I’m a road warrior.  I’ve spent a career expanding businesses to remote corners of the world and have been fortunate to discover innovation and intellectual curiosity in the most unexpected of places.  From the rain forests of Brazil to the deserts of Dubai, I’ve learned that we all share a need to solve problems.  We all want to make our worlds better.  And we all want to connect with others who challenge us.

This is why joining InnoCentive has been so fulfilling for me.  As Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, I’m tasked with expanding our global footprint to increase the innovation capacity of organizations around the world.  This means not only ensuring that our Solver network comprises a diverse mix of individuals from as many different backgrounds as possible, but also providing problems for our Solvers to work on that reflect issues they may not have encountered before.

Over the past few months, we’ve been actively formalizing partnerships to help us extend our reach in strategic geographies.   In Q2, we selected Innovabia, an Arabian Advanced Systems company, to help us bring new Seekers onboard in the Middle East and North Africa. Innovabia is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, and Riyadh, KSA, and has a deep understanding of the business needs in this area. We participated in a formal kick off with our first corporate KSA client, SABIC at an Innovabia/AAS hosted reception and dinner in Riyadh.  InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin, pictured at the event, pledged a dual effort to expand the Solver and Seeker communities in the region.

Also in Q2, Innovia joined forces with InnoCentive as a partner in South America. Headquartered in Brazil, they will work to expand the Seeker and Solver presence in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.  In Q3, InnoCentive helped kick off a new partnership in Colombia by participating in an Innovation Day, sponsored by our partner, Tecnova. Over 750 people attended the event and were very enthusiastic about the address given by InnoCentive’s VP of Government Jon Fredrickson. Tecnova will provide solutions throughout Colombia and Peru.

India has always provided a rich source of Solvers to the InnoCentive network. In recent months, we have moved to further to expand the Solver as well as the Seeker base in this diverse and vibrant country. 2010-2020 has been declared “the Decade of Innovation” in India and we are excited to be at the forefront of this initiative with our new partner, EREHWON Consulting.  As the InnoCentive partner in India, EREHWON will help expand exposure to InnoCentive in industry, government, and education throughout the country. To kick off the partnership, InnoCentive joined EREHWON at a recent innovation day for Petro Federation of India (PetroFed), held on October 19^th in New Delhi.  Participation in this event, via a formal presentation and more informal networking with attendees gave us a new appreciation for the level of potential innovation capacity in this region.

I’m very excited about what can be accomplished by expanding innovation capability in South America, the Middle East and India.  We’ve carefully chosen partners with that we think best understand the innovation needs of their areas and can help us serve those areas well.  We look forward to welcoming our new Seekers and Solvers from around the world!

BonnieJean Butler is the newest member of our Client Services team, and is managing the Water Problems Affecting People in Developing Countries Challenge.  BonnieJean spent time in India and offers a unique perspective on the impact of this Challenge.

You and I can help save a life. Yes, you and I. And it’s easier than you think.

During my world-wide travels, I saw hard-working moms walk for miles in the hottest, most humid weather you can imagine. The destination? The closest stream. Why? To fill a bowl of water and walk back those very same miles to bring the water to their babies.

Her goal seems like a simple one, but these moms know the water has something in it that may make their children sick and possibly die. They’ve seen before; so many other babies have already died. Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe this stream is cleaner. Maybe my baby is stronger than the others. Maybe not.  So why do it? Simply, their babies will die quicker without water. What a horrible choice.

In some countries, more than 20% of children die before they reach 5 years old and high bacteria content in water is a major contributor. It’s hard to believe or even imagine if you haven’t seen it. People world-wide are dying because of bacteria-filled water.

We wonder, “can’t they just fix it”? Great question! Here’s your chance to help, and it’s easy! Not like “lose 50 lbs in 3 weeks” easy, but really and truly easy. We are seeking to identify these water related issues and you can help identify and solve them. Submit your own ideas or forward this Challenge to your family, friends, or strangers; whatever it takes.

You don’t have to irrigate the Sahara. Smaller incremental changes or improvements are usually more actionable. Get creative with solutions that use limited funding, but create a big benefit for a population. Think about cost efficient solutions can be deployed quickly and have a wide ranging impact.

