Many dotcom-era business plans based on “virtual community” crashed and burned. But some companies today have discovered that online communities for customers not only provide business value but also become a critical component of their customer relations, R&D and marketing efforts. That’s one key piece of consultant Patricia Seybold’s new book, Outside Innovation, which posits that companies need to engage customers in more innovative ways to help redesign products, improve processes and test business models.The author of Customers.com and The Customer Revolution goes into great detail—using dozens of case studies from heavyweights such as Staples and Kraft, and lesser-knowns such as Koko Fitness—to get executives to wake up to her main point: The traditional company-customer relationship (“We develop products for our customers”) has flipped, and those who ignore this reality do so at their own peril.This line of thinking requires a level of openness simply not found in many enterprises today—a faith that customers’ passion for your products and services will translate into revolutionary product developments and efficiency for you. In a sense, it’s R&D on the cheap. Seybold’s examples are noteworthy for their innovations and financial returns. Of course, companies can’t handpick customers, especially ones who want to strut their stuff for the company, so it’ll take a lot of work to vet the good from the bad, hammer out the relationship details and find suitable rewards for customers’ efforts. Much more work, it seems, than many firms are willing to put forth, Seybold says. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe