Location Based Services - Targeting the customer on the move

My colleagues are doing it, a lot of my friends are addicted to it, in fact even my wife is using it almost on a daily basis.

I am talking about Location Based Social Networking which has been the buzz of late. Companies such as Foursquare, Facebook Places or Gowalla (to name just a few) have created mobile apps that allow users to "check-in" to a physical place with their smart phones using a GPS signal and share the location with friends. That's really great if you want to meet up with people in a similar proximity such as the café nearby or join them for the latest movie release.

Having witnessed this phenomenon in my immediate social network, it struck me as odd why the potential of geo tracking has not been exploited more by the industry for luring customers into retail spaces, restaurants, movies or hotels etc.

While researching the web I came across a couple of smart phone apps introduced recently in the US, that have the potential to radically change the habits of shopping.

The first is called Shopkick. Its the first mobile app that gives the customer rewards and offers simply for walking into stores, for scanning products, and for signing up friends. A "signal” hardware triggers check-ins when you enter participating retail spaces; the app then awards points (“kickbucks”). What's even better, the app knows not only that you’ve entered the store, but also the specific section that you’re in, and tailors the deals accordingly. Existing GPS based systems such as Foursquare and Facebook Places are way too inaccurate to determine the exact position and require a manual check-in.

While this is currently mostly tailored to benefit retail chains (and consumers), I am intrigued by the possibility what a similar reward system could offer to companies and brands like Panasonic. Imagine receiving reward points by simply scanning Panasonic product barcodes. Or being reminded of the latest Panasonic products and special offers once you enter a certain area in the retail space (e.g. TV section). Its like advertising directly where the decisions are being made, only more targeted, measurable and with a clear call to action.

And the future promises to be even more rewarding with kickbucks awards and promotions eventually targeting consumers according to age, gender, geography, shopping frequency or purchase history.

The second location based app that caught my attention is Geoloqi, a hyper-customizable GPS based automatic check-in app that will help trigger events if and when a person walks up to certain pre-set location. For example, it allows you to set automatic reminders and notifications (so called geonotes) — sent to you or your friends — say, a grocery list that pops up as you enter a supermarket or a note that warns you of endangering your diet upon approaching a certain fast food restaurant. That's pretty ingenious!

Although Geoloqi is a private network and currently without any commercial intentions, its a perfect showcase of what is possible in the near future, turning locations into programmable data and actionable information, e.g. providing location based recommendations on specific products and offers upon identifying that the customer is approaching a certain store.

And once the customer returns back home after buying the product, a geonote is send with some advice for the installation. Or the service turns on the airconditioner or heating on when you check-in at home from work... the opportunities are endless.

Have you had any experience with location based services? Please share your thoughts and comments.

Posted by Merlin Wulf (PME)

Idea Management - to professionalize the internal "sourcing" of innovations

QUESTION:
Does Panasonic have a well-known, internally anticipated idea management process that allows employees to give their innovative thoughts and ideas to an idea management team for evaluation and eventually reward?

TWO STORIES:
1. Porsche (www.porsche.com)
In the 1990s Porsche was heading for bancruptcy. Finally, it was saved due to a complete change of management and management/product direction, but a major part of the success story was also that the company started to consider the potential of ideas from within. Porsche set up an - at that time - groundbreaking idea management system that encouraged and highly rewarded (financially) ideas of employees that led to process or product improvement. A lot of the ideas of course came from the shopfloor, but also management processes were changed in the course of that.

2. Henkel AG (www.henkel.com)
I used to work for this FMCG company for 10 years. One of the issues that have been identified as a problem in the past, was the fact that the revenue share of new (<3 years) and innovative products was way behind the same quota at competitors like Procter & Gamble - who are by the way also famous for their innovation management (www.pg.com/en_US/index.shtml).
As a means to change this, a corporate idea management team was set up and the target was to obtain three ideas from each employee globally (at that time: 50.000 employees = 150.000 ideas). The processes to make proposals were standardized globally and internal PR for that project was massive to ensure that most (if not all) employees were motivated to send in their ideas.

