New Innovation Web Model DM
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
How to make InnoCentive more open?
Saturday July, 25th classwork in partnership with David Caine.
What is the challenge? Where are the resources to solve it? How to best reach these potential Solvers?
Before answering, I would like to share about a case. The challenge - not taken from InnoCentive - was: "Many Indian ladies of rural areas cook on fire, inside their homes. An important number of these ladies become blind or sick because they breath and receive the fire smoke in their eyes during the cooking of each meal. What simple-to-build, simple-to-explain, non-expensive, and durable solution can be provided to protect them from the smoke?" The solution was found by a foreigner who have met the opportunity to observe the ladies in condition, observe the type of their housings, have a good understanding of their ways of life in respect to the local traditions, available facilities, and climate conditions.
InnoCentive needs to be closer to the people the more impacted by the to-be-solved challenge.
Of course, translating the challenges helps, but we propose more than that. We suggest InnoCentive held both online and offline offices. We defined two types of offline offices (fully connected to InnoCentive online network, of course).
- The first ones should idealistically exist permanently in all countries where there are important difficulties to access the internet (insufficient power supply, not-enough general knowledge on how to use a computer, ...), so that the brain power of the local inhabitants can contribute to the InnoCentive pool of solution's creation.
- The second type of offline offices would be punctually active. If a challenge is about an issue in a a small area of a particular African country, for example, then an InnoCentive office opens locally until the challenge ends. During its working time, the offline office acts both as a collector and as an intermediary. It collects the local inhabitants' perceptions of the issue. It is an intermediary between the local inhabitants and the Solvers who wish to know specific items about the way of life and conditions (to bring the solution that best fits the situation). Of course this offline office is able to deal with the local language(s) and thus also helps local inhabitants to become Solvers on InnoCentive network for this particular challenge.
What is the challenge? Where are the resources to solve it? How to best reach these potential Solvers?
Before answering, I would like to share about a case. The challenge - not taken from InnoCentive - was: "Many Indian ladies of rural areas cook on fire, inside their homes. An important number of these ladies become blind or sick because they breath and receive the fire smoke in their eyes during the cooking of each meal. What simple-to-build, simple-to-explain, non-expensive, and durable solution can be provided to protect them from the smoke?" The solution was found by a foreigner who have met the opportunity to observe the ladies in condition, observe the type of their housings, have a good understanding of their ways of life in respect to the local traditions, available facilities, and climate conditions.
InnoCentive needs to be closer to the people the more impacted by the to-be-solved challenge.
Of course, translating the challenges helps, but we propose more than that. We suggest InnoCentive held both online and offline offices. We defined two types of offline offices (fully connected to InnoCentive online network, of course).
- The first ones should idealistically exist permanently in all countries where there are important difficulties to access the internet (insufficient power supply, not-enough general knowledge on how to use a computer, ...), so that the brain power of the local inhabitants can contribute to the InnoCentive pool of solution's creation.
- The second type of offline offices would be punctually active. If a challenge is about an issue in a a small area of a particular African country, for example, then an InnoCentive office opens locally until the challenge ends. During its working time, the offline office acts both as a collector and as an intermediary. It collects the local inhabitants' perceptions of the issue. It is an intermediary between the local inhabitants and the Solvers who wish to know specific items about the way of life and conditions (to bring the solution that best fits the situation). Of course this offline office is able to deal with the local language(s) and thus also helps local inhabitants to become Solvers on InnoCentive network for this particular challenge.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A closer look at InnoCentive
InnoCentive was founded in 2001 by the company Eli Lilly, and has become independent in 2005. InnoCentive's name is a combination of the terms "innovation" and "incentive", because InnoCentive aims to improve the Research and Development brainstorming process by promoting the Open Innovation concept*.
InnoCentive thus educates people, companies, institutions or organizations to make the best use of this potential. And InnoCentive acts as an intermediary between so called "Seekers" (i.e. organizations, companies or institutions with unsolved challenges) and so called "Solvers" (i.e. people, groups of people, or companies, who create solutions to those challenges). Seekers post their challenges on InnoCentive website with a deadline and - in most cases - a financial award; then Solvers, who have freely registered on the website, can submit their solutions.
