Spicing up the corporate vanilla
Corporate vanilla is a special type of flavour - a mix of originally interesting ideas showered with the “wisdom” of committees driven by consensus. Mastering the corporate vanilla takes years, requires previous success and the need to protect a reputation.
The corporate vanilla is gentle to the taste buds but leaves no impression on the brain cells. The corporate vanilla rarely goes viral and never delights the customer.
Working in the area of innovation and business incubation while being part of a big corporate gives a unique perspective on how we can create signature dishes that not only protect the reputation of the corporate brand but enhance it and build on the initial success. The principles and practice of design thinking and the lean approach of start-ups offer a lot of ideas for spicing up the corporate vanilla and venturing in culinary adventures that turn customers into allies and raving fans. Here are a few ideas:
What is the real problem you are trying to solve - what flavour is your customer looking for? Is it even ice-cream that they are looking for? Go on an exploration - be with your customers, experience what they are experiencing, observe what they are doing.
Design with your customers in mind and co-create with them
Experiment, learn, iterate - run simple experiments on the key assumptions behind your ideas
For lasting results, we need courageous leadership that creates a sense of deep purpose and a culture of learning and curiosity, a culture that rewards people for taking on bold challenges and believing that there are no impossible things.