Please get involved with this Challenge. You really can make a difference and maybe even save the life of a child. So think about it… And pass it on.

BonnieJean

Adrienne Peirce, a Solver from Minneapolis, Minnesota, recently won the InnoCentive Challenge “Ideas for Redesigning the InnoCentive Website”.

I was a Quality Engineer in the medical device industry for 6 years. Before that, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Having decided to pursue a career in business and possibly non-profits, I returned to the University of Minnesota to get an MBA from the Carlson School of Management. After graduation, I decided to spend some time in India to learn about social needs and business in one if the fastest growing economies on earth. After 4 months of volunteering and touring, I have returned to the Minneapolis to start a freelance consulting practice with a friend focused on business strategies for the greater good.

At one point in India, I had some spare time while I researched different volunteer and internships opportunities. I had read about InnoCentive in business school, so I went to the site to see if there were any Challenges with a business orientation that I could solve. InnoCentive had posted its own Challenge for ideas for updating their website. As a new user I had plenty of ideas and spent some of my time in India putting them all together in my submission.

I am a huge InnoCentive fan. It is a very modern way for companies and individuals and ideas to come together. The fact that InnoCentive is expanding into even more areas that I am interested in, like the Rockefeller Foundation, Clean Tech, and Public Policy, keeps me coming back to check for new challenges.

Find out more about Adrienne on her blog, Life of 80.

The Seeker organization for this Challenge, ASSET India was founded by Ray Umashankar two years ago, with his daughter Nita and his wife Sushila. In the two years since ASSET was founded, the organization has opened several training centers in urban areas in India, where 369 students have been enrolled. Plans for 2009 include two or three more training centers and 600 or more enrolled students. Now with the availability of wireless, solar powered routers, he can reach many more people, including those who live more remote rural areas.

In December, Umashankar was recognized with The Purpose Prize which celebrates and supports “outstanding individuals 60 or older who are producing significant social innovation and accomplishing work of great importance. ”

I recently caught up with Dean Umashankar, to get a status update on the implementation of the wireless router technology, as well as an update on the organization’s plans for the future.

Hello Dean Umashankar. It has been a few months since the solar powered router Challenge was solved – what has ASSET been up to in this time?

ASSET has been busy raising funds to pay for the hardware, student wages and faculty salary. The total budget is $42,000 and so far we have raised $8,000. The two prototypes for the router should be ready and tested by September 2009.

Our partner organizations are eagerly awaiting the deployment of the routers. Once the technology is deployed successfully, we will be able to open several centers in rural India. ASSET has had many requests for setting up centers in small rural towns.

How do you anticipate that this deployment will help expand the ASSET mission?

Our target population consists of children of sex workers and girls rescued from trafficking. Since these girls living in rural areas lack the confidence and skills to move to larger cities to find technology related employment, we had to find a way to take the work to them so that they do not have to relocate. Innocentive’s assistance in solving the technology problem is of great significance and we plan to share the solution with other NGOs ( Non Government Organizations) that can benefit from it.

One of the exciting possibilities is the setting up of a center in a village where a large number of girls rescued from trafficking live. These include girls who had been dedicated to temples and subsequently ended up in brothels.

Interestingly, the overall downturn in the economy has not affected entry level IT positions at all- in fact the numbers are expected grow dramatically in the next couple of years.

Do you have plans to post any more Challenges on InnoCentive’s marketplace?

Yes. I most certainly do. In fact the biggest challenge I face now is finding qualified English language teachers for our centers. I have to identify a technology solution to make the delivery of English language lessons non-teacher dependent.

Congratulations on your recent Purpose Prize – can you tell us a bit about that?

The Purpose Prize recognizes social entrepreneurs over the age of 60. There were 9 prizes of $10,000 each and more than 1,200 nominations. The process took nearly 10 months and I was one of only two selected for a project outside the U.S. The reception took place at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. This prize has given great exposure to ASSET’s work and increased our credibility enormously.

Thank you so much for your time.  We wish you well in the expansion of ASSET’s good works and look forward to your next Challenge with InnoCentive!Thank you.

Dean Umashankar was recently profiled in a major online Indian publication – you can read this inspiring piece here – ