Open Innovation Vs. Co-creation

Obvious first question is ‘Does Open innovation and Co-creation need to be put against each other or even put together?’

Not really, unless you are already wondering about the differences! You question if there is a common ground. Or simply you want to use these terms and be on the same page with someone else.

Let’s attempt theory of elimination.

In Open innovation, you would have a) a clear need specified b) you would go out of your enterprise boundaries to get those needs fulfilled c) you would expect the solution to be ready or semi ready d) Your solution provider might be a financial beneficiary, but may not be the end user. e) Your needs are highly technical, and you have already figured out the value creation from the expected solution.

(When an enterprise wants molecule A reacting with molecule B with the help of unknown C, so that they can get D. Boundaries are set. A good open innovation candidate is on the table.).

Anything which does not have one or more of above attributes could possibly have a flavor of Co-creation. 

Here is how.

a) You don’t have a clear need or a challenge (circumstantial or by design). You might have a high level goal, for which you are open to define a challenge and solve it using some means.   Or you could be simply tuning in to see what you can pick up.  

b) You are not scouting for a solution; you are scouting for people. These people are enthusiasts or lead users who can work with you to define both the challenge and the solution or either of it. You may or may not go out of your enterprise or may just stick to your known circle like customers, vendors or employees.

c) You do not expect the solution to be ready or semi ready.  Since even the problem is open for definition and zeroing in - you most probably may start with a clean slate.

d) In addition to technical know-how you are banking on the emotional participation from a solution provider. Just like co-founders of a start-up, who are far more interested to crack the right need as a team and not just utilize co-founder as another resource.

e) Your needs may or may not be highly technical in nature. The value expected from the outcome may still not be known and the same is being co-created.

Those being some differences for co-creation with respect to open innovation, are there any similarities?

In both open innovation and co-creation – you are fundamentally trying to leverage resources which are not traditional ones, not necessarily on your payroll, on your approved list of vendor, or certified by someone, and not designated to execute your innovation solution.

You may not upfront know how many will contribute, and that number may not even matter to you!

In both cases you are trying to tap into the long tail phenomenon. Your success rate is not 10 out of 10, but your cost is lower and you are keen to stumble upon value which otherwise could remain hidden or be eventually found at your competition’s camp.

So what do you believe in - open innovation or co-creation, or did you feel like redefining some of the definitions above?

ideaken team enjoys understanding how open innovation and co-creation space is shaping up, and how the innovation platforms must enable enterprises to increase the collaborative innovation yield.

Open innovation India

Are Indian companies ready for open innovation?

Multinational companies (MNCs) which are making India their second home have brought in the culture of open innovation here. Companies like Xerox, P&G, and General Mills are already perusing open innovation aggressively in India. Indian companies like Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, Future Group and Biocon are not far behind and are already engaging with employees, vendors and customers to co-create.

While companies in the west suffered from Not Invented Here syndrome (NIH) and are working to get over it. Many (not all) Indian companies suffer from Why Invent (WI) syndrome; good news is - it is a declining tribe!

There is a bigger shift in the making. With the world’s focus shifting to Asia, the responsibility of getting innovation done is also tagging along. And when that happens, local companies are joining the bandwagon, for competitive reasons. In addition Open Innovation in Service industry and benefits of incremental innovation are getting quite an attention for ROI reasons.

Some select Indian companies are quick to realize that there is a lead time needed to get into the culture of open innovation and co-creation. Companies with this foresight probably will dictate the landscape of domain leaders and the followers in this decade.

Are Indian innovators ready for open innovation?

Over the years Indians have becoming more aware of their personal intellectual capital in a global context, and connectivity is providing insight into the markets with buying powers – in turn making Indians an irresistible choice for companies hungry for brainpower.

So does this mean Indians are turning the table around on the innovation front? The answer is ‘not yet’. Indians are highly social and love to share, however they shy away when there is a probability of failure, specifically in a non business environment like creativity and innovation. Though innovativeness of Indians is not disputable, I am specifically pointing to the volume and the impact density.