Problems solved
Thanks to its activities as an intermediary, InnoCentive allows its Seekers to reduce the cost of the R&D process as Seekers only pay the successes, to reduce their R&D timeline by speeding up the process from the conception to the market, to access outside brainforce and creativity worldwide, to check whether a solution to their challenges exists, to access the "best" solution, to be aware of the types and states of the challenges faced by their competitors, suppliers or partners. InnoCentive also eases the transfer of the Intellectual Property Rights and the learning of how to deal with the Open Innovation potential.
For the Solvers, InnoCentive not only provides them the opportunity to freely access a large panel of challenges, to choose which ones to work on, to communicate with other Solvers worldwide, and to gain a consequent cash award if they are elected winners; it also helps them meet an international recognition.
Partners find through InnoCentive the opportunity to make visible their interests for R&D and Open Innovation.
Customer groups served
Considering that customers are both the Seekers and the Solvers, there are different possible ways to divide them into groups. One partition could be made by their areas of interests. I have chosen a partition by their motivations to use the InnoCentive network and thus obtain the following groups:
- Solvers who are people with knowledge and or creativity, ready to brainstorm on challenges which involve those skills, although no compensation for dedication occurs, except for the challenge's winner(s),
- Seekers who wish to check whether a solution to their challenges exists (some Seekers willingly post unsolvable challenges just to make sure they are still so),
- Seekers who wish to check that no solution is better than the one they already know,
- Seekers who wish to list the panel of possible solutions (although Seekers can only use the awarded solution, it can test and access the other ones),
- Seekers who wish to access a solution,
- Seekers who wish to be taught how to make the best use of Open Innovation for R&D.
Revenue sources
InnoCentive points out the two following sources of revenue:
- fees paid by Seekers to post challenges,
- (in some cases) comissions paid by Seekers on the amount awarded.
Although there is no mention of it, I suppose InnoCentive has other sources of revenue, maybe fees for the consultancy services given to its Seekers, or fees for the partnerships.
Competitors
- Ninesigma has appeared on the market in 2000. Like its competitor, it educates to Open Innovation and acts as an intermediary. But this last role is made differently: Ninesigma defines itself more as a "matchmaker" connecting "solvers" (who freely register) to "seekers" so that a contract results; and Ninesigma does not deal with Intellectual Property rights. "Seekers" pay Ninesigma for the help on creating the connexion.
- Yet2 focuses on bringing buyers and sellers of technologies together so that all parties maximize the return on investment.
Online only, or also offline?
The concept of InnoCentive is not unique to the web, but the web increases its efficiency.
InnoCentive reminds me of an Open Space Technology* experience held with an international NGO I am volunteering in. The participation was initially opened to all employees and volunteers of the European are who felt concerned by a brainstorming on our activities on this continent. Yet, limited bed accomodation in the place we rented led to a limited number of participants (about 150 only). At the opening session, any participant could pin on the wall of the room papers with a topic (an existing program faced by a difficulty, a to-be-created program, a challenge specific to a national team...). This wall became our market place. We then tried to match each topic with a meeting time and a room. We ended up putting aside some topics, due to lack of meeting rooms. After these preparatory steps, the brainstorming started. Each participant could freely choose which discussion he joined; yet many discussions occurred simultaneously. Also, some end-of-the-day topics did not meet the brainstorming quality they deserved, because many participants were exhausted by previous discussions. For an important number of topics submitted, some great ideas arose. No one received a financial award for his participation.
Sustainable?
This model is sustainable. There will allways be people, organizations, companies or institutions willing to meet a solution to the challenges they are facing. And there will always be creative and talented people holding the desire to use their skills to solve others' problems. So, InnoCentive has a future as long as it efficiently connects the Seekers to the Solvers, bringing bright solutions and constructive services without charging inappropriate fees.
Scalable?
I don't see a way to upgrade this model as InnoCentive already helps on R&D for over 60 disciplines and sub-disciplines.
If I owned the business...
While exploring the website, three questions came to me:
- how come I never heard of InnoCentive before our course?
- how can InnoCentive on one hand claim the potential of Open Innovation and on the other hand restrict its use to people who sufficiently understand English to participate in the brainstorming?
