Perspectives on Innovation

Hello everyone.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, InnoCentive’s new website is now live!   We’ve been working hard to update the site with both a new look and feel that we believe better represents today’s Solvers and Seekers and with a framework and functionality that is more flexible and robust.

With this new site, you will immediately feel the difference-it’s lighter, friendlier and, most importantly, it is richer in content than it was before. And it’s going to continue to get better and better rapidly over the coming months thanks to an open framework and content management system on the back end.

We also think you will start to see improvements and enhancements to key functionality that will make you more efficient and effective, as well as enable you to collaborate more easily and more often with improved Team Project Rooms (coming this fall) and more social media tools to help you connect when you want and with whom you want. The basic workings of the website will remain the same: your user information, your archives and your Challenges are exactly as you left them. We haven’t changed the processes you’re used to, such as signing Solver agreements, opening project rooms and submitting solutions, however we’ve tried to make them a bit more user-friendly, and will continue to do so.

It’s worth reflecting that InnoCentive is a marketplace that brings Solvers and Seekers to difficult Challenges. And our site reflects the complex nature of this relationship by providing sections for both sides of the equation. But we encourage you to look at the “other” side if you are a Solver or a Seeker, because there’s lots to understand and learn about how Open Innovation really works today.

With our new site, we’re working hard to make this complex area easy. Please let us know what you think. You can provide your feedback by clicking on the “feedback” link on the homepage, or by clicking on the “contact us” link on any page in the site.

We’re very proud of the new site – it represents months of work by the InnoCentive team, and valuable input that we’ve received formally and informally from Seekers, Solvers and partners alike. Thanks for your support during this process – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Best regards,

Dwayne Spradlin
President and CEO, InnoCentive

Clearly, we will be reviewing the chain of events, doing post mortems, and second guessing for a long time to come all the events before during, and after the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. There will be many points of view and they will differ greatly based upon your perspective. Corporations’ views will differ from environmentalists, lawyers’ will differ from engineers. And Gulf States inhabitants may have very different views than those from the Beltway in Washington D.C.

One area of focus will undoubtedly be whether we used all the tools at our disposal to respond to the crisis quickly and effectively. One might ask “Why wouldn’t we?” In reality, the discussion needs to be “What prevented us from doing so?”

More to come in later blog posts, but for now I thought it would be an opportune time to share some early reflections related to this oil crisis on this topic from my point of view. In particular, as we worked to energize problem solvers from all over the world to drive solutions for BP and the oil spill cleanup efforts, we and the world more broadly found it very difficult to pierce the corporate veil at BP to provide assistance. Even when BP provided vehicles for suggestions to be considered, it was clear that this was not a primary strategy. Most were not process, and frankly, the world was never given the transparency or tools by BP to fully participate in the process in the first place. Why was this so difficult and what can we learn? (more…)

Hello everyone.

I wanted to give you all an update related to our efforts to assist BP with the Oil Spill situation in the Gulf of Mexico.

As you may recall, the most recent update was a contact and expression of interest from BP that was orchestrated by a combination of outreach from the White House, Anthea Stratigos at Outsell, our partner Nature, and general media exposure.  After weeks of no response from BP, this was indeed a major breakthrough and we thank everyone that made that possible.

Specifically, BP officials contacted InnoCentive on June 5^th with a positive tone and apparent eagerness to work together.  Their initial positioning was quite surprising, stating that there was no real opportunity to assist with the oil leak itself, “ …that the next 3 main projects are already in engineering and build for delivery in mid and late June.  It is unlikely that there is space for delivery of further innovations in that arena before the relief well is completed in August.”  After two months of attempting to stop the leak, they made clear that outside solutions will not have a role in stopping or slowing the leak.

That said, they also indicated that two areas that they termed “real time problems” existed that would be vital to the clean up phase: remote sensing of oil and better skimming technology.  After discussions on the morning of Sunday, June 6^th, our teams started working immediately as a top priority with BP in order to define very specific challenges to drive solutions to these problems out to our network and the rest of the world.  At the same time, we began indicating in the press that BP was responding to the need to engage outside resources in their process.  Later that week, we expected approval to post these challenges on our website.  Approval did not come and BP failed to return calls for several days.  When our contacts did respond, they indicated that were sent home for much needed R&R, but were now back and ready to engage.  Not deterred, we checked in with them nearly every day over the subsequent week or so until June 19^th when they wrote us that they would not be proceeding.

Why wouldn’t they proceed?  Particularly when these ‘real time problems” were identified by their own teams as priorities?  They said that “… the agreements BP would have to enter into with Innocentive are too complex and burdensome to add to already overstretched workdays.”  These agreements are simple, allow us to use BP’s name without InnoCentive taking on liability, and set the price of engagement at $0.  Overstretched workdays?  Really?

My faith in BP was already stretched, now it is gone.  The teams at BP lack an urgency to involve the outside world.  They appear to actually believe they have this crisis well in hand while putting forth that stoic, concerned face we’re all now use to seeing – working around the clock and doing everything humanly possible .  BP is not the victim here.  A catastrophic leadership failure, driven by a closed and arrogant culture.  This does not bode well for the Gulf.

You, we and many others have attempted to help in this crisis situation.  It is clear BP cannot be trusted to make the right decisions here, further intervention will be necessary.  We are currently assessing the next steps on our end, but I wanted to make sure you all had the most recent updates.

Your assistance has been invaluable, but we are not yet done.  We may need to tap you for further ideas if we are all to make a difference here.  Thank you for your help to date and in advance.  We are not going quietly into the night on this one, not with what’s at stake in the Gulf.

Best regards,

Dwayne

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As attempts to stem the flow of oil from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico continue to fail, the intensity of media attention has increased.  At the same time, our Solvers continue to rise to the challenge and submit thoughtful and novel solutions to the problem.  Last night, InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin spoke with Hardball’s Chris Matthews about some “out of the box” ideas we’ve seen from our Solvers – and about the need for those in charge to start looking very seriously at what our Solver community has to offer.

We recently announced our collaboration with The Economist’s Ideas Economy event series to launch the Economist-InnoCentive Challenge on 21st Century Cyber-Schools. InnoCentive is very excited about this partnership.  The Economist is  trying to solve some of the big problems plaguing mankind – which is exactly what we’re doing.  We do it through our global network of Solvers and they are doing it through their Ideas Economy Event series and the reach they have with their subscribers.  Both audiences contain some of the world’s most intelligent, highly engaged thinkers who are motivated to make a difference.  Given both audiences, along with our expertise in the process of Challenge based innovation, it makes perfect sense for us to join forces.

We asked InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin to provide his thoughts on this Challenge, and explain some of the benefits that we expect to see from this partnership:

Hi Dwayne – thanks for talking to us about the InnoCentive-Economist Partnership and the Cyber-Schools Challenge.

Absolutely – glad to have the opportunity.

What was inspiration for this particular Challenge?

The idea for this actual Challenge and for future Challenges will be driven by the theme of each of the Ideas Economy events.  These are all themes that we feel strongly about addressing.  The first key conference theme is Human Potential.  At the event, participants will discuss and debate how to boost human productivity by harnessing the potential of individuals and societies.  The Challenge addresses this via expanding education to people who are currently not able to access it. The Challenge winner will touch upon global education best practices, free market solutions to education, the testing dilemma, and how online learning will transform our schools.

In addition, we believe that this  is a Challenge that just about every attendee of the upcoming Economist Conference has both a stake in solving and something to offer. We have all been students at one time or another – so we all can relate to the Challenge from our own perspective. (more…)