The pace at which the knowledge economy is growing, however, clearly indicates that a certain percentage (which accounts for quite a volume) is moving to the next orbit – and becoming hard core innovators. Not to forget a Jugaad mindset which has produced millions of innovations in India over the years. With the market needs beyond Jugaad – there comes the supply beyond Jugaad.

There is a huge opportunity lining up for Indian innovators both globally and locally. And the innovators who open up to the collaborative innovation will find themselves rewarded - both intellectually and monetarily.


ideaken is leading the service platform space for open innovation and co-creation in India. Facilitating open innovation and co-creation for companies across the world and India, and innovators on board from more than 160 countries, thousands of them from India.

Architecting an A-Ha ecosystem

"An A-Ha" moment - for a problem that you have been grappling with for a long time. Interestingly the solution once arrived at, starts to look like a obvious one, and you wonder why you didn't think of it before. Enterprises all over the world are interested in institutionalising this and so wonder "Can we make the A-ha moment repeatable and produce it at will?" Of course, it is not possible to architect these moments, but instead you can architect an ecosystem which can foster these moments.

Depending on your enterprise DNA, there are various steps you can take, we describe some below to pick from.

Maintain inventory of problems – Most organizations miss this step. They might have KM system to capture the knowledge and idea management to capture the ideas but there are few enterprises that maintain a list of problems. This when carefully planned, pays by providing road map for enterprise innovation.

Creativity attracts creativity – Be innovative in how you approach the process of getting your problems solved. Idea boxes may not be the best way to go, instead illustrative challenge definition is one way of telling others that you are looking forward to and are serious about the solutions.

Break hierarchical model of problem solving – A problem does not need to be solved by the lead scientist or by someone who has tendency to come up with ideas. Find ways to democratise the innovation process. However don’t attempt this unless you create a buy in from R&D folks and the management.

Onboard the ‘A-ha’ moment owner - Dare him to expand on the idea and as far as possible and bring him onboard when you take the idea forward. It’s nice to make deserving person feel important. Not only will this add value in rolling out the solution but will also send an immensely positive message to others to ideate for you in the future.

Think about it, how many precious sparks might have faded and how many are about to meet the same fate. The least enterprises can do is to provide an ecosystem which enables a-ha moments to arrive, and assure proper treatment, when they do arrive.

ideaken helps enterprises build this ecosystem of collaborative innovation.

What can innovation seeking enterprises DO with LEGO set manuals?

LEGO pieces can be converted into far more variety of structures in addition to what is given in its manual. The outcome is usually unusual, and ranges from having no significant beauty to having an extraordinary beauty which has not been created before; and an originality which could carry a class and a value of its own.

Seems quite obvious. Let’s examine it a little closer and see what goes on to make this obvious - the obvious.

1) The child or a parent needs to think that maybe she should try to build something without referring the manual. (Innovative organizations always have involved leadership who understands the unstructured nature of creativity and facilitate this direction.)

2) The child might behave clueless at first, but show him once even the three piece structure done without the manual and see how she takes it further from there. (Besides providing vision, leaders know the importance of enablement.)

3) You won’t fail to notice the pride in her voice when she finally shows it to you. (It is of utmost importance to encourage and reward the effort, in however small or insignificant ways.)

4) You have kept the manual and she does refer it for the fundamentals like - what fits where, once in a while. (Building innovation culture efforts does not need to change the ways you run your company, however it might need a tweak here and a tweak there.)

Hiding them occasionally is what innovation seeking enterprises can DO with the LEGO set manuals.

ideaken team can help your enterprise in planning & implementing points 2,3 and 4 mentioned above and benefit from the power of co-creation and open innovation.

