"Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers"
Strategy & Leadership
32 (3), 2004, pp. 4-9
The authors of this article contend that consumers are rapidly becoming more connected, informed, and active. They state that "Companies can no longer act autonomously, designing products, developing production processes, crafting marketing messages, and controlling sales channels with little or no interference from consumers. Customers now seek to exercise their influence in every part of the business system."
The following "DART" model of co-creation of value is discussed in this article:
- Dialogue—Mutual communication, engagement, and interaction between the company and its customers.
- Access—This includes giving customers the information they want, as well as providing tools for accessing the information on their own.
- Risk assessment—Customers will "insist that businesses inform them fully about risks, providing not just data but appropriate methodologies for assessing the personal and societal risk associated with products and services".
- Transparency—Information that was once considered proprietary to the firm will no longer be considered so by consumers. This includes information about prices, costs, profit margins, products, technologies, and business systems.
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