Fujitsu Forum 2017 was my third consecutive trip to Munich, an event that I always look forward to, for many reasons; the warm reception, knowledge, insights gained and the opportunity to meet our stakeholders face-face. The most important reason is the pride of representing Affari, in the knowledge that we afford our client quality service, ideas, going the extra mile and a mutual respect for what one-another contribute…and it is these attributes that I believe encompasess Co-Creation.

Mutual Respect

This mutual respect was no more evident than in the first breakout session I attended at Fujitsu Forum. The session facilitated by Joachim Box examined a case study of Co-Creation between Fujitsu and Heathrow. The case study narrated by project leads from both organisations highlighted challenges, successes and outcomes, but what was most telling was the real warmth between the project leads, which I imagine played a key part in this success story. The project results will now see benefits for air travel stakeholders across the globe. Gaining additional benefits (initially unforeseen) for me, is one measure of Co-Creation…having a pre-planned objective but realising much, much more in the process!

Idea Generation

Delving into these examples of Co-Creation adds huge confirmation that our presence in Munich is of immense benefit to Affari, yes we want to meet our clients’, shake hands and gain those tangible ‘pats on the back’, but as important, is to continue our learning of Fujitsu’s areas of research, focuses and future plans. Affari is an agency that relishes in learning, we take knowledge gained, examine, ask further questions, dissect and put into use for future Fujitsu projects. Along with our innate desire, talent and passion this has resulted in forging a reputation which has realised an array of bid wins for Fujitsu, award wins for Affari the staff and the enhancement of our service offering, now working worldwide with Fujitsu on an array of creative projects.

Fujitsu Forum 2017 saw the greatest number of Affari designed projects displayed at Fujitsu Forum since our partnership with Fujitsu began, further testament to what we hope is our growing reputation within Fujitsu.

The Extra Mile

This visual recognition of Affari’s growth preluded my next breakout session. Robin Lipscomb led a highly experienced panel discussion (Google, Microsoft, Citrix and VMware were all represented) on the topic of ‘Future Workplace 2025’. Adding further dynamic to this session was the openness for audience participation, which led to real life organisational insight. The session considered topics such as remote working in the future, global team communication and how technology will advance the global workplace. For an organisation that prides itself on innovative solutions this session was a valuable source of information for Affari.

Mirroring some of the Future Workplace session content in terms of remote and global communication, our on-site Forum team collated real-time footage to collaborate with our UK based team to work their magic in producing hyper-lapse videos of the Fujitsu Forum Demo Centre and Food Festival, sharing this content live whilst at the event.

Quality Service

Post Forum, for those that ‘held the fort’ whilst myself and colleagues were in Munich, we put the kettle on, grabbed some cake and pulled up a chair in the cozy Affari living room to talk through the experience, pass on praise received and suggest how we can improve our service further.

As we embark on our next twelve months of Co-Creation with Fujitsu I recall my final Forum session of 2017, Rita McGrath (Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Columbia University), Rita cited Peter Drucker – “Customers rarely buy what the company thinks it is selling”, therein lies Affari’s (and all organisations’) challenge and where Co-Creation can lead in terms of examining, delving, discussing and jointly solving known and yet unidentified business challenges.

Until our 2018 Munich bound flight, Danke für ein wundervolles Event!