FINISH uses crowd sourcing to find solutions for Indian sanitation problem

ideaken's journey with FINISH began with a chance meeting over the internet. However as we have continued our journey, we have been humbled to meet some great people who are committed to the cause of total sanitation system in rural India. We are proud to be associated with FINISH and sincerely hope that the ideaken platform helps FINISH to meet their noble and worthy objective.

A search for a rural toilet design begins on 19th Nov – the World Toilet Day

FINISH is launching an “innovation contest” to create new and improved sanitation systems for rural India, with rewards up to Rs. 620,000 (or 10,000 Euros) is up for grab. The contest is being launched on World Toilet Day - 19th Nov 2010. FINISH will incorporate the best innovations generated by the contest in thousands of toilets being installed in rural India under its programme.

November 17, 2010 - India / Netherlands / France
It is often said that Safe Sanitation Systems form the last chapter of human development. 1 in every 4 person in the world does not have access to Sanitation. India is a prime illustration.
Indian Space scientists have put machines on the moon, yet 1 in every 2 Indians does not have access to toilets. Everyday 638 million people or about 50% of the population in India resort to open defecation.

There has been progress, from the “Central Rural Sanitation Programme”, which was initiated in 1988 by the Government of India, to the “Total Sanitation Campaign” launched in the year 1999. However, according to the 2010 report by UNICEF, on progress in sanitation coverage, even in 2008, 69% of rural Indian population did not have access to toilets.
All private and public sanitation drives suffer from some common problems.

1. The quality of constructed toilets is very poor due to budgetary or time constraints.
2. Toilet designs are often not appropriate for the targeted ecological terrain.
3. A lack of clearly defined “standards” for toilet design is leading to toilets that pollute the environment.
4. Stakeholders do not have adequate awareness and knowledge of sustainable sanitation models.

The FINISH ‘Sanitation Challenge Contest’ is a serious attempt to find solutions to some of above problems. FINISH, which stands for Financial INclusion Improves Sanitation and Health, with the help of ideaken.com - a collaborative innovation platform provider and other network partners – WASTE, FIN Trust, Ethos India and the World Toilet Organisation have launched an innovation competition to generate new designs in sanitation systems.

The contest is open to all individuals and institutions. Its objective is to arrive at significant, even revolutionary improvements in toilet design, and safe disposal system, specifically suited to different climatic, soil, water table conditions, which will ensure sustainable and safe management of the human waste. This new toilet design will be used to diffuse 1 million safe toilets in India.

“The 3rd toilet was constructed by the NGO even though 2 unused toilets already stand in the same house.” (This tells us that just building toilets won’t solve the issue)

You can help too

Please diffuse this news to sources you think can contribute to designing this new sanitation system. (Including but not limited to social media sites, news sources, NGOs, SMEs in Sanitation, WC/ Restroom and waste management areas, and Engineering and Design crowd)

Please click here to participate in the contest

Please click here to view complete press release

A slice of new products and services via vendor co-creation

Beside your enterprise and your customers, there is a rich layer of vendors your enterprise deals with. You deal with these vendors as they fulfill certain purposes of your business. Invariably these vendors develop fertile characteristics which are a mix of deep understanding of your business, solid technical know how and awareness of what else is happening in the industry you operate in.

Above attributes put your vendors in a unique position which you may not like to ignore.

There are various ways you could benefit from this, and the most promising could be how you could tap into this relevant talent beyond your primary reason of engaging with these vendors. For example you might be dealing with your vendors to provide you with a spare part, raw material, a particular service or a piece of software. Now is there a way you could tap into the peripheral talent of these vendors and their employees to add credible value to the tasks which you do in-house?

Obviously the first question to ask and to figure out is if your enterprise has such vendors; with whom you have been dealing with for a while, and over the years have developed a potential which could be tapped?

Second important question to ask is – is it possible to tap into this talent without being intrusive with your vendor’s talent and w/o violating contractual or IP issues. Part of the answer for this question could be to do this co-creation along with the existing projects / contracts. When co-creation is done as part of bigger engagement, it has a lesser chance of being looked as intrusive. When co-creation is implemented with a clear purpose, IP issues could be addressed upfront and hence managed better.

