On the lookout for customers at the forefront of technology

Three million DKK for a project on user-driven innovation

Those customers and users who are quick to take on new products are attractive to companies. It can be financially profitable for companies to get a hold of customers and users who are at the forefront of technology – the so-called lead users, who can form a beneficial link to regular users.

This is something that the Danish pump manufacturing company, Grundfos, has realised. As the first company in Denmark to do so, Grundfos is attempting to identify their lead users, in cooperation with the Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics (INO) of the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Aarhus School of Business (ASB).

A new contact between customer and company

By studying lead users, companies can identify new trends among users and, from this, develop new solutions that meet the needs of regular users.

-Lead users are the experts in their field and know which new products are needed, says Christoph Hienerth from INO. He says that the project will initially identify lead users within different industries and technologies. These users will then be asked about trends and needs in the market, and the whole project will result in a workshop for companies, lead users, and the two business schools, CBS and ASB.

Testing the theories

The project has a commercial potential for Grundfos while, for CBS, it is more about testing theories and methods within the field of lead users.

-We will have the opportunity to both test existing theories and to develop new ones within the field of lead users. Therefore, the chances are good for CBS to become one of the leading universities in this field, says Christoph Hienerth, who expects that the experience gained from the project will be used by students and researchers - and companies other than Grundfos.

-The use of the theoretical and methodical experience of the project is not limited to just one industry, he says.

New Product Development – user-driven innovation

The programme for user-driven innovation is administered by the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority and they have granted 22 million DKK to six new projects. Of this, three million DKK has been allocated to the project, "New Product Development", about lead users. CBS and ASB are also behind a similar project called “Lead user-based entrepreneurship” (in cooperation with the Danish company LEGO), which was granted 2.2 million DKK.

The six projects were singled out from among 74 applications as the best-suited projects to strengthen Danish expertise within innovation. Read more here