Perspectives on Innovation

We recently posted a Challenge from Enterprise Works/VITA, which seeks to help households in developing nations harvest and store rain water.  While we know that InnoCentive Solvers are particularly motivated by the opportunity to help others and make a positive impact on the world, we were amazed at how quickly the word spread about this Challenge.  Within a few weeks of posting we have almost 700 open project rooms.  I recently sat down with Don Feil, CEO of Enterprise Works/VITA to get some background on his organization, the Challenge and the end goal for the solution:

Hi Don - thanks for taking the time to talk with us.  Can you tell me a bit about your organization?

Sure - happy to be here.  Enterprise Works/VITA is a recognized leader in the transfer of skills and technology through the private sector that offer solutions to low income populations, farmers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers in developing economies. Over the past 35 years EWV has demonstrated that poor households will invest in improving their living conditions if they are offered appropriate products at a price they can afford and that also provide economic benefits.  We are seeking to replicate with rainwater harvesting what we have done with improved cook stoves, manually drilled wells, water filters, treadle pumps and other products, and that is to provide consumers with an affordable solution to a problem facing millions of households.

What are the specific challenges that this solution is expected to address?

The  Challenge seeks to address the over riding constraint that prevents households from benefiting from rainwater harvesting, which is the initial investment in a storage system.  Rain falls just about everywhere and except for the driest places in the world it falls in quantities that are worth harvesting for use, especially when other sources are  unreliable, distant or contaminated.  The quality of rainwater  is generally considered to be good and it is recognized as an improved water source by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring program for the Millennium Development Goals.  A low cost storage solution has the potential market of millions of clients and can provide benefits to millions of households.

Once the solution is found, how will the new storage systems be produced?

That will depend on the  technology that  is selected and could vary from  mass manufacturing  to local production by small scale entrepreneurs.

Where will this solution be implemented?

Initially the solution will be implemented on a pilot scale in a developing country where there is a significant need for clean water and where the market, environmental, and policy conditions are favorable for large scale uptake of rainwater harvesting by households.  The pilot will demonstrate the  necessary strategies to promote rainwater harvesting and to develop a sustainable supply chain. Based on results from the pilot we will then expand it to other countries.

What appealed to you about the InnoCentive model?

Since we never intended to do this with our own hands, we looked for a company that we felt had the integrity to represent us properly and one that could also deliver a solution to our Challenge.  After discussions with InnoCentive we felt that this was the right fit for us.

Liz Moise:
I’m joined by Ray Umashankar, Executive Director of the ASSET India Foundation. ASSET India is a non-profit organization that provides computer literacy programs to marginalized children in India so they will have the skills and knowledge needed to escape the sex trade industry in India. ASSET India recently posted a Challenge on InnoCentive seeking the solution of a solar-powered wireless router so they could bring their services to rural parts of India. The Challenge was recently solved by Solver, Zacary Brown. We’ll be putting out the announcement in the next few weeks. Ray, Can you describe the challenges that marginalized Indian children face and how your organization is working to alleviate them?

Ray Umashankar:
Liz, all the new found wealth generated by India’s prominence as a global IT power has not trickled down to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Life at the bottom of the pyramid has become even more difficult with rising food and fuel costs.

Working with nonprofits to help abused women and children get back on their feet, our daughter Nita was stunned to discover the hopelessness of the children of sex workers. She knew she would see dire poverty in India, but these children seemed to be the most disenfranchised of all: even the poorest of the poor ostracized them. The fear of HIV/AIDS made it worse.

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I recently interviewed Scott Pegau, Director of the Oil Spill Recover Institute (OSRI) in Cordova Alaska. OSRI was created by the government in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and has been tasked with improving oil spill response in Arctic and subarctic marine waters. As you may know, OSRI has posted several Challenges on the InnoCentive website, including the Challenge, recently made famous by the New York Times, to separate oil from water in recovery barges. That Challenge was solved by John Davis, an oil-industry outsider. We find that many of the best solutions on our network come from outside the industry in which they are posted.

Liz Moise:
Scott, tell me – how long had you been working on this particular Challenge before coming to InnoCentive, and what other avenues did you pursue before coming to us for help with this problem?

Scott Pegau:
Actually, the process of setting up a prize program predates my arrival at OSRI.  The idea had been kicked around for a couple years, but hadn’t fully developed because of the need to ensure the program was properly run and advertised.  Once InnoCentive was identified as a mechanism to post and manage challenges we started to actually draft the concepts that have become the challenges we have released.

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Liz Moise:
I’m joined by Dr. Karim R. Lakhani, Professor at Harvard Business School. Dr. Lakhani, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. You’ve watched InnoCentive grow for quite a few years now. I’m sure our Solvers may be familiar with your research study, published a few years back. Could you tell me in a few sentences, what your conclusions were on InnoCentive, in that study?

Dr. Karim Lakhani:
I worked with Lars Bo Jeppesen from the Copenhagen Business School along with InnoCentive staff to understand the effectiveness of the problem solving process at InnoCentive.

Most problem solving involves effort by the problem holder to search for the relevant knowledge that will help create an effective and workable solution. However, many studies have shown that this search for knowledge is quite “local,” i.e. problem holders only access knowledge that they are familiar with and rarely do they go outside of their fixed views of the problem or personal knowledge bases. With InnoCentive – the problem holder is actually doing a “broadcast search,” i.e. they broadcast their solution requirements to the whole world – with the hopes of finding someone that has the relevant knowledge that can help create the solution. The problem holder goes from being a problem Solver to a solution seeker.

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