Co-Creation: A look at creative cooperation at VS

Co-Creation Achieving More Together

LEGO does it. Nike and IKEA too. VS obviously. They rely on co-creation with customer and experts and develop something better together. A brief foray into the varieties of co-creative cooperation.

Co-Creation – Bundling Creative Forces

According to the definition, co-creation is only the active involvement of customers or other interest groups in development processes. But in fact, such cooperation means much more. C-creation brings silo mentality and ideas laboratories in airtight closed and much to silent rooms to an end.

“Co-creation works because even the most creative people rarely know the full answer”, the co-founder of WikiSolutions John Williams once said. This is even more the case in a world that is changing ever faster, in which demands on products are constantly increasing and customer have long emancipated themselves from pure consumption. Although creativity is the source of all innovation, creative forces have to be bundled together to develop new and better ideas, products and services in the VUCA* world. That is why co-creation is a method used ever more frequently in art, politics and research, but above all in industry, in order to be able to counter multi-layered demands with diverse perspectives and expertise.

(* VUCA = Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity)

Some companies are just starting to feel their way in collaborative thinking. A global player like Nike has been has been practising it for almost 20 years since its legendary joga.com website for football tricks. In the family firm VS, co-creation was more or less an element of the company’s founding. In 1898, the furniture manufacturer developed the most successful school bench by far together with the architect Wilhelm Rettig, the “Rettig-Bank”, which featured in the classic German film “Die Feuerzangenbowle”.

Co-Creation in Practice – Successfully Collaborating with Customers

Co-creation with customers is the most common form in companies. This goes far beyond conventional “customer orientation”. Co-creation ranges from integrating customers’ ideas in product development and customers choosing ideas right up to customised design. And a look at practise shows other ways that are used to involve external people internally - digitally and by analogue means.

An example of co-creation with an image of a assembly manual for the Ikea "Billy" shelf and the necessary screws and dowels.

IKEA regularly asks customers about their opinions, how they live and new furniture ideas. They do this in the stores, on social media or the Xeem app. And Ikea also invites the community to directly answer what is probably the most important question in times of employee shortages, i.e.,: How and on what channels can Ikea attract the most attention as an employer?

An example of co-creation: picture from above of a child playing with Lego bricks

On the Lego Ideas platform, LEGO invites fans of the colourful bricks to submit their own ideas for models. Once an idea has reached 10,000 votes in the Lego Community, the proposal is sent for internal review and, with a bit of luck, enters production as an official set.

An example of co-creation: a photo of a shopping trolley in a car park filled with Migros products.

The biggest Swiss retailer Migros regularly lets it customers vote on which products will be launched on the market on its website Migipedia. Among other things, this resulted in a special edition toothpaste with caipirinha flavour.

An example of co-creation: image of a floating black Nike shoe.

Nike offers its community personal co-creation on Nike by You, where trainers and sportswear can be individualised, and ensures customer loyalty by means of social media challenges whose winners can, for example, help to design virtual trainers for the Nike Metaverse Collection.

An example of co-creation: a bird's eye view of the DHL logistics centre.

The logistics firm DHL uses Innovation Labs, in which customers and employees develop new ideas and service improvements on site, including a “Parcelcopter” to ensure parcel delivery by drone in difficult terrain.

Dr Thomas Müller is standing with another person in front of a red JUMPER Air Four by VS

Furniture expert VS holds workshops, but especially 1:1 exchanges, with customers for the collaborative process. Co-creation seeks solutions. That is why the focus is not on furniture, but on the joint analysis and specification of the work situation that is to be improved by room planning, furnishing and technology implementation. The exchange involves design and product suggestions, mock-ups and test models to customised complete solutions with furniture configured for the individual customers. VS has included some developments that came about in co-creation with customers as series production models in the programme.

Co-Creation in Design – the VS Example

Depending on the objective, a co-creation community can comprise thousands of end customers and employees. It can just as well take place in a small group of experts. Irrespective of their number, the demands on participants in successful co-creation are always the same: participants must open themselves to the outside, be open-minded, meet each other appreciatively on an equal footing and work together in a spirit of trust. In traditional companies, in particular, this usually requires a great deal of changes in thinking. By contrast, the family firm VS uses co-creation as a fundamental working principle in product development.

