What Does Your Most Important Customer Want? A Customer-Centric Value Innovation Process Helps Alcan Pharmaceutical Packaging Discover the Jobs Its Most Important Customers Actually Want Done

Value innovation is a re-invention strategy for growth. At Alcan it is a process, a language and a culture focused on growth and new market creation. Companies that are value innovators redefine problems and frame them in terms of performance criteria that matter to customers (1). Customers have jobs to get done, and they hire products to get that job done for them (2). The job a customer needs to get done should be the fundamental unit of analysis when exploring along the value chain, talking to customers, and innovating in products and services. This requires managers in value innovation companies to think and act beyond the usual business and delivery processes. They know that the primary need is to understand which job it is that the customer wants done. The process of understanding customers involves multifunctional teams, first-hand research and observation. This approach can open up the opportunity for products and services in new market areas. In this article we explain how to make innovation customer-centric, using Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging's internally developed value innovation process as an example. Addressing Customer Needs Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging melded two internal initiatives when developing and using its value innovation process. The first initiative was an Alcan innovation roadmap developed in 2004 that looked at strategy, culture and tools for innovation. Then, in 2005, Pharmaceutical Packaging launched a comprehensive internal survey of all employees using the Value Innovation Assessment Tool (3). The assessment, linked to the culture component of the innovation roadmap, was used to provide an internal benchmark and to start an internal dialog on value innovation. Alcan management wanted everyone in the organization--not just R&D--to understand how important innovation is for all functional areas. Management also wanted to measure organizational understanding of the drivers that support an innovative culture. As part of the assessment, all employees were asked for recommendations on improving innovation at Alcan. From the value innovation assessment, Alcan managers were able to examine both quantitative and qualitative information on the state of our internal capacity for innovation. Some points struck home. A number of employees voiced a strong need for working more closely with customers, and for sharing knowledge as part of business decision making and planning. They asked for a reliable and repeatable process to help them improve the quality of the projects in the innovation pipeline and to create sustainable growth opportunities. Alcan managers realized they had to encourage employees to look beyond what the organization had traditionally seen as the customer. Many of the projects in the pipeline were reactive in nature and did not go beyond the needs of existing customers. The challenge was to understand how pharmaceutical packaging was used in the field. What were "the jobs" that Alcan Pharmaceutical Packaging was being hired to provide? How did they change with the circumstance of use? One of the phrases important in this conversion was recognizing that "the key customer may not be ours." Value innovation is the delivery of exceptional value to the most important customer in the value chain (4). Ideas happen between people. They occur in the space that exists between conversation and imagination. Alcan managers recognized that the value innovation assessment had highlighted significant opportunities for improving innovation. The overwhelming response to an open-ended question of how Alcan could improve innovation showed awareness and willingness to re-invent inside Alcan. The data from the value innovation assessment showed a need inside the organization for more involvement with customers and better sharing of knowledge between areas. Large organizations sometimes develop silos. How often in your organization have you heard the phrase, "if we could only get beyond purchasing and speak with marketing"? …