Loading
An opinion column by Christophe Rebours published in Les Echos.
Recent developments in the economic world have brought about a new paradigm of innovation based on the Experience. Behind this statement lies an imperative: to put people at the heart of the creation process of the business offers.
Attentive to innovation trends, the Public Investment Bank (BPI) recently announced its intention to fund non-technological innovation. Although all companies have not yet adopted this approach, I was pleased to note that more and more entrepreneurs are interested in new innovation methods focused on the usages and needs of individuals, whose analysis shows that these methods are able to create more value and employment.
The first industrial revolution has given prominence to engineers and technological innovations. During this period originated technologies that have changed people’s lives, such as the steam engine, the internal combustion engine or the electronic component. The Peugeot story is a symbol of successive evolutions of a company related to R & D and technology: having prospered in metallurgy and manufacture of bicycles, the company has refocused on automotive technology in the first half of the twentieth century. We owe their engineers the world’s first petrol car in 1919.
The second innovation era is that of the brand. (…)
Since the 60′s, marketing and advertising have gradually become powerful engines for innovation. Companies have become real global icons like Nike or Coca-Cola, whose advertising campaigns affect consumers worldwide thanks to their marketing creativity. But today, the brand and its enchantment capacity are not enough to get it sold. (…)
Towards a new era
Men consume better (and more, and more often) what was well designed for them. This seems obvious? Yet even major listed groups lost sight of the meaning of their action. They do not know why they work anymore. They have forgotten for whom. (…)
A new paradigm is emerging that puts people at the heart of everything. Innovation has entered a new era, that of Experience. Its foundation lies in the intimate knowledge of people’s lives, through anthropological observations in situ. It produces new business offers for the company, which the R & D and marketing teams then give form and flesh.
This innovation one is non-technological – it resonates with a mutation of usages, the emergence of new needs to whoch it provides an answer correctly. Because its products are designed for them, men use and buy them.
Greater attention to users
Many companies have already understood the importance of taking advantage of the knowledge of men. Based on an analysis of usages in their complexity and mutations, through greater attention to users, these companies design products that meet a real need.
Stimulated by Airbnb which highlights that the relationships to the travel experience has changed, Accor has recently developed its strategy towards a more user-centered approach. And in 2015, the group entered the top 10 of the largest CAC 40 increases.
In the banking sector, Benoît Legrand, CEO of ING in France, says its online banking meets the mutations of the most connected consumers needs, seeking emotional and digital proximity, accessibility and operational efficiency. ING Direct is the # 1 in online banking and will pass the one million customers in France in 2015.
The culture of the Experience gradually spreads in companies and start-ups, guides their thinking by engaging them in a virtuous circle. The future of innovation lies in the observation and subtle understanding of emerging usages and desirable experiences. Our engineers and marketing people have the talent to turn that knowledge into a perennial offer. In all areas, now, the future is not invented, it is observed.
An opinion column by Christophe Rebours published in Les Échos.