SITUATION AT PANASONIC (PME/PDE):
We have a rarely known "Works Agreement" (kind of a contract between the company an the workers council) in place that outlines our idea management process. Ideas have to be submitted to HR (sic!) and are not supposed to refer to issues/processes/products in one's own area of work (sic!). Ideas received in FY2010... Guess! Correct, "zero"!

How is the process in your organizations?

You might remember that in late 2009, BIO (Business Innovation Office) started an initiative to collect product ideas. All European employees were asked to submit their product ideas regarding some key CE categories through an IT-based system to an evaluation board. If I remember correctly more than 500 ideas were collected and the best ones in each category were rewarded with a product (e.g. a TV or a Lumix).
In my opinion, this would have been a great starting point to relaunch idea management at Panasonic in Europe at a much larger scale, e.g. like at Henkel, P&G or Porsche or... BUT, we stopped again.


THE NEED TO MOVE ON:
I cannot find a good reason as to why not making use of our employee's potential to a much higher degree. Is it cost, headcount, admin that is preventing us from digging out these treasures?

Even if only five out of 500 ideas make it to market and lead to additional sales through competitive advantage by let's say one million Euros each, the cost for the idea management organization managing and promoting it should be covered.

Even better, if we achieve one million Euros of cost saving through process improvements, it will free us of the need to finance it through additional sales of x million (calculate for yourself based on the profit margin of your products).

This is not even considering a true breakthrough innovation that might come from that pool of ideas...


YOUR THOUGHTS?

A Panasonic Social Network - let's capitalize on our knowledge potential

I posted this earlier today under Sara's blog, but I believe it should stand for itself in the Panasonic Breakthrough blog I set up some days ago. Here is what I wrote:

Let's take this to another stage! Have you seen "The Social Network"? How does Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg solve his challenge to write a paper about some modern art paintings? Well, he posts the pictures of these on his Facebook-Account and then has experts/friends/fellow students give him hints and ideas on how to interpret the paintings.

Panasonic is also a social network, but technically we do not offer our employees an elegant solution to INTERNALLY keep in touch as many of them do externally via Facebook, Linkedin, XING and the likes.

Lotus Notes does not count! ;-)

In my opinion, we are losing a lot of problem solving capability and creative potential, by not actively encouraging our staff to keep in touch and ask questions across organizational boundaries. Thus we might tend to come up with solutions and ideas created in the same "silo" as always. Will this spark a giant leap ahead? You know the answer. RARELY! What we are lacking is a functioning, internal social network (IT-based).

EXAMPLE:
Everyone of us will have experienced the following and will experience it again in Lausanne: You go to an international Panasonic training, meet great and inspiring people and often enough learn, that there are quite a lot of people working on the same issues or who are able to challenge your "silo" perspective from a different angle. So far, so great, BUT how do we keep in touch? How do we make use of these different perspectives afterwards...? Answer for yourself.

After my SMDP course in 2010 I wanted to set up an SMDP group under my Facebook account, but failed because a clear separation of private (Facebook account) and business (SMDP group under my profile) could not be set up. How great would it have been to keep this global network alive in the light and easy Facebook way within Panasonic.

SOLUTION:
Get a Panasonic branded internal (closed!) Social Media Platform with functionalities comparable to Facebook. This could be integrated in KMP as a personal networking page for each employee globally. Does Facebook offer such corporate networks? To be checked and ISM to be considered of course.

After the IMD course we could add each other as friends/mentors/buddies/colleagues (you name it) and keep informed about things that are moving us and support each other with our challenges to come. And then you go to the next course, the next big meeting and you add more people, and more, and more...

Everybody´s ECO but who really is???

Since basically 2-3 years the "Eco-Train" started,
It is trendy, fashionable, up to date and provides people better feeling buying a product.
However how Eco is Consumer Electronics really?
Further how Eco are WE/Panasonic really?

I want to share some of my thoughts and linked innovations in this blog,
which I will be happy to discuss further with you even some might give a "negative impression"..

Starting from the scratch - Eco Ideas - started to be promoted from around 2008 onwards
At this stage there was no plan such as taking over SANYO providing us solar cells or similar.
That stage press/consumers/many people questioned "Why Panasonic claims to be Eco?"
Their biggest market is PDP which obviously is much more energy consuming than LCD/LED...
Given many reviews we could somehow keep our face by stating our PDP became more eco and we stick to PDP as picture quality is better.
Under the same logo - Eco Ideas - we are now trying to reform the total company inside T-Pro.



