read some reports about past conference: No-Retro on MCPC 2007, FashionTech on MCPC 2007. and Made For One summary of MCPC reports.

The MCPC 2009 will span over five days (Sun-Thu), with Mon-Wed being the core days of the conference.

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Sunday: Pre-Workshop (Oct 4, 2009):  Sunday afternoon the conference will kick-off with a hands-on, interactive workshop for all of you who want to get a focused introduction into mass customization and customer co-creation. We will start with an overview by Fabrizio Salvador, IE Business School, and Frank Piller on the strategic foundations of mass customization. The idea is to provide a thought framework for your conference experience. Then we will break into three groups, led by experts in their field, to talk in larger details on aspects of particular interest for you.

Sunday Evening: Opening reception (free for everyone with conference registration). Meet old and new friends in the great atmosphere of the MUSEUM

Monday and Tuesday: Research Conference (Oct 5 and 6, 2009).

Listen to more than 100 presentations, keynotes, panels, and special sessions on all topics of customization, personalization, and customer co-creation. The core conference will take place at the Helsinki University of Art and Design, a very creative space. The days will start with an opening session by the conference organizers and the grand signore of mass customization, B. Joseph Pine. A special keynote will be provided by Bruce Kasanoff, on "The Emerging Personalization Economy" (more about Bruce). For the entire program, head here (full program coming soon).

As in the previous years, these two core days will allow you to connect with people doing, researching, being interested in, writing about, and making money from mass customization and personalization. Participants come from all over the world, so expect a very rich networking experience!

Wednesday: Business Seminar (Oct. 7, 2009). If you have limited time, just book this one day. It provides in form of a business seminar a focused introduction into mass customization. In keynotes and panels, the three themes of the conference, Customization, Creativity & Configuration, will be addressed. Look for engaged discussions and another great networking opportunity in a more formal setting.

Thursday: MCPC Labs (Oct 8, 2009). A real innovation. These labs are included in any conference registration and allow you to finalize your MCPC experience in a smaller group in a different setting. Three or four Helsinki companies and organizations will host a one day workshop on topics like fashion customization, communication, MC and architecture, etc.

Consider as an example the "Taivas Lab & workshop: Co-creating Me":  Traditionally brands have been co-creating people, offering them means to express their identities. Today people are co-creating companies by participating in marketing or even in product development. They do this invited or uninvited. Taivas Lab looks at ways in which companies can work as Editors in Chief of themselves, letting people get involved in making a company an icon. Viewpoints during the day will include both social and other innovative media and platforms. Cases range from Habbo Hotel, virtual world for teenagers to Forum, the central Helsinki shopping mall where two young women will live 24/7, reporting their lives and shopping through videos, photos and text entries.

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As you see, there is so much to experience and to share during the MCPC 2009 in Helsinki, As every year, the conference is a non-profit event with conference fees as low as possible (many volunteers are making this event possible)! Hotels are also rather cheap these days (we got a Hilton in the City for 80 Euros/night), and there are plenty of cheap flights to Helsinki.

I will travel to Helsinki this week for final preparations and program planning, and will report back! But for now, reserve the days, book your participation, and discuss with us in Helsinki in a few weeks!!

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All conference facts here:

MCPC 2009: The World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization

Helsinki, October 4-8, 2009

2009 Conference theme: Match Making: Customization, Creativity & Configuration

www.mcpc2009.com

Building a Customer-Centric Organization: Next edition of our IE Executive Education Program (Madrid, Oct 21-23, 2009)

IE Business School's Executive Education Division is one of the world's leading institutions to educate managers on recent business trends. Their Open Enrollment Programs have been ranked no. 5 worldwide according to the Financial Times ranking, May 2008.

Within this scheme, we are offering again our program

Building a Customer-Centric Organization: OUTPERFORMING YOUR COMPETITION IN PROFITABILITY

IE Business School, Madrid, Spain. 21, 22 and 23 October 2009. [PDF of Program Brochure]

The program features all three facets of building a truly customer-centric organization:

- Mass Customization and strategic capabilities of offering truly customer-centric offerings
- User innovation and customer co-design
- Relationship marketing

See a video summary of faculty member Fabrizio Salvador about some of the content of our program:

This is recently the only program of its kind worldwide! So register now to participate!

About the content:

Heightened competition is forcing business leaders to recognize that the new foundation for profitability is establishing loyal, long-term customer relationships; to conceive themselves not as a group of products, services, territories, or functions, but as a portfolio of customers; to know how profitable each of their customers or customer segments are, and to understand why; to continuously innovate in order to improve their customer value propositions.

