Learning from the (smart) crowd

We can outsource leadership development if we imbibe lessons from those around us - be it our clients or our vendors

The hoarding painter was doing his job, painting a hoarding. A walker by sees the hoarding being painted (it was for a cigarette brand, Camel) and asked the painter if he had a Camel. The painter pulls out his cigarette pack but it is not a Camel. The walker politely declines and says, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.” The story does not end here. The hoarding painter while recounting this incident at his agency also mentions that the walker had said something interesting: “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.” The owner of the agency loved the line (those were the days you did not doubt the fact that a heavy smoker will have no trouble walking a mile), and took it to his client. The client, too, loved the line and it became a long running campaign for the brand Camel. The line embodies that every brand is trying to achieve, ardent brand loyalty. 

What is more interesting in that story is the fact that it was probably the first recorded incident when the company outsourced, in this case quite accidentally, the task of creating a brand message. The other moral of that story is that they managed to listen to the customer and the information managed to reach the powers that be in the company. 

In the Journal of Marketing (March 2018), I came across an interesting study on design crowdsourcing. The researchers wanted to explore if companies are embracing the concept of outsourcing product and service design. There are several outsourcing companies that are pioneering the concept of taking on the task of innovation, which until recently was buried deep inside corporations. Organisations such as Quirky, Crowdspring, eYelka, Hyve and Red Clay are all in the space of bringing companies and their or freelance designers together for mutual benefit. 

The researchers wanted to find out if such crowdsourced ideas were as successful as those that came from within the company’s ecosystem. One of their key findings was that “whereas managers fear losing control of the design process by opening it up, our interviews indicate that they can maintain better control over the design process, while creating slack for their research and development/design team, through the process of engagement/iteration with users/designers by selecting appropriate design crowdsourcing platforms”.

We are yet to see a spurt of design firms that offer crowdsourcing of talent in our country. But several design firms are developing capabilities to ideate independent of a client brief. Paper Boat range of beverages is one example of a product concept that was developed/incubated by a design firm and then carefully handed over to a manufacturing-marketing company. Lifebuoy handwash liquid was an idea that came up in a consumer focus group; consumers explained how they cut small pieces of Lifebuoy (red bar) and used them as hand wash soap. And there was a new product idea waiting to be tapped; the company saw the opportunity and build a viable business around the concept.

What does it take for a company to be able to absorb ideas from outside? 

The concept of design outsourcing can help organisations become more agile innovators. In a similar vein we can outsource our own leadership development if we can keep learning continuously from those around us. It could be our clients and customers, it could be our vendors or it could be our associates. 

It was serendipity that led Camel towards a tagline that they used for decades. In the modern digital age, we don’t have to rely on chance to discover new ideas and concepts. We can learn more, and we can share more. And we don’t need to walk a mile for a new idea. 

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The author is a brand strategist, author and founder, Brand-Building.com