The Rooftop Garden is growing…

A couple of months ago we announced the launch of Rooftop Garden, our co-creation tool tailored to sustainability challenges. Because of all the existing knowledge and expertise in the world on this complex topic, we believe co-creation is the perfect ‘tool’ to tackle sustainability challenges.

Well, today and several Rooftop Gardens later, we can definitely say this ‘green’ version of our co-creation tool has proven its value Read the rest of this entry »

10 Insights from a Cambridge Open Innovation seminar – and particularly from Unilever’s approach

Open Innovation is hot. Companies, organizations and practitioners all over the world are doing it or experimenting with it. At the Institute for Manufacturing in Cambridge some 20 people gathered for a one-day exchange of experiences and viewpoints. Open Innovation managers were present from amongst others Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Akzo Nobel, Premier Foods, BAT – as well as people from IfM and NESTA – the UK 100 man-strong innovation agency.

This is what I have learned: Read the rest of this entry »

The Institute of Glorious Failures

Many of our clients struggle with the same question : how to give valuable ideas the elbow room to develop properly; how to protect fledgling ideas from ‘short term’ budget and performance pressures.

What to do if they don’t ‘fit the mold’ or are harder to quantify? What if you need partnerships ‘with the outside’ to develop and monetize them? What if they seem strange but feel right? Read the rest of this entry »

Co-Creation & Sustainability, a perfect match

“Organisations call out for more open innovation to stimulate sustainability” was one of the messages during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week. Well, we couldn’t agree more.

During the forum, 10 leading companies among which Nike, Creative Commons and Best Buy announced the launch of Green XChange, a new collaborative project that can change the rules of the game. It’s a platform allowing companies to share their knowledge (IP), co-create and accelerate the development of innovative solutions for sustainability issues.

As we also believe in accelerating the innovation process through co-creation and believe in the value of co-creation for sustainable innovation, Fronteer Strategy and Green Inc have combined strengths and developed Rooftop Garden. Read the rest of this entry »

House of Denim at Amsterdam Fashion Week

Making Plans

Our initiative to set up a ‘leading platform for high-grade and sustainable denim/jeans’ made some ‘giant steps’ yesterday thanks to an Expert Cocreation workshop and a seminar at A’dam Fashion Week. Read the rest of this entry »

Fronteer Presents: Co-creation Crash Course 2010

Fronteer Presents: An introduction to the theory and practice of co-creation in business

Co-creation is currently one of the hottest topics in innovation and management theory, but the benefits, risks, best practices and repercussions are less than clear to many managers.

Each session will include a presentation & discussion of a recent case by one of our clients and end with informal drinks, during which you will have the opportunity to share thoughts & experiences with colleagues from other companies & industries. Register now – a limited number of seats are available per session. Mail us at events@fronteerstrategy.com

When? March 24th & 31st or April 7th
What time? 12.30 – 18.00
Where: Amsterdam centre, The Netherlands
EUR 125,-            Download the flyer here

We definitely hope to see you there.

2010 – The Year of Empathy?

2009 Has been a great year. It was the year that we were able to support our clients in many different ways. Co-creation has been one of the major project pillars in 2009 and definitely something that we will continue to work on/with in the future. Our Co-creation’ 5 Guiding Principles white paper has been downloaded tens of thousands of times already. Expert co-creation has proven to be a tool for clients to tackle the toughest strategic challenges and work with the smartest people around.

What’s next? Empathy. We at Fronteer feel that brands that are interested in the world that they’re in and understand another’s situation, feelings, and motives are the ones that will thrive in the future. I was able to deliver a presentation in december 2009 in Amsterdam on empathy. What struck me was the honest and happy reactions of the people around. It seemed to be spot on. Also, our research on the relationship between open-ness of brands and attractiveness was an eye-opener to people (as it was for us last year).

So what will we do? We will focus part of this year’s efforts on developing our knowledge on empathy. Read the rest of this entry »

The King and I

Well OK, maybe not the King, but the next best thing in any case…Mayor Job Cohen. Last Thursday night I received the IJ-prize (an award given to entrepreneurs for their contributions to the City of Amsterdam) from the Mayor at the amazing Hermitage.

It was an overwhelming experience: an hour’s worth of compliments, award from the mayor and then drinks with your family and best friends at the Hermitage, paid for by PWC! Seriously though it is an enormous honour to be listed with iconic Amsterdammers like Joop van den Ende, Geert Mak, Bob Pinedo, Ernst Veen, Jack Cohen, Rahma El Mouden and Maarten Frankenhuis, who have each in their own way changed the City for the better.

I’d like to thank the team at PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Mariette Hoitink for her wonderful speech and everyone else for their kind congratulations, it was really a very special evening indeed. I really appreciate everyone taking the time off to be there with me. For those of you that missed it, here’s a link to an item on AT5. Read the rest of this entry »

Rooftop Garden coming up…

Last week I visited the ‘Nationaal Sutainability Congres’ in The Hague. The largest sustainability event in our country where around 700 people came together to discuss, to learn and to inspire. A bit more of the first than the latter perhaps, but it’s very comforting to be in a room full of people working (and talking) on sustainable change!

Two main conclusions stayed with me after the conference.

The first was stated quite clear and shared by all people present: It’s time to stop talking and start doing. Which is kind of a dual message in a room full of people talking about the topic. But still.. Read the rest of this entry »

Shai Agassi and The Horse & Carriage 2.0

Last Tuesday night, i had the pleasure of speaking to Shai Agassi, founder of the BetterPlace company, after a special lecture organised by Picnic and the Mayor of Amsterdam. I had naturally seen and loved his TED talk (those who haven’t… do!) about his BetterPlace initiative, but what struck me again was the clarity of his argumentation.

-He set out to solve ‘Peace in the Middle East’.
-He figured out that what Israel needs to do is end its dependency on oil
-The Arab nations need to modernize, which they will only do when their ‘magic’ and almost free oil billions stop flowing in.
So: his ambition became to bring the price of oil down to zero (by making it useless for cars). Read the rest of this entry »