[INNOVATIONS] From an innovation perspective, there are three things worth highlighting:
THE USE OF PRIZES Te award of the Ansari X Prize for commercial spaceflight in 2004 heralded the return of prize competitions. And we’ve seen many more X Prize Competitions since. According to a recent report from management consulting firm McKinsey&Company, more than 60 prizes of at least $100,000 were introduced from 2000 to 2007, with a total value of almost $250 million in prize money. Te McKinsey report also talks about the fact that
prizes work. Prizes only pay for results that meet the specified criteria and advance understanding about
and will run through Mar 18 2012. Winners will be announced next June.
OPEN INNOVATION Proctor and Gamble’s Connect + Develop open innovation platform has been widely touted for its successes. Its Swiffer product is one of the best-known outcomes. According to P&G’s website, it has over 1,000 active
innovation partner agreements – and more than 50% of the company’s product initiatives include collaboration with innovators and entrepreneurs from outside the company. Te central concept of open innovation is that in
today’s networked world, firms can achieve greater success by looking for new ideas and innovations from external
“
CHALLENGE.GOV WAS CREATED TO ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION BETWEEN RESEARCHERS, ENTREPRENEURS, PRIVATE INDUSTRY AND CITIZENS TO SOLVE TOUGH CHALLENGES. THE INTENT IS TO INSPIRE COLLABORATION....”
viable solutions. Prizes also fuel innovation by mobilizing intellectual and financial resources to focus on difficult problems where traditional approaches won’t work. McKinsey cites a great example from history – 1714
to be precise. Te British government announced an award of £20,000 “… to anyone who could develop a way of precisely determining a ship’s longitude.” What is especially interesting about this example is that the solution did not come from a renowned astronomer, as was expected. It was a British clockmaker, John Harrison who was inspired to enter the contest. He created the marine chronometer, “which greatly enhanced the safety of long-distance sea voyages.” Te prize money on
Challenge.gov can range from small – just over $1K (a student environmental contest) - to very large. NASA and its partner, Worchester Polytechnic Institute created the Sample Return Robot Challenge “to demonstrate that a robot can locate and retrieve geological samples from a wide and varied terrain without human control.” Te prize purse for this challenge is $1.5M. Submissions were opened on September 14th
WRE_Caption
sources – outside the walled garden of traditional R&D. P&G was at the forefront of companies embracing this concept, and today many of the Fortune 500 have active programs and initiatives at work. Tere are scores of conferences, summits, websites and blogs dedicated to exploring successes and lessons learned.
Challenge.gov is in good company as it broadens the
active use of open innovation to enlist a wide range of entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators and thinkers to help solve key challenges. It’s also quite educational to visit the site from time to time to see all of the different elements at play. Tere is much to learn from
challenge.gov.
WIDE RANGING OPPORTUNITY FOR PARTICIPATION
Challenge.gov is completely open. Anyone can participate – create an account, submit a submission to a challenge, comment on a blog post, or engage in forum discussions. Tis open-ness reinforces the opportunity for companies of all sizes – and across many markets and industries to engage in submitting solutions for the opportunity to win prize money. y
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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
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