- what would I like to find on the website if I were one of its Solvers?
A closer look at these issues has brought the following feedbacks and suggestions, in tune with the values of InnoCentive "operational excellence and continuous improvement"
In order to increase the number of customers, I would be more visible and more reachable.
- Challenges posted on InnoCentive would gain from being accessible in many languages, as more people would understand them and work on them. The ideas or the challenges of a non-English speaker is not less valuable or important than the ones of an English-speaker. Of course, making the services of the website accessible in various languages means to employ translators within InnoCentive or to contract a separate translation company. The choice depends on how to best guarantee the quality of the translations and the confidentiality of challenges' and solutions' contents.
- Thanks to an advertising challenge (see the awarded video below), InnoCentive is visible on YouTube. This is positive, but not sufficient from my point of view. I would build a campaign to be visible in universities and other training schools where there are future potential Solvers or Seekers. They may not straight join the network, but they may be more encline to use it in their future.
In order to increase the sources of revenue,
- I would increase the numbers of customers. The more Solvers, the more brain force and creativity, thus the more chance to create the best solution, thus the more reasons to post unsolved challenges, thus the more attraction for new Seekers to join, thus an increase of revenue for InnoCentive.
- I would create an area where Solvers can post the ready-to-market products they imagine (and which are not linked to posted challenges), so that those items find a Seeker to commercialize it. InnoCentive could then ask for a fee on the created partnership, or for a kind of royalty.
I also perceive another area in which InnoCentive could play a role. If I take the example of France, universities are more and more in the necessity to build sponsorships with companies. So, teachers or students of a university, by being Solvers would make visible the potential of this university each time they answer a challenge. Those results may create a desire for a company to partly finance the university. Once the sponsorship would be officially signed, InnoCentive would gain publicity on the event and may also ask for a symbolic fee.
InnoCentive thus educates people, companies, institutions or organizations to make the best use of this potential. And InnoCentive acts as an intermediary between so called "Seekers" (i.e. organizations, companies or institutions with unsolved challenges) and so called "Solvers" (i.e. people, groups of people, or companies, who create solutions to those challenges). Seekers post their challenges on InnoCentive website with a deadline and - in most cases - a financial award; then Solvers, who have freely registered on the website, can submit their solutions.
IEMI-EBM-InnoCentive-D
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Problems solved
Thanks to its activities as an intermediary, InnoCentive allows its Seekers to reduce the cost of the R&D process as Seekers only pay the successes, to reduce their R&D timeline by speeding up the process from the conception to the market, to access outside brainforce and creativity worldwide, to check whether a solution to their challenges exists, to access the "best" solution, to be aware of the types and states of the challenges faced by their competitors, suppliers or partners. InnoCentive also eases the transfer of the Intellectual Property Rights and the learning of how to deal with the Open Innovation potential.
For the Solvers, InnoCentive not only provides them the opportunity to freely access a large panel of challenges, to choose which ones to work on, to communicate with other Solvers worldwide, and to gain a consequent cash award if they are elected winners; it also helps them meet an international recognition.
Partners find through InnoCentive the opportunity to make visible their interests for R&D and Open Innovation.
Customer groups served
Considering that customers are both the Seekers and the Solvers, there are different possible ways to divide them into groups. One partition could be made by their areas of interests. I have chosen a partition by their motivations to use the InnoCentive network and thus obtain the following groups:
- Solvers who are people with knowledge and or creativity, ready to brainstorm on challenges which involve those skills, although no compensation for dedication occurs, except for the challenge's winner(s),
- Seekers who wish to check whether a solution to their challenges exists (some Seekers willingly post unsolvable challenges just to make sure they are still so),
- Seekers who wish to check that no solution is better than the one they already know,
- Seekers who wish to list the panel of possible solutions (although Seekers can only use the awarded solution, it can test and access the other ones),
- Seekers who wish to access a solution,
- Seekers who wish to be taught how to make the best use of Open Innovation for R&D.
Revenue sources
InnoCentive points out the two following sources of revenue:
- fees paid by Seekers to post challenges,
- (in some cases) comissions paid by Seekers on the amount awarded.