Clients have been always asking for additional value (and that additional slide on value proposition has been part of your selling deck ever since), now it appears that clients have started to look into more systematic ways of getting there, and vendor co-creation seems to be paving the way for it.

As a vendor, being partner in co-creation can add a tremendous differentiators, which can help you create client stickiness you always welcome, and a value proposition which can elevate your bid vis-à-vis your competition.

As usual only a win-win proposition stand a chance, both you as a vendor to your client, and you as a client to your vendor can benefit from Vendor co-creation.

This article is inspired by my recent discussion with Vikesh Mehta, General Manager Enterprise innovation and Pavan Soni, innovation evangelist at Wipro Technologies.

yet2.com and ideaken.com partnership aims to place Asia onto the Innovation World Map

 
Two years back, when ideaken team was doing their business planning, we had listed yet2.com as one of our top competitions! Today we are glad to partner with yet2.com.  –  Jayesh


yet2.com and ideaken.com partnership aims to place Asia onto the Innovation World Map


India / USA 21 Oct 2010 - yet2.com and ideaken.com today announced a partnership to jointly scout innovative solutions from individuals and technology SMEs for their enterprise clients.

Open innovation and Co-creation is the fastest emerging way to procure & supply innovation in a world of diminishing boundaries. This partnership will help both yet2.com and ideaken.com to expand their innovator solver base and get faster and better solutions for their enterprise clients. This partnership will also provide a greater opportunity for individual innovators and technology SMEs to access bigger market of innovation seekers from around the world.

Head quartered in US, yet2.com is world’s largest intellectual property exchange. ideaken.com is a leading open innovation intermediary and co-creation platform provider in Asia.

Dr. Eugene Buff, Vice President of Consulting for yet2.com, said, “Asia is a developing powerhouse of innovation that is of immense importance to the rest of the world. It’s also one of the world’s great markets for technology. yet2.com is very happy to be partnering with an organization of ideaken’s stature.”

“We look forward to a long partnership with ideaken,” said Ben DuPont, president and co-founder of yet2.com. “Innovation is not regional. Developments from Bangalore or Delhi can easily find their way to the shelves of New York or Tokyo, just as innovations from Berlin or Johannesburg may help companies in Bangalore. Organizations like ideaken and yet2.com exist to make these connections happen.”

Jayesh Badani, Founder and CEO of ideaken said “yet2.com and ideaken.com are in the business of tapping into innovative technology providers who are somewhere out there. It makes lot of sense to join forces and create a larger community of innovation seekers and innovation solvers, everybody wins this way. We help our clients collaborate to innovate; this partnership is about applying this principle to ourselves!”


Please click here to view complete press release

How to get ideas that are not 'a dime a dozen'?

Today, every enterprise has or plans to have some sort of an idea management initiative to capture the ideas of their employees and customers.  This could be because of a very strategic vision or the result of the hype about tapping into the wisdom of employees & customers. Some have mastered the art, but the rest end up being me too. Throughputs - some get as many as 150,000 ideas in a year and some just 15 from the same number of employees and customers. The effectiveness is equally extreme; some making real money from it and it becoming a main stream process for them, while others are completely clueless about the direction to navigate into.

Question is how organizations get hold of ideas that can elevate them to the next level, help them create a service or a product that could define a new market. In other words how do organizations harvest ideas which can make substantial & positive difference to the organizations’ objectives?

Part of  the answer lies in following two strategies, this is with an assumption that all other operational aspects are taken care.

