The C4 Model of People-Centered Innovation: Culture, Consciousness, and Customer-Centric Co-Creation

Abstract

Quality in its contemporary incarnation is commonly referred to as organizational excellence, enterprise excellence, business excellence, or performance excellence. While technology may serve as a key enabler of enterprise excellence, enterprise excellence itself is in large enabled by the human dimension both in terms of ideation and effort. The human dimension manifests in many ways, with people-centered innovation representing a critical intersection of the market environment and the enterprise’s human capital or the individual inventor. Innovation in all its faces and forms can be more effectively and strategically attained through collaboration that extends throughout the enterprise, to its supply chain, and ultimately to the marketplace itself, that is, cooperation between the enterprise and the culture(s) it serves via the process of co-creation. Understanding of, sensitivity to, and leverage of culture as broadly construed is an underdeveloped aspect enterprise excellence. As considered herein, innovation contributes to enterprise excellence through conscious and customer-centric collaboration between the enterprise and the culture. As such we explore intersections among cultural anthropology, innovation, and enterprise excellence by more thoughtfully elaborating the interface between the enterprise and the customer (user) culture, including society.