Exam 27.06.

2017 - Verganti
1 INNOVATION (7,5 POINTS)
1.1) Consider the description of the case and take the standpoint of the final customer of the insurance product,
analyze it according to the innovation model based on the interplay between technology and meaning.

Knowing your customer is at the heart of insurance. It allows insurance companies to provide the right insurance
coverage at the right price. But practical implications (user experience, cost, and time) place a constraint on the
insurer’s ability to collect sufficient information about policyholder. Mobile & wearable data promises to solve this
problem. Cleverly combined it provides rich customer & risk profiles that can be collected and processed
automatically and nearly instantaneously.
Insurers have recognized the potential value of this data but they lack the IT infrastructure and data analytics
capabilities to unlock that potential. FitSense closes this gap by providing the three critical components from data
to product: Data Integration, Data Interpretation, and White-label product development.

What they do
“FitSense uses app and device data to create rich customer profiles that allow insurers to truly personalize
insurance products and services. To achieve this, we built a data platform to collect, store, and process data. We
then build end-user facing applications and we interpret that data to create customer profiles.”

The types of data

Age, sleep patterns, locations, physical activity, education, income level,
stress level and more.

The Health Engagement App

The first product powered by the FitSense platform is a health
engagement app sold to insurance companies to launch their own
rewards program for the insurers’ final customers.
Insurers with health engagement programs all around the world have
demonstrated these benefits:
- Attract new customers: turn your product into a differentiated
offering that appeals to today’s customers
- Increase loyalty: achieve stickiness by increasing touchpoints
and giving customers a good reason to stay with you.
- Reach healthier customers: attract customers that are already active today and share the value of health
conscious behavior.
- Incentivize behavior change: Help customers become healthier while improving your bottom line. A win-
win.

(Adapted from the FitSense official website)

1.2) MOFILM is a British-based content sourcing company, which allows users to produce video and photographic
content for various brands and social causes. The company was co-founded by Jeffrey Merrihue. Jon Landau is the
Chairman of the MOFILM Advisory board. The website has 50,000 filmmakers who can produce work with a
number of companies, including, brands such as Pepsi and Chevrolet. Once the users propose their videos or
photo, the brand chooses the best 5 which are awarded and the best one which get paid.
- It is not an innovation mall because the governance is flat
- It is an innovation community because the governance is hierarchical
- It is a consortium because the participation is open
- It is an elite circle because the governance is hierarchical
- None of the previous one

1.3) The Coolest Cooler is a Kickstrater project described as follow:

“Regular coolers are boring, break easily and are a hassle to haul around just to carry the ice. The COOLEST cooler
is 60 quarts of AWESOME packed with so much fun you'll look for excuses to get outside more often.
It contains: a blender, waterproof wireless speakers, USB charger, Led lid light, gear tie down, essential storage (to
have plates, knifes, …), internal removable dividers, bottle opener and other cool features”.
The project received more than 13 million Dollars of funding on Kickstart, but it never reached the market.

- It is not an innovation because it simply re-assemble different kind of solutions already present on the
market
- It can be considered a market pull innovation, since it embeds several features that solve common issues
with a traditional cooler
- It can be considered the results of a latent needs' analysis
- The addition of new features offers new reasons why to buy a cooler
- None of the previous ones Justify your answer:

1.4) An innovation of meaning is:

- A new way to communicate a product on the market
- The result of a design-driven approach that leads to different shapes in the final solution
- A strategy based on the ease of use of the final solution
- The output of a design thinking approach based on the generation of divergent ideas
- None of the previous one

1.5) The disruptive innovation model:

- Describes industries which are disrupted by new entrants leveraging on an “unprecedented” strategy
- Considers the performance and the time of an innovation, highlighting the differences in terms of process
and product innovation
- Is suitable to describe the process of diffusion of a technology in a market
- Can be used to describe how a focus on the most demanding customers can hinder the innovation
capabilities of firms
- None of the previous ones
2 LEADERSHIP (7,5 POINTS)
2.1) Explain the situational leadership model by Hersey and Blanchard providing specific examples for each
quadrant

2.2) The French National Football team is taking part at the World Cup. The coach is used to give a lot of freedom
to his players during pretraining activities (i.e. the activities they perform in the filed before starting the training).
He allows players to act as they prefer and to do what they like to do.
It is Saturday morning and two team members are just running easily around the field, talking about the previous
game and without showing any kind of effort in what they were doing. Some of the other members’ start
screaming at them, highlighting the importance of these last training sessions before the final game.
The day after the coach, before the starting of the pre-training session, when all the team members are on the
filed – call them and start explaining the precise schedule of the pre-training session, without giving the any kind
of freedom.

