Perspectives on Innovation

BBC News published a story today about innovation in the UK beer market. The UK brewing industry has been on the decline for the past few years, and with a slowdown in the economy pushing consumers toward more affordable brands, the high-end brands have been struggling to innovate without alienating the customers that have remained loyal.

The article discusses some of the more successful innovation ideas (pineapple, anyone?) and some that are still on the shelf, waiting for an audience, including one depicted in a disturbing “frankenbeer” image of what happens when lager and food coloring combine.

One firm that has been successful in innovation is Guinness, which patented the original widget that makes canned beer taste more like draft. Despite a general slowdown in the market, Guinness has managed a 2% gain in sales from last year. The company is testing Guinness Red, which will be lighter in color and taste than regular Guinness, and is aimed at consumers who like the brand but only drink it on rare occasions.  

It’s an interesting story – and a great example of the need for innovation in a mature market.

Many of you have been impacted by the story of SunNight Solar, and their BoGo light (Buy One, Give One). Founded by former US Diplomat Mark Bent, SunNight Solar uses the latest scientific advances in solar and lighting technology to provide light to people in developing countries. When you purchase a light from them, they match your purchase and send a light to the location of your choice. SunNight Solar posted a Challenge to the InnoCentive Marketplace to improve their existing light, so that it could illuminate an entire room as well as work as a handheld flashlight. The Challenge was solved and the company has already begun production of these improved lights, less than a year after posting the Challenge. I recently asked Mark for an update on this exciting project - his thoughts are below:

My name is Mark Bent, and I posted the Challenge to improve the design of my original solar flashlight on Innocentive.  This need for improvement came as a direct result of feedback from World Bank and Department of Energy field research on my lights in Africa.  People liked the original device, but it did not replace a kerosene lantern, because it did not light up a room.  After trying, and failing, to develop a light which had this feature, I turned to Innocentive, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Within the next ten days - by the end of October 2008, we will have a second factory come on line to produce our lights - the original factory cannot keep up with the demand.  Via Innocentive, our electronics and other components are pretty amazing and the lights have been very, very welcomed by the consumer and are in use worldwide.

We are starting up a new program to get these lights to our military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan - the SL-2 - SunLight 2, or SuperBoGo, was so well received by the Marines and soldiers, we wanted to do another program to get them more lights - please see http://www.warlights.com/.  These will be camouflage lights - not a good idea to carry bright orange lights in a war zone and the combat soldiers probably would not appreciate the pink lights much either.

We continue to improve this model and will be coming out with variations in the very near future, both in appearance and in function - lights which cure jaundice in infants via blue LEDs will be the next light and we have many more versions planned.

Thanks InnoCentive and thanks to all of the customers who support our BoGo Lights and other social programs.

Best regards,

Mark

CEO - SunNight Solar
Mark Bent

http://www.sunnightsolar.com/blog/

Bob Fucci is InnoCentive’s SAP relationship manager. He has been at TechEd in Berlin this week, getting to know the European SAP community.

Greetings from Berlin!  As I write this, TechEd Berlin is wrapping up. The conference was attended by more than 10,000 SAP customers, partners, and prospects.  It’s a great testimony to SAP customer loyalty and the “trusted advisor” status SAP has earned.

It is a very interesting and fluid community. People seem to be trying to foster and develop an atmosphere of creativity and independence while at the same time finding a meaningful contribution to corporate performance. It’s quite interesting to see.

To my surprise, InnoCentive was the only SAP Partner highlighted by both Zia Yusuf and Leo Apothker during their keynote presentations. Both of them talked about the strategic nature of the partnership and urged attendees to visit our booth. SAP also announced that SDN members who register as Solvers will receive SDN points - a significant number of new registrations happened as a result.

At past SAP events, sales and customers drove the direction and the purpose of the discussion. The sales “white space” was filled with partners and the single focus is to sell more to clients. That’s less true at TechEd. The premium is about education - the “white space” is new and different ways to collaborate. It is much more about “individual brands”, personal stories, shared experiences and for InnoCentive the challenge to tap into that and build the story will be critical.

Our partner manager Martin Raepple, from SAP, won a “Top Achiever” award and was recognized in the keynote session. Congratulations Martin. Martin and I also posted a video that helps describe our partnership and our goals going forward.

Overall this event really opened my eyes to the opportunities presented by the partnership, and the enthusiasm of our global SAP audience.  Thanks to my SAP hosts for a terrific week!

Bob

I spoke this morning at the Web 2.0 Kongress in Hamburg, Germany. My topic was – you guessed it – Open Innovation. The audience was terrific and highly engaged. During the Q&A, one of the forum facilitators asked me an interesting question: “Given that many emerging technology trends make it to Europe 3 years or so after they find acceptance in the US, what should we be thinking about with regards to Open Innovation adoption in Europe (and Germany)?”

I found this question fascinating and responded that interestingly, nearly a third of our commercial customers are headquartered in Europe today. While our Solver Community is truly global and represents over 160,000 Solvers in 175 countries, all of our resources dedicated to identification of new Seekers are US based today. As a consequence of this higher than expected adoption, we believe there is a considerable openness to “Open Innovation” in Europe that surpasses what we see in other areas of the world today. It should be no surprise that InnoCentive is planning its first European office next year as a result of these findings.

So what explains the higher than expected adoption in European countries? I theorize that the realities of constant coordination and collaboration across countries and firms in the European Union have created not only the skill and will requisite to engage in this type of model, but also the common cultural and organizational understandings necessary for successful institutional adoption. As further evidence of Europe’s openness, visit www.openinnovation.eu or scan the web for open innovation resources and conferences in Europe.

I ask this to anyone, but particularly our European Seekers and Solvers: What do you think? Is Europe more open to “Open Innovation”?

Have you ever had a dispute with someone that you just couldn’t settle and couldn’t get past? Wonder if the world would agree with your perspective? We recently came across SideTaker – a site where you can take your most personal conflicts to the crowd for resolution. Simply post your side of an argument, while your significant other (or friend or roommate or dogsitter) posts theirs. Observers read both, pick a side and provide helpful relationship advice or, more often, mock the posters mercilessly. Ads on the site are heavily slanted toward dating sites, which instantly makes this seem like a feeder system into a larger matchmaking venture. It’s highly entertaining and completely addictive, but is it really crowdsourcing? Can relationship issues be resolved this way? Tell us what you think.