Before you ask for ideas

• Shift your pitch from “Do you have an idea  ... “ to “Do you have an idea FOR  ...” Basically shift your pitch from generally asking for any idea to asking for an idea for a given challenge.
• If you can’t think of a challenge then run a challenge to find a challenge, you will be surprised how many you unearth!
• Stop behaving like you have the right to ask for ideas, instead create an atmosphere of co-creation.
• If you do not genuinely intend to read each of the ideas received and try to figure out the intent behind each idea then stop right here (It saves your time, yes theirs too!). Often the intent of the idea provider will lead you to the ideas you are after. 

After you get the ideas

• Lookout for the possibility of combining two not so good ideas to get the good one out of it. Or pick up the clue to make the not so good one, a really good one.
• Make the review team a mix of someone who could see the bigger picture and also someone who may not. 
• Refrain from judging the idea on the basis of how easy or difficult it is to implement it.
• Look at the act of rewarding the person with a good idea as an act of encouraging the innovation spirit and not as an act of buying out the idea.

In short addressing the points relevant to your enterprise from list above, a well defined challenge with an incentive and a committed evaluation team could fetch you ideas which are not a dime dozen.

Enterprise Culture & Enterprise Productivity, what is the connection?

Enterprises wanting to improve the productivity will typically show the signs of Six sigma and Lean. Six sigma and Lean are great tools and they produce great results, the only catch is they do so when in the right hands. The real power of these tools is to create the right culture, a culture of measurement and improvement; productivity improvement is the by-product which usually follows.

Similarly, when you want your employees to be innovative, don’t go and ask them to be innovative, create a culture for it, nurture the ecosystem, the results will soon be visible.
An enterprise which is on the path of creating this innovative culture for their employee shows the following signs.

1. They often provide opportunities to employees, which convey that the management trusts the employees.
2. Some of these opportunities are given away to all at the same time irrespective of the levels or grades of the employee.
3. There is a genuine public encouragement displayed and conveyed for every failed attempt in trying to do something new. (and the same for a successful outcome!)
4. These companies have established the connection between employee satisfaction and in providing an opportunity to express the creativity.
5. They are putting up systems and processes in place to actually take the ideas and solutions forward and benefit from it.

There is increasing evidence that an outlet for employee creativity can add to employee satisfaction and the productivity, over and above the employer benefits from implementing the employee ideas and solutions.

More enterprises are joining the league, creating an innovative culture for their employee. In this list of signs and the league, which stage are you in?

Anatomy of Rewards!

Innovators innovate for the passion of innovating, yes that is true. Then why give away rewards?

Between the guy who won’t innovate for you and the guy who will anyway innovate, there are a large number of people who are capable of innovating. To get the attention of this large number of people - you need upfront mentioning of reward. And for the guy who will anyway innovate, it is one way of saying ’you care’.

How much should be the reward?

This does not matter as long as you make it in some way proportionate to the benefit you will derive from the innovation. There is no right or wrong answer for what should be the proportion, the key is that you value the contribution and you are being fair. The best way to get the answer is ask these questions a) Will you yourself work on it for the given reward b) What is the innovation budget?, and c) How much will it cost me if I get it done from a third party innovation firm?

Having found how much I should reward, how do I decide between monetary and non-monetary rewards?

Monetary rewards are quite a safe bet in most of the cases. However if you decide to go with non-monetary rewards like fully paid vacation for two, then you must make sure that the winner is able to use it without any additional cost. Similarly if you are rewarding a Gadget, then you must consider how you will transport it to the winner. It is best to choose the non monetary rewards like Amazon gift coupons which are redeemable from anywhere in the world.

I am only partially satisfied with the solution and I like more than one solutions.

It is likely. Award partially and distribute it among the top three solution providers.

Should I distribute the reward to all who participate, this way I can be safe from any conflicts?

Once, to prove the issues with socialism, a professor agreed to average the grades. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test results rolled out, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. By the time 4th test rolled around, the average was D. When reward for merit is taken away, no one will try or want to succeed.

The greatest indirect benefit of giving away rewards is, it builds trust and curiosity, both of which can immensely help in your subsequent innovation challenge.