What is the best theoretical perspective to explain this example:

- The coach is changing too much his behaviours; this will lead to a big misunderstanding with the team
- The coach is acting as a transactional leader, guiding the followers in the direction of established goals by
clarifying role and task requirements
- The coach is leveraging a situational leadership to take into consideration the environment around them
- The coach his changing his colour moving from Green to Blue, leaving behind the emotions, leveraging its
cortical dimension
- None of the previous ones

2.3) Creativity:
- Is related to the convergent phase of the creative process
- It is a process where just the creative skills are requested
- Is a peculiar characteristics of human beings
- Can not be fostered with tools and methodologies such as: Brainstorming and Brainwriting
- None of the previous ones

2.4) When you should use developmental feedbacks:

- To encourage positive behaviours inside teams
- To highlight negative aspects inside a solution
- To dig deeper into the reasoning
- To increase the creativity into the concept development
- None of the previous

2.5) The Whole Brain model:

- Should be used to adapt your behaviours according to the individual characteristics of the people you are
working with
- Gives four different clusters of behaviours which are directly related to the genetic personal traits of the
leader
- Shows four different orientations, some of them are better in a professional environment, others are
more suitable in a personal environment.
- Is based on two dimensions which are the level of structure and the social orientation E. All the above
mentioned
Solutions
3 INNOVATION (7,5 POINTS)

1. It’s a technology epiphany (at the

intersection between technology push and
design-driven innovation), because of the
discovering of quiescent meaning for an
existing technology.

From the final customer point of view, the path is:

A radical change in technology (gathering
personalized data about the customer through
wereable and mobile) enabled the possibility to
have a radical new meaning (from customer using a
fitness app to be healtier, to customer using a
fitness app to save money OR new meaning for the
customer about the insurance service: not just
covering risks but also to be healthier)

2. E
It is and innovation mall because the governance is hierarchical and the participation is open All the other
answers are based on mistaken combination of the two dimensions of the model or wrong interpretation of the
case.

3. B
A product like the Coolest can be developed observing the users interacting with it and analysing their main
issues.
A) It denies a definition of innovation (that can be the re-assembly of existing solutions in a novel way)
C) Latent needs are deeper and not observable (by definition)
D) A new reason why means an innovation of meaning. The reason why to buy a cooler is not changed (still buy a
cooler to do a picnic, eventually I choose the Coolest instead of another cooler)

4. E
An innovation of meaning is a change in the reason why people love and buy a product or a service.
A) It is not a new way to communicate something (that is marketing)
B) It is not (just) a matter of shapes
C) It is not (necessary) a matter of ease of use
D) It is an inside out process

Provide an example: Yankee Candles or many others

5. D
The disruptive innovation model show the path that bring technologies - which are not able to answer even to the
needs of the lowest and of the market – above the level required at the highest end
A) It is not a matter of strategy and is not necessary related to new entrants
B) It is not related to the relationship/dynamics/differences between product and process innovation
C) it is not a matter of time, that is the Big Bang Disruption model

Provide an example: Hard disk industry, Netflix or many others…

4 LEADERSHIP (7,5 POINTS)

1. Meaning of the model: leaders –to be

effective - should adapt their behaviors to
the maturity level of his/her followers,
showing different people support and task
guidance. On the horizontal axis we find
the level of people support (concern for
people), on the vertical one we find the
level of task guidance (concern for
production) and on the third axis we find
the level of maturity of the followers.

+ Specific examples

2. C
The position of the leader moves from a delegating position to a telling position due to the changes in the
situation he is leading.
A) Changing leadership behaviour is not wrong
B) Transactional leadership implies a contingent rewards. To guide an effective team as the one described in the
case, transactional leadership is not the appropriate leadership theory.
D) He was not showing green behaviours

3. E
a) It is related to the divergent phase not only convergent
b) No also knowledge and motivation are required
c) IBM Watson (Chef Watson) is creative and it is definitely not a human being
d) Of course Brainstorming and Brainwriting are tools for creativity
e) Is the correct answer

4. C
a) It is not true because development feedbacks are envisioned for a different reason that in motivating people
b) It is developmental, so positive aspects are encouraged while negative are mentioned to be improved as
opportunities
c) Correct answer; it is a way to dig deeper in the solution and the discussion that is going on
d) It is not the main aim. Developmental feedbacks are not a tool for creativity but more for a convergent phase

5. A
It is a model that allows people to better understand the differences there exist between people, all of them
sharing different strengths and weaknesses, and that show how we should adapt our style to specific context or
people.
B) Everybody can work/study to fit in all the four quadrants. The aim of the model is to understand how to
modify/switch the colour according to the people we are working with.
C) All the orientations have pros and cons both in personal and professional environment.
D) The second dimensions is Cortical VS Limbic, not the social orientation.