To ensure the success of T-Pro, and the new company which should be the outcome of T-Pro,
we sure will need real Eco-Products, not as value added sales but as key sales argument
Let me share two of products I really see as Eco products even inside Consumer Electronics:

1) H2O Radio

Its a basic shower radio for those who dont want to sing but rather listen when under shower.
This radio looks like a regular Shower Radio, no big design differences.
However the great innovation inside this product is ==> it RUNS WITH WATER
Technically a very simple solution - no removable batteries or electricity plug, but a simple method similar to an automatic watch which keeps the product fully charged.
The biggest suprise was finally the PRICE as this product is supposed to be launched for 34,99E/49$

Details you can find in here:
http://www.h2o-power.net/?page_id=15

and a video showing the full usage here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAGU5LQqu9A



2) Nanogenerators - A new Patent I have read just yesterday.

The basic concept is that many low power consuming units (in this case specially for the Ipod) dont have to be charged only via socket/plug.
Over various studies they identified that such products can be charged by "Nanogenerators"
The new thing about this is that this Nanogenerator will source its power by THE HUMAN HEARTBEAT.
Possible launch/Sales start for these generators could be in 5 years.
Details to this you can find as follows:


"A new development by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology called Nanogenerators can power devices like iPhone, iPod and such others by human heartbeat without the need of using batteries. These Nanogenerators could come for sales in next five years, according to the developers.

Dr. Zhong Lin Wang and his team are the people behind the Nanogenerator. “This development represents a milestone toward producing portable electronics that can be powered by body movements without the use of batteries or electrical outlets,” Wang was quoted as saying.

Mr. Wang and his team demonstrated their new product at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society. They used the device to power LCD screens and transmit radio signal.

Nanogenerators function with the help of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires and are equipped to generate power from any kind of motion/ movement.

“If we can sustain the rate of improvement, the nanogenerator may find a broad range of other applications that require more power. Our nanogenerators are poised to change lives in the future” he added."




Having shared all the above with you,
I want to once again underline that the innovation a company who calls itself "eco" really needs, will be to clearly show on all front lines that it is such company rather than in todays envirement in which we are trying to follow "eco flowers" or other standards which are rather standards for old technologies.

Acceleration of renewable energy adaption :

We are all being told how we need to become more Eco Friendly and how to become more Green but often when it comes to the additional financial investment cost that is usually required then to turn Green loses it's appeal.
http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2011/04/23/the-cost-of-going-green-buying-green-products/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120424591916201491.html?mod=yahoo_free

As an exmaple the cost of private households installing domestic/alternative electricity generating systems such as Solar panels are often prohibitive and has limited the uptake of of the vast majority of individuals so far. How to change this !
<Idea>
The homeowner has a solar system installed on their property for a nomial charge, in this case Panasonic provides the hardware and the existing utility company continues as the actual Utility/Service provider.   The property owner maintains the regular payments as per usual per month (so for the end user there is minimal if no cost difference at all).

The Utility company, for a period of say ten years, harvests all the additional power generated by the solar system that they have installed on the property owners house. The installed system feeds back into Utility/Service provider (surplus energy to that used by the property owner) this provides an additional revenue stream to the utility provider and additional source of energy creation, in a world of finite resources.

Finally after a specified period the ownership of the solar system moves from the Utility/Service provider to the  property owner, while the company that first installed it either walks away having received revenue for the last 10 years of solar energy generation or provides a new system solution.

This would mean that:
a) An big increase in the number of individual households that could have solar systems installed with minimal cost (possibley F.O.C.).
b) Environmental benefits would be large.
c) Due to the expnasion in the volume of Solar systems the unit price of solar systems would come down with the benefit of economies of scale in production.
d) Contribution to society through the environment and additioanl job creation.

The company installing the system and the indivdual proerty owners could also be enitiled to receive tax breaks or incentives from the government.

The Utility provider would also be able to get competitive  price for the systems because the manufactuers have a more stable demand and devote more resources to the output of the panels.
How Panasonic can tap into this market and become an affiliated supplier is the challenge

Posted by Paul Darch (PME)