The challenge then arises when trying to manage the organizational complexity that surfaces when trying to implement a truly customer-centric strategy. Organizations must align all aspects of their business with the target customer-value proposition. In order to be successful in implementing a sound customer-centric strategy, everyone in the company needs to make decisions consistent with this strategy.

The program features three core modules:

• Strategic capabilities for customer-centricity, taught by Fabrizio Salvador:  Building a customer-centric organization is appealing but also difficult because it involves profound changes in virtually all the value-adding processes of a firm. Yet the payoff is potentially enormous. This module examines the fundamental capabilities that a company has to develop in order to become more customer-centric, and offers a birds-eye view of the scope and content of the organizational changes associated to customer-centricity. Special attention will be devoted to the issues associated to connecting front-end and back-end areas of the firm for fast and efficient adaptation to customer needs.

• Placing the customer at the center of the innovation process, taught by Frank Piller: A key challenge in new product and service development (NPSD) is to match new designs to customer preferences. The growing heterogeneity of demand, the advent of "long tail markets", exploding product and service complexities and the rise of the creative consumer are making this task more difficult than ever. This module will explore new strategies to navigate NPSD more efficiently by utilizing the firm's periphery for innovation.

• Focusing on the individual customer relationship, taught by Martin Boehm: Delivering what customers' value provides competitive advantage in today's business arena. No matter in which sector it finds itself competing in each company needs to focus on the customer's point of view not only to improve the customer experience, but also to increase the customer's contribution to the business. This module will explore how to determine the value of each individual customer for your business and how to retain the ones that offer the highest value, as well as, switching costs associated with their loss.

IE Business School, Madrid, Spain. 21, 22 and 23 October 2009. [PDF of Program Brochure]

For more information, head to IE's website. http://www.execed.ie.edu/internationalprograms

Executive Education Program Innovation Management

(This posting reports about our German language executive program in innovation management. Hence, the posting is in German only). Die fünfte Auflage innerhalb von zwei Jahren! Zusammen mit dem Euroforum-Verlag haben wir vor zwei Jahren den schriftlichen Management-Lehrgang "Innovations-Management" entwickelt. Er bietet in inzwischen elf Beiträgen eine umfassende und dabei praxisbezogene Einführung in das Management von Innovationsprojekten. Geschrieben wird der Lehrgang von erfahrenen Praktikern aus unserem Netzwerk und Experten vom RWTH-TIM-Lehrstuhl. Der nächste Lehrgang startet im Oktober 2009. Mehr Information und Anmeldung hier (leider teuer).

Übrigens: Wenn Sie statt einem schriftlichen Lehrgang lieber die Inhalte interaktiver und praxisbezogen in einer Gruppe von Executives erleben möchten: Die RWTH Aachen bietet über ihr Executive-Education-Angebot regelmäßig den Lehrgang "Chief Innovation Manager" an. Nach erfolgreicher Teilnahme erhalten Sie hier ein offizielles Zertifikat der RWTH Aachen.

Und für die, die das Thema wirklich umfassend erlernen möchten, gibt es ein komplettes Executive-MBA- (EMBA)-Studium der RWTH im Bereich "Technologiemanagement". Auch nicht billig, aber sehr gutes Preis-Leistungsverhältnis angesichts der exzellenten Profesoren und umfassenden Inhalte.

Reminder: Call for Papers & Presentations MCPC 2009: MATCHING - CUSTOMIZATION, CONFIGURATION & CREATIVITY

The 5th World Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization
Business, Innovation & Research Conference

4-8 October 2009, Aalto University in Helsinki & Espoo, Finland

The MCPC conference series started out as a biennial conference devoted to Mass Customization & Personalization. The content has broadened in recent years, including also open innovation, user co-creation and other strategies of customer-driven value creation. But mass customization is still the main trend that drives the success of the MCPC conferences, bringing together hundreds of the world's most remarkable people in the field.

I am happy to tell you that already more than 150 persons have joined the MCPC2009 website and created their profiles there. You can still create your profile and join the conference mailing list in order to receive all the latest news about the conference.

I warmly welcome you to participate to the Call for Papers of the MCPC2009 conference. Please submit your paper or presentation proposal by May 31 (NEW).

To log directly in to the submission system, please go to:
http://sitruuna.uta.fi/ocs/index.php/mcpc2009/mcpc2009

While we prefer full papers, there also is room for proposals in form of PPTs or short abstracts .. your creativity and ideas related to customization & personalization is important, not your format!

We are looking forward to your contributions!

Professor Jarmo I. Suominen
Conference General Chair
University of Art and Design Helsinki TaiK Hämeentie 135 C FI-00560 Helsinki FINLAND

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline May 31, 2009

A growing heterogeneity of demand, exploding product complexities, and the rise of the creative consumer are challenging companies in all industries to find new strategies to address - and profit from - these trends. Mass Customization and Personalization (MCP) is widely appreciated as a viable and promising strategy which aims to provide goods and services that best serve individual customers' personal needs with near mass production efficiency. The biennial World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCP) is one of the premier events for the business, innovation and research community in this field.

Bridging academic research and management practice, the conference provides an interactive and interdisciplinary platform to share ideas about mass customization strategies and to discuss the latest technologies and enablers.

The special objective of the MCPC2009 conference is to extend the dialogue beyond today’s boundaries and to explore the future avenues for mass customization and personalization. The theme "Mass Matching" asks for leading-edge examples of customer interaction, as well as insights on the emerging new concepts of personalization and interaction, and on the newest customer centric innovations. We invite submissions and speaking proposals under the sub-themes Customization, Creativity and Configuration. The conference is designed to engage academics, business leaders and consultants in fundamental debates through a set of plenary presentations, discussion panels and paper presentations.

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CONFERENCE THEMES

You will find the selected track and topic examples on the Call for Paper and template documents that you can upload on the conference website. We also look forward to proposals for presentations from the practitioners of mass customization and personalization.

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SUBMISSION SPECIFICATIONS

For submission instructions and more information please see:
http://sitruuna.uta.fi/ocs/index.php/mcpc2009/mcpc2009

If you have any queries regarding abstract submission, please contact:
[email protected]

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IMPORTANT DATES

• 31 May 2009: Deadline for Abstracts and Short / Full papers 30 June 2009: Notification of accepted contributions
• 31 August 2009: Approved Papers due
• 4 October: Pre-conference
• 5-6 October: Innovation & Research Conference
• 7 October: Business Strategy Conference
• 8 October: Business Labs

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Organizers:
The MCPC 2009 (http://www.mcpc2009.com) is co-organized by the Aalto University (Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology, University of Art and Design Helsinki) in co-operation with the Tampere University of Technology and the University of Tampere.

MCPC2009 Conference General Chair:
Jarmo Suominen, Professor of Mass Customization, University of Art and Design Helsinki / Aalto University, Visiting Scientist MIT

MCPC2009 Conference Program Committee:
Frank Piller, Professor, RWTH Aachen University
Mitchell Tseng, Professor, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Kalevi Ekman, Professor, Helsinki University of Technology,
Director of the Design Factory at the Aalto University
Kristian Möller, Professor, Helsinki School of Economics,
Director of the Service Factory at the Aalto University
Maija Töyry, Professor, University of Art and Design Helsinki,
Director of the Media Factory at the Aalto University

Matti Hämäläinen, Professor, Helsinki University of Technology / Aalto
University
Turkka Keinonen, Professor, University of Art and Design Helsinki /
Aalto University
Marko Mäkipää, Senior Researcher, University of Tampere
Esko Penttinen, Assistant Professor, Helsinki School of Economics /
Aalto University
Matti Sievänen, Senior Researcher, Tampere University of Technology
Jarmo Suominen, Professor, University of Art and Design Helsinki /
Aalto University
Mikko Ruohonen, Professor, University of Tampere
Reijo Tuokko, Professor, Tampere University of Technology
Maija Töyry, Professor, University of Art and Design Helsinki / Aalto
University

Prosumer Revisited - A Brief Conference Report and Links to Summaries of Most Talks

Update: In case you speak German, there is a great comprehensive summary of the event here: "Ich bin ein Prosumer - Brigitte Holzhauer berichtet von der Tagung "Prosumer Revisited" in the Magazin Change X."

 This week, at the Goethe University in Frankfurt/M, Germany, an interesting conference took place. Organized by Birgit Blättel-Mink and Kai-Uwe Hellmann, two professors of sociology, the event wanted to review the long school of academic thought on prosumers and co-creating customers. The organizers gathered a diverse and interesting crowd of participants that provided insight from many different perspectives. Overall, it was an interesting event, even when I realized that in sociology, the majority of scholars still focused on mapping that the phenomenon of co-creation or prosuming customers exists, while in the management literature, the state of the discussion has moved one step forward in explaining the structures, methods, and contingencies of user participation in value creation.

Axel Brun, a scholar from Australia who participated in the conference, has written a very comprehensive report, summarizing all keynotes and many of the paper presentation in his blog. Axel is a Senior Lecturer in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He has coined the term "produsage" to better describe the current paradigm shift towards user-led forms of collaborative content creation which are proving to have an increasing impact on media, economy, law, social practices, and democracy itself. For more information, have a look at his website, http://snurb.info.

Here are a few direct links to Axel's summaries of the conference keynote presentations:

• My opening keynote of the conference: http://snurb.info/node/970. This is a nice summary of parts of the talk and of my basic argument why user participation in the innovation process is important: to get access to sticky need information of customers.
• Holm Friebe, co-author of my favorite book "Marke Eigenbau". The book is a great summary of all topics I am writing about in this blog, and so was Holm's presentation: http://snurb.info/node/973
  
  
• Kerstin Rieder is the co-author of a rather critical book on the "working customer", that, when it appeared in 2006, seemed to me like a critical and pessimistic review of the self-service society. Missing many of the more recent developments of voluntarily co-creating customers- So I was glad to hear that in her talk, Ms. Rieder did extend the concept and also focused on the opportunities and advantages of co-creation for firms and, equally, customers: http://snurb.info/node/980
  
  
• Johann Füller from Hyve talked about the creation of brands by users. I have heard this talk before, but it again was fascinating to see how user-created brands challenge the marketing thinking of many decades: http://snurb.info/node/977
  
  
• The honorary keynote speaker of the conference was the famous sociologist and scholar of cultural studies, George Ritzer from the University of Maryland. He provided a nice historical overview of the prosuming customer, but -- as most speakers at the conference -- stopped when it got interesting, i.e. when new forms of co-creation emerge. But overall, it was a great experience to listen to Prof. Ritzer live: http://snurb.info/node/976

For summaries of many more talks, go to http://snurb.info/taxonomy/term/104

New International Executive Program on Mass Customization: Learn in three days the fundamentals to profit from mass customization and how to bring this strategy into practice

Mass Customization: Turning heterogeneous customers into a source of profitability

IE Business School, Madrid, 6, 7 and 8 of May, 2009

I am glad to announce a new Executive Education Program in cooperation with IE Business School (ranked as the 5th business school in the world in Open Programs by the Financial Times, May 2008) that wants to provide a strategic  introduction into how to implement mass customization in your organization.

Download Program brochure.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

With this program participants will realize that offering superior fit to their customers’ needs does not have to necessarily come at the expenses of efficiency. Mass customization is a key strategy to meet this challenge. Many large corporations have started large-scale mass customization programs. The next one may be your company – you will learn why Mass Customization is far more applicable often believed. Most importantly, this program will introduce you to the different issues, tools and approaches that you can adopt to build profitability by serving differentiated customers’ needs – to move towards mass customization.

Over the past decade, we have studied mass customization in more than 200 different organizations. We found that mass customization is a strategic mechanism that is applicable to most businesses, provided that it is appropriately understood and deployed. The key is to view it basically as a process for aligning an organization with its customers’ needs. Mass customization is about moving towards these goals by developing a set of organizational capabilities  that will, over time, supplement and enrich an existing business.

"Mass Customization" is an innovative, ground-breaking international executive program designed to help executives gain competitive advantage by learning how to turn heterogeneities across their customers into a source of profits. Participants will gain a holistic understanding of the various capabilities – both organizational and individual – that their companies will have to develop in order to recognize and exploit heterogeneous customers’ needs. The program emphasizes a cross-functional approach and covers such issues such as organization design, CRM, and organizational change.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

This state-of-the-art program provides its participants with the latest practices and cutting-edge strategic insights to help them steer their organizations towards Mass Customization. The program is delivered by world-class experts on the topic, with excellent academic and practical experience.

Participants will develop a sound understanding of:

• Which capabilities your organization needs to move towards Mass Customization
• Which tools and approaches you can use to build these capabilities
• How to revamp your innovation processes to offer the “right customization”
• How you can you keep the costs of product and service customization under check
• How human capital contributes to achieving Mass Customization
• How IT and knowledge management can support Mass Customization
• How to orchestrate organizational change towards Mass Customization

For the full program structure, please download the program brochure.

WHY IE BUSINESS SCHOOL

IE Business School is a leading international business school oriented at providing top-level training for executives. The recognized prestige of its teaching faculty, the degree of excellence of the academic programs and a clear international focus are the keys behind a learning model that has ranked IE Business School among the best business schools in the world (IE Business School has been ranked the 5th business school in the world in Open Programs by the Financial Times, May 2008).

The Executive Education Programs offered by IE Business School aims to develop the vision, skills and management capabilities required to meet the many and varied challenges facing business organizations, both today and in the future. In recognition of the high quality and academic rigor of the programs, IE Business School is accredited by EQUIS (European Quality Improvement Systems), AACBS International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and AMBA (Association of MBAs).

Together with my co-instructures, I invite you to join our mass customization community and benefit from a unique learning experience in an environment that nurtures top-level talent both professionally and personally.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, please contact:

Karen Hobbs, International Executive Programs Manager

[email protected]
Tel.: +34 91 782 17 15
Fax: +34 91 745 47 62
www.execed.ie.edu/internationalprograms

For more information, please download the program brochure.