LONDON:When consumer goods company Proctor and Gamble innovates in the area of toiletries and cosmetics they do so through a network of 500,000 "connectors", the fluffy equivalent of the IT industry's "lead adopters". Connectors are women who care enough about what they apply to their skin to give their time to help P&G to define its ingredients.
Consumer electronics giant Philips continues to reinvent itself around products inspired by its customer base. Philips develops ideas for "simplicity", the company's driving principle, on the livesimplicity.net website. On Livesimplicity users recommend new features for Philips' products and vote on which of these might make life, and products, more simple.
In May this year computer giant HP bought Logoworks, a company that brings together thousands of graphic designers to create marketing collateral. It doesn't quite add-up. Computer giant, logo designer.... But buying into crowd-sourced innovation is the new game in town. .
If you are not a global behemoth with the budget to develop your own innovation network what are the options?
Fellowforce.com is one of a growing number of platforms that offer to bring the collective mind to bear on your innovation needs. For as little at $195 you can post challenges to the Fellowforce community asking for specific innovation solutions.
"Fellows come from all over the world," says Ruben Robert the Dutch founder of Fellowforce "China, India, Uganda, all kinds of people for all kinds of places." Though Fellowforce is run from Hilversum, Netherlands, the site's language is English.
The idea for the site came from Robert's own experience of being ignored when he came up with a an innovative idea for a Dutch supermarket chain. "The problem was I could find no way to contact them," says Robert who worked previously in project management. "So I set up a platform where any innovation enthusiast can contribute ideas." The service currently has over 2000 active fellows.
Fellowforce is not alone. co.labr8.com (http://co.labr8.com/) is based, similarly, on the principle of distributed creativity.
Already on co.labr8 one canny developer is seeking ideas for new Apple iPhone applications, ahead of Apple making the iPhone an open platform. Both Fellowforce and co.labr8 are in the early stages of winning a public. Nonetheless they are indicative of an important trend. The daddy of them all, for now, is the Open Innovation Marketplace (http://www.innocentive.com/ ) which offers prizes of up to $100,000 for innovations.
In November 2007 speakers from some of the world's largest organisations came together for the first virtual Global Innovation Exchange and behind the scenes the Open Innovators network is doing an admirable job of collating information on new innovation initiatives around the globe. Open innovation is here to stay.