Although there is no mention of it, I suppose InnoCentive has other sources of revenue, maybe fees for the consultancy services given to its Seekers, or fees for the partnerships.
Competitors
- Ninesigma has appeared on the market in 2000. Like its competitor, it educates to Open Innovation and acts as an intermediary. But this last role is made differently: Ninesigma defines itself more as a "matchmaker" connecting "solvers" (who freely register) to "seekers" so that a contract results; and Ninesigma does not deal with Intellectual Property rights. "Seekers" pay Ninesigma for the help on creating the connexion.
- Yet2 focuses on bringing buyers and sellers of technologies together so that all parties maximize the return on investment.
Online only, or also offline?
The concept of InnoCentive is not unique to the web, but the web increases its efficiency.
InnoCentive reminds me of an Open Space Technology* experience held with an international NGO I am volunteering in. The participation was initially opened to all employees and volunteers of the European are who felt concerned by a brainstorming on our activities on this continent. Yet, limited bed accomodation in the place we rented led to a limited number of participants (about 150 only). At the opening session, any participant could pin on the wall of the room papers with a topic (an existing program faced by a difficulty, a to-be-created program, a challenge specific to a national team...). This wall became our market place. We then tried to match each topic with a meeting time and a room. We ended up putting aside some topics, due to lack of meeting rooms. After these preparatory steps, the brainstorming started. Each participant could freely choose which discussion he joined; yet many discussions occurred simultaneously. Also, some end-of-the-day topics did not meet the brainstorming quality they deserved, because many participants were exhausted by previous discussions. For an important number of topics submitted, some great ideas arose. No one received a financial award for his participation.
Sustainable?
This model is sustainable. There will allways be people, organizations, companies or institutions willing to meet a solution to the challenges they are facing. And there will always be creative and talented people holding the desire to use their skills to solve others' problems. So, InnoCentive has a future as long as it efficiently connects the Seekers to the Solvers, bringing bright solutions and constructive services without charging inappropriate fees.
Scalable?
I don't see a way to upgrade this model as InnoCentive already helps on R&D for over 60 disciplines and sub-disciplines.
If I owned the business...
While exploring the website, three questions came to me:
- how come I never heard of InnoCentive before our course?
- how can InnoCentive on one hand claim the potential of Open Innovation and on the other hand restrict its use to people who sufficiently understand English to participate in the brainstorming?
- what would I like to find on the website if I were one of its Solvers?
A closer look at these issues has brought the following feedbacks and suggestions, in tune with the values of InnoCentive "operational excellence and continuous improvement"
In order to increase the number of customers, I would be more visible and more reachable.
- Challenges posted on InnoCentive would gain from being accessible in many languages, as more people would understand them and work on them. The ideas or the challenges of a non-English speaker is not less valuable or important than the ones of an English-speaker. Of course, making the services of the website accessible in various languages means to employ translators within InnoCentive or to contract a separate translation company. The choice depends on how to best guarantee the quality of the translations and the confidentiality of challenges' and solutions' contents.
- Thanks to an advertising challenge (see the awarded video below), InnoCentive is visible on YouTube. This is positive, but not sufficient from my point of view. I would build a campaign to be visible in universities and other training schools where there are future potential Solvers or Seekers. They may not straight join the network, but they may be more encline to use it in their future.
In order to increase the sources of revenue,
- I would increase the numbers of customers. The more Solvers, the more brain force and creativity, thus the more chance to create the best solution, thus the more reasons to post unsolved challenges, thus the more attraction for new Seekers to join, thus an increase of revenue for InnoCentive.
- I would create an area where Solvers can post the ready-to-market products they imagine (and which are not linked to posted challenges), so that those items find a Seeker to commercialize it. InnoCentive could then ask for a fee on the created partnership, or for a kind of royalty.
I also perceive another area in which InnoCentive could play a role. If I take the example of France, universities are more and more in the necessity to build sponsorships with companies. So, teachers or students of a university, by being Solvers would make visible the potential of this university each time they answer a challenge. Those results may create a desire for a company to partly finance the university. Once the sponsorship would be officially signed, InnoCentive would gain publicity on the event and may also ask for a symbolic fee.
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