For Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD), helping customers innovate isn't just for the customers. The process also helps the telco shift from a technology to a business focus.
The Vodafone Customer Innovation Group brings leaders in from the carrier's enterprise customers to come up with new ideas for how networking technology can drive business value, using mobility -- the heart of Vodafone's business -- to drive change.
For example, with Lufthansa, the two companies cooperated on a wireless in-flight entertainment and information system, reducing fuel costs and replacing big, heavy crew manuals with wireless connectivity.
And with Thomson Reuters, the financial firm and carrier worked on a mobile banking program for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa that went beyond finances to improve agricultural best practices.
The first step is defining "innovation."
"It's one of the most overused terms in industry today," says Shannon Lucas, Vodafone director of innovation. "If you have 20 different people in the room, you get 20 different definitions."
At Vodafone, the definition of innovation boils down to "business transformation."
Find out more about how Vodafone is using its innovation process to transform its customers and itself: Vodafone Defines Innovation at Enterprise Studio
— Mitch Wagner, , West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to wagner@lightreading.com.