Do not develop your strategy alone

The winning companies of the future are the ones who break with the classic approach to strategy work.

So says Rex Degnegaard, Assistant Professor, who has placed focus on co-creation within organisational design and change management.

Strategies are becoming more complicated

When a company works with co-creation, it involves all the relevant people. It is not just what the company is able to deliver to its customers, but more about how the company in cooperation with others is able to create even more value for the customer.

- A great deal of people realise that the strategy work is becoming more and more complicated because it involves so many different people. And in Denmark, it is becoming increasingly clear to company executives both in the public and private sector that co-creation includes a crucial potential, which is to be taken seriously. Still, very few companies are focusing on co-creation, says Rex Degnegaard.

Designers make companies open up

Strategy development often starts within the organisation, but companies who are not able to include external stakeholders are in danger of losing. But how do they ensure that the different stakeholders are included and the strategic challenges are solved? The keyword is design, says Rex Degnegaard.

- We are talking about design-thinking - a whole new way of working with strategies. Instead of making the company number crunchers make analyses, decisions and then launch the strategy, the designers are playing a central part as interpreters of customer reactions and input. They are able to make the company open up about a problem, says Rex Degnegaard.

- It is about thinking differently. Co-creation does not always provide a clear answer, and there is not always the same direct connection between problem and solution, like when we work on strategies in a traditional way. And this is where design-thinking comes into the picture.

CBS already is using designers in courses such as change management and organisational theory - both in bachelor and master's programmes.

Co-creation conference

At a conference on 25 May, practitioners, leaders, designers  and researchers will be presented to the latest tendencies within co-creation and how it can be put into practice. The presenters include Banny Banerjee from d.school - Institute of Design at Stanford University. He has, among other things, established the Design for Change Lab at Stanford University.

Read more about the conference organised by the Danish Design Association and CBS at cocreationconference.com.