f Into the wild: Pioneers in designing new business models for co-creation

This study examines a group of business executives’ endeavours of designing new business models in very different public, as well as private, sectors. The common thread between them is that they all have gone ‘into the wild’: leaving the comfort zones of their organizations in order to explore business potential on the outside. They have all taken on challenges that reach far beyond their own organizations’ horizons, crossing sectors and co-creating new business models with external stakeholders in order to address them. When taking on these co-creation challenges, the organizations have fallen short of ready-made methods, processes and steering mechanisms. The questions thus remain: What happens in the wild? And what can we learn from those who went there? The study shows two main findings. First of all, when designing new co-creation business models, organizations encounter similar struggles and possibilities even when dealing with very diverse challenges in different sectors. Thus, insights translate across sectors and challenges. Secondly, a synthesis of lessons learned can be summed up as three main focus areas: the executives are rethinking their business as a whole; they lack tools for organizing for co-creation; and trust-building is a key parameter for success.