About the Author

Venkat Ramaswamy is the Hallman Fellow of Electronic Business and Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a globally recognized thought leader, idea practitioner, and an eclectic scholar with wide-ranging interests in innovation, strategy, marketing, branding, IT, operations, and the human side of the organization. His award-winning book, The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers (with C. K. Prahalad), introduced co-creation as a revolutionary business concept. 
 

Francis Gouillart is president and cofounder of the Experience Co-Creation Partnership (ECC Partnership), a consulting firm that helps client companies build co-creative management and organizational capabilities. He is an authoritative figure in the consulting world and, prior to joining Venkat Ramaswamy in cofounding ECC Partnership, was closely associated with the theoretical development and consulting-based implementation of major business methodologies, including Blue Ocean Strategy/Value Innovation and the Balanced Scorecard. He previously co-authored the bestselling book Transforming the Organization (with James Kelly).

Reviews

"The Power of Co-Creation builds a compelling case for how and why many successful companies have changed their focus -- not just reaching audiences, but building constituency. As Venkat Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart note, this concept is not limited to engaging with customers. It gets to how any organization establishes shared attraction through shared values. In doing so, it builds not just common ground, but a deeper, enduring, widely shared idea on which to build a great enterprise." -- Jon Iwata, Senior Vice President, IBM Marketing and Communications "Interconnectedness has changed everything, and for companies that are looking to find new paths to profit, The Power of Co-Creation is a must read. It sets out how the idea of co-creation can be implemented in every sphere, and the magic that comes out in moving from a firm-centric to a people-centric mindset. Successfully implementing "innovation by everybody" works wonders for all stakeholders." -- Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra "At a time when the technologies of the Internet are making entirely new forms of collaboration possible we need maps and guidebooks to help us make sense of the bewildering opportunities. Venkat Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart have created just such a guidebook. They have charted the unknown territory of large scale co-creation with great thoroughness and imagination. I recommend taking it along on any journeys of co-creation you plan for your organization." -- Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO "Inside the heart of every consumer lies a swirling cauldron of needs, wants, and desires that until now have been opaquely shielded from human understanding. The brilliant ideas unleashed by The Power of Co-Creation are nothing short of the proverbial keys to the kingdom, granting aspiring co-creationists a new center-of-gravity interface for triangulating communications between a company, its products, and its customers." -- Thomas Frey, Futurist and Executive Director, DaVinci Institute "Thanks to reduced communication cost and increased connectivity, it is now possible to take the old virtues of "listening to your customer carefully" and turn value creation into a much more dynamic, iterative and bottom-up process. It is this "co-creative" transformation that the authors elaborate and illustrate in The Power of Co-Creation. An enlightening read for business owners in the new, socially-networked millennium." -- N. R. Narayanamurthy, Chairman, Infosys "The Power of Co-Creation demonstrates the new paradigm of strategy which is essential for business innovation regardless of industry. Our corporate motto "At your side" can only become a reality if we truly "co-create" value with our stakeholders." -- Shunsuke Katayama, CEO, Brother Sales Ltd. "At LEGO, we stumbled across the phenomenon of co-creation which is becoming a major innovation practice. The Power of Co-Creation provides many examples and guidance to gain a better appreciation of technique and touch, and a mindset that is crucial for successful co-creation. As we have learned, co-creation is not about just "following rules", but personal engagement is essential. " -- Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO, LEGO "About half of our strategic initiatives at HMV now come from co-creative engagement with our key stakeholders-patients and their families, physicians and nurses, our employees, business enterprises, and the health insurance companies. The Power of Co-Creation expounds a transformational journey in multi-stakeholder engagement that will shape our future." -- Dr. Joao Polanczyk , CEO, Hospital Moinhos de Vento "Co-creation is set to become a popular movement with a "ready-to-roll" execution framework so lucidly detailed in The Power of Co-Creation, laced with so many live examples. It has the power to actually co-create a new world order! -- S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive - Agri Businesses, ITC Limited