GM – Innovation Case Study

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GM – The Durant Guild Platform

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GM’s first scaled direct-to-Consumer business model

General Motors Company (GM) is a global industry leader and the largest automaker in the United States. Its new GM Premium Import business will present a curated collection of iconic GM vehicles to the Chinese market for the first time. China’s luxury car market is crowded and highly competitive. GM built The Durant Guild to help it reach affluent Chinese consumers with a unique offer. This involved breaking new ground with an asset light, direct to consumer business to deliver a customer experience designed to engage its target customers.

Change Logic’s Role

Innovation

  • Customer Discovery – guided outside-in learning to define customer personas and high-value customer problems for GM to solve
  • Ideation – developed ideas and testable hypotheses for delighting consumers
  • Experiments – designed experiments to test digital and physical aspects of the offering and go-to-market for The Durant Guild; guided implementation by the GM team on the ground

Change

  • Sprint Teams – set up and ran multiple cycles of test and learn with GM sponsors and teams as they applied the Ideate, Incubate, Scale disciplines
  • Engagement – helped to build a social movement within GM organization in support of new business model
  • Culture – helped build capability of teams to live in an explore culture consistent with a bold innovation project like The Durant Guild

Impact

  • GMPI organization set up for success, operating with an agile, Sprint-based approach to building a new venture
  • Innovative customer touchpoints, new lifestyle offerings, and digital community engagement, in the market based on evidence from more than thirty in-market experiments
  • Ownership and capability to run the agile process through to go-to-market launch baked into the team
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