By Soren Kaplan
Creating a culture of innovation may not be as difficult as you think. Here’s how Zipcar helped to jump-start its new business model.
One of the first ride-sharing services, Zipcar almost single-handedly established the “sharing economy” in the United States and paved the way for others in the industry, like Uber and Airbnb. Unfortunately, Zipcar was designed to be used exclusively with desktop or laptop computers. It hadn’t developed a way for customers to manage their memberships from their phones.
Among Zipcar’s first initiatives was an event that became a symbol of the company’s new mobile-first mind-set. Employees were invited to a meeting in which the leadership team outlined the company’s mobile business imperative. To help drive home the point, people were given sledgehammers so they could take a whack at the “old view” by pounding on two desktop computers. The experience passed into corporate folklore as a symbol of what was needed for the future.
Zipcar also gave employees a direct line of sight to its new breed of target customer—the “mobile-first millennial”. Zipcar’s “member roundtables” occur on Saturdays and include about a dozen customers who share their feedback directly with Zipcar staff. Interacting with customers is a powerful way to shift employee mindsets and create the impetus for change.
Soren Kaplan is an affiliated professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.