“By involving external stakeholders from design, architecture, ergonomics and education, we establish a broad basis of knowledge. The interdisciplinary expertise is central for positioning ourselves better for future challenges,” says Lucas Bergmayer, Head of Product Development at VS. The first ergonomically designed school chair, the first furniture for learning close to the floor - advancing standard-setting developments like these is possible if an experienced manufacturer shares its knowledge with other experts. Long-term innovation is needed for basic furniture which is in use in schools for 30 years and more. And a design that lasts as long as the product itself.

Jean Nouvel, the French star architect with whom VS developed the JUMPER students' and office chair.

Co-Creation with France’s Star Architect: A handwritten letter from the former VS Managing Director Thomas Müller initiated the creative cooperation with Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel. The result: the JUMPER school and institution chair.

For 125 years now, VS has specifically been seeking out cooperation with trend-setting creatives, such as design legend Verner Panton or Jean Nouvel, the French star architect with whom VS developed the JUMPER school and institution chair. Why an architect? An architect doesn’t just see the furniture. He sees the whole interior and therefore approaches the design holistically.

However, not even Jean Nouvel had a completely free hand. Standards with respect to the safety, strength and durability of office and school furniture, guidelines are already in place in the design process. Within this framework, the creative exchange develops through design, 3D visualisation, prototype, many personal visits and painstaking sampling to the final product and, ultimately, manufacture. From the idea to implementation, all of this is done locally in Tauberbischofsheim at VS.

An example of co-creation: a students' chair JUMPER Air Active by VS in red.

Design co-creation operates in the interplay between “What is technically possible?” and “What is wanted in terms of design?”. The creative debate usually leads to improvements. An example: For the JUMPER Air, the plastic version of the JUMPER, after various tussles concerning the best position, the heart-shaped recessed grip moved down the chair back to the lumbar area. That not only looks good, children can now also carry the chair more easily.

Radius seat structure of the VS school chair JUMPER Air for seating comfort and air circulation

The JUMPER Air has a seat structure that had not been seen before at the time. Such structures are necessary for comfort and air circulation. But Nouvel designed a futuristic looking radius structure, providing a shimmering colour play as a contemporary expression of the 21st century. “Creating a perfect chair is an obstacle course,”, says Nouvel, son of teachers and winner of the Pritzker Prize, the Oscar for architects+. But the joint efforts have been worthwhile.

"Co-creation works because even the most creative people rarely know the full answer."
John Williams, Founding Partner of WikiSolutions

What are the Advantages of Co-Creation?

The whole is more than the sum of its parts – this is certainly the case for co-creation for companies. “Being curious, asking questions, that keep our ways of thinking and looking fresh. That’s why we consciously extend our internal knowledge with input from outside,” says VS Head Designer Lucas Bergmayer. Other companies have had similar experience, as surveys show. Other advantages of co-creation are:

There may be annoyances in co-creative processes. But that is precisely what can stimulate. Because they break up routine thinking and actions, meaning that new forms of thinking and acting can develop.
Co-creation brings together diverse expertise to generate knowledge together, which is decisive in complex problems. This applies to design processes, but also to politics, for example in the development of Smart Cities where people from academia, politics, industry, culture, civic society or public administration have to come together to find solutions.

From the company’s point of view, direct involvement may give customers an unusually large say. At the same time, customer demands from companies can easily be seen. And: Customer satisfaction rises because of the improved solutions more in tune with needs.

Co-creation minimises the risk of developing products or services that don’t take account of customers. Mistakes can be identified early and avoided in the long term thanks to direct feedback from and the participation of end consumers.

Helping to decide, gaining insights – thanks to co-creation, customers feel that they are being taken seriously and are appreciated. At the same time, companies benefit from the greater customer loyalty fostered by the proximity and intensity of the cooperation.

Innovation does not necessarily mean creating a completely new product. Innovation can also mean offering value added that wasn't there before. Here as well as there, co-creation results in a win-win situation for all involved – for experts who want to initiate innovation in their field, for customers who are being offered custom-fit solutions and for companies who remain future-proof with satisfied customers and better products. They all benefit from the synergy effects of co-creation. Who will VS get into the creative ring with next?