Redefining Innovation

"If you go ask customers what their needs are…what problems are they trying to solve – you can always find ways of leveraging technology….to help them do things even better." – Sol Trujillo CEO Telstra

Innovation can be a hard concept to pin down. That’s why defining what it means to an organisation is the first step towards truly engaging customers. Radical thinking needs to be employed to come up with the blue-sky ideas. To turn those ideas into revenue generators means making a creative leap beyond the nuts and bolts of a product and really connecting with consumers. Ursula Burns, Chief Executive of Xerox says, “Customers can’t really articulate always what they want. They give you a rough outline”.

Customers can’t really articulate always what they want. They give you a rough outline

- Ursula Burns, Chief Executive of Xerox

The task of the truly innovative company is to “get that outline into some real practical solutions” So how does a company make an emotional or lifestyle connection with customers? For global engineer Vijay Vaitheeswaran it is about firms bringing consumers into the creative process by “opening up their doors” and “tapping the latent innovation potential of their customers around the world”. Episode 3 examines how companies can use tools such as the innovation inventory to add value to their business and develop innovative ways to enhance the customer experience.

Featuring Guests:


Ursula M. Burns	President, Xerox Corporation
S. Ramadorai	Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services
David Everitt	President, Agricultural Division, Deere and Company
Mark-Hans Richer	CMO Harley-Davidson
Solomon Trujillo	CEO of Telstra
Andy Stefanovich	Founder, Play
Mark Ecko	Fashion Designer & Entrpeneur