Innovation, Inventions and Crowdsourcing
The government of Singapore has decided that it wants to ramp up innovation in the country. Therefore, it’s going to share more data sets with both public and private sectors to increase efficiency, improve the way services are delivered, and drive social innovation.
The government has adopted a new “Open Data” mindset to get even more from the power of data.
Tags: Singapore and open data
The market for open innovation services is on the rise and spreading to more diverse sectors according to a new report. The Technology and Innovation Management Group from RWTH Aachen University in Germany has just published its latest major open innovation study.
The report is a study of the market of open innovation accelerators (OIA), organizations that help their clients to include external sources of knowledge in every aspect of the innovation process.
Ben & Jerry’s is at it again with another neat crowdsourcing initiative. In a project dubbed “City Churned” the ice cream maker is turning to city locals for flavor ideas that best represent their town.
Five cities have been chosen to kick off the project – Washington DC, New York, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco – and each one has its own microsite for votes.
InnoTown, the innovation conference in Ålesund, Norway has been hearing about how open innovation saved LEGO from the brink of bankruptcy – and how the Danish makers of one of the world’s most popular construction toys is continuing to inspire more co-creation with its consumers.
In the late 1990s, children were turning away from the famous building bricks in favor of video games and computing. There were also supply chain problems and the company was facing a battle for survival.
What is the recipe for business success? If we knew all the answers most of us would be billionaires by now. But just as important as knowing what contributes to success is having an understanding of what can stop it from ever becoming a reality, and then removing those barriers.
Forbes has compiled a list of the top ten ways that organizations kill innovation. It’s a useful roadmap for those who want to avoid shooting themselves in the foot or going the way of the dinosaurs.
Calling all petrol heads and bike enthusiasts there’s still a few days left to enter Local Motors’ latest open innovation challenge – to design a motorized bike – the LM Cruiser.
The company is looking for concepts for a gas-powered motorized bicycle. It should have retro design elements but use modern technology.
Local Motors prides itself on connecting designers, engineers, and enthusiasts to ideate, design and manufacture innovative vehicle solutions.
Stanford University researchers are turning to the crowd with three crowdsourcing projects that aim to give a more nuanced understanding of times past.
They are, Year of the Bay, 500 Novels, and Living with Railroads.
General Mills has tapped into its open innovation ecosystem – G-Win – to help it develop a new line of sauce-free seasoned frozen vegetables.
The owner of the popular Green Giant brand was looking at ways of offering vegetables that didn’t require the addition of sauce or butter. Though it could have taken on the research and development, the multinational felt it would be more efficient and economical to adopt an open innovation approach.
The innovations were driven by consumers as feedback had revealed that plain vegetables were thought of as boring, but many customers didn’t have the time to prepare more elaborate dishes.
Through its online open innovation portal, the Fortune 500 company located Burley Foods, an ingredients supplier to food manufacturers.
External World-Class Innovators
“The culinary knowledge of Burley’s chef provided the expertise we needed to bring more complex seasonings and unique vegetable pairings to Green Giant,” said Kate Gallager, Green Giant R&D manager. Together, Burley and General Mills devised and developed new recipe ideas.
The net result was ‘Seasoned Steamers’, a line of six flavor varieties that include broccoli with Parmesan cheese and Tuscan-inspired seasoning, and carrots flavored with honey Dijon seasoning.
Pursuing Future Goals Via Open Innovation
Having hit product gold via an open innovation route, both General Mills and Burley Foods will continue to work together to innovate for the future.
“We believe this model and our partnership with General Mills will be the blueprint for success in the future,” added Mike Burley, owner of Burley Foods.
Tags: G-WIN, General Mills and Open Innovation, Seasoned Steamers
Branches of the military employ some of the keenest minds on the planet, scientists and engineers who devise sophisticated weapons and defense systems, vehicles, armor and clothing.
But they don’t have all the answers. In recent years we have seen a number of open innovation contests as research agencies seek wider input into their R&D endeavors. Here are three examples:
Tags: crowdsourced military vehicle, open innovation and military
Tap into your inner wisdom and creativity by heeding the messages of these inspirational quotes about business innovation.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor