Crowdsourcing for Innovation

An integrated set of new approaches has been developed by Industry Consulting to realize a shorter time to market, create higher stakeholder engagement and test ideas and concepts at the earliest possible stage, resulting in higher quality output.

“A key element in our work is enabling customers to innovate more rapidly and efficiently,” explains Mike Schavemaker, Consultant at Industry Consulting. “Harnessing the power of the collective can play an important role in that process. However, that requires smart use of social media, as well as clearly defined methods and selection criteria. Instead of considering the company as a series of complex organizations, we are taking a radically different approach to filling the innovation pipeline.”

Multiple approaches

“One approach is to define challenges, and enable and support a large and varied group of people in coming up with solutions. Another approach is to determine themes and allow stakeholders, from employees to clients and partners, to share their views on a subject related to their portfolio ambitions in their industry or business. For example, themes could be related to Big Data, Social Media or Connected Solutions. We can also set up a kind of idea box and categorize the input. Our methods allow each participant to make a valuable contribution from their own unique perspective and professional background, bypassing complex internal structures or external relationships.”

Rapid adoption

“People very rapidly adopted the processes; so-called Acceleration! Sessions ensure focused and inclusive sharing of expertise and providing support across functions, business ownership and technology leadership. Because Industry Consulting involves professionals from different backgrounds, we can take a very broad view, and see how different disciplines affect one another. Once the methods are implemented, very little fine-tuning is required. Ultimately, the goal is to embed these results into the existing roadmaps and development pipelines. The methodology is in use at Philips Lighting and Corporate IT, with good results, and we’re aiming to introduce it at Philips Healthcare too. We’re currently also involved in negotiations with innovation executives from several external companies and looking for ways of introducing the methods on a smaller scale.”