The rise of the Innovation Intermediary from Tatiana Schofield
Tatiana Schofield, Chair of the Greater London Region Board, is an innovation management expert. Here she shares her insights on the rise of Innovation Intermediaries, in this third article in her series on Open Innovation.
“Innovation in new product and services development is a key factor in keeping companies ahead of the competition. Companies are relentlessly searching for new sources of inspiration, new uses and new directions to come up with new product ideas. Sometimes they set up in-house teams whose mandate is to screen, scout, search and filter good ideas. A classic example of such model is P&G’s Connect & Develop. In other cases companies work with innovation intermediaries who help identify and shape a solution to a company’s challenge.
www.pgconnectdevelop.com
This is where the innovation brokers come in. Innovation brokers are the intermediaries between ‘innovation creators’ and ‘innovation seekers’. They can source information, ideas and solutions from the best people in the relevant field. It enables an efficient flow of knowledge and expertise that benefits both ‘creators’ and ‘seekers’.
InnoCentive is a great example of an innovative broker, offering crowd sourced ideas and solutions to both public and private sectors (www.innocentive.com). They believe that in the 21st century it’s the combination of creativity, passion and diversity that can solve business, as well as societal problems. Their statistics speak for themselves: 300,000+ registered solvers from over 200 countries, 500,000+ project rooms opened, 40,000+ solutions submitted with 85% success rate. Their cloud-based platform ensures rapid and sustainable solution delivery.
Another successful example of an innovation broker is Big Idea Group. BIG has been in the innovation development and consulting business for over a decade, working with a variety of companies and entrepreneurs on a range of projects. They have a team of experiences entrepreneurs, product developers and innovators, using the latest tools and technologies such as crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, cloud storage, social media, rapid prototyping models, and more. They make innovation simple by breaking down their services into small, comprehensible packages.
www.bigideagroup.net
Marblar is another innovation broker focusing on B2B sector (www.marblar.com). Marblar is, in a way, a reverse of InnoCentive. Marblar starts with the solution (technology, for example) and rewards those who can find problems these technologies can solve. The platform also enables the users to vote on the best ideas/solutions posted on the site, thus, indicating their feasibility.
Innovation brokerage is a new trend. Will it stand the test of time? Well, according to an American engineer and entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell “Innovation is hard. It really is. Because most people don’t get it. Remember, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, these were all considered toys at their introduction because they had no constituency. They were too new.” All new trends are ‘toys’ until they become essential to the way we live.”
Catch up on Tatiana’s first two articles: