Human-centred Strategy

Many businesses do not realise that striving to meet growth expectations from a continuous stream of new initiatives, yet at the same time relying on in-house initiatives to shoulder the entire burden of this task, is a sizable risk. As such, we are seeing that in many firms R&D productivity is flattening and ballooning budgets are climbing faster than revenues.

We believe a better approach to sustainable and profitable innovation is to identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering their latent needs, behaviours, and desires – insight synthesised from other industries, vendors, customers, and even competitors. We then visualise new directions for companies and brands and develop these insights or ideas, which can be turned into new or refined concepts, prototypes or offerings quickly and inexpensively – working collaboratively with your firm's R&D and other key innovation resources.

The New Consumer

There was once a time, in the not so distant past, when discussions about the transparency of the online world and the ability of digital consumers to compare offers loomed over business. Businesses were concerned with how price positions would push the pendulum of power towards the digital consumer – intensifying pressure on the competitive landscape.

Since then consumers online have upped the ante once again by setting even more complex challenges. Now the discussion is about the consumer superseding the ‘direct competitor’ as the source for advantage and differentiation. This is a profound shift. Customers are becoming the new benchmark, not the competition. Furthermore, this trend is accelerating.

Given this new seating arrangement, customers’ wants, needs and desires should come first. Organisations need to dovetail their assets and capabilities based on this evolving value chain. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of how technology affects today’s digital consumer experience and explores the emerging trends that will shape those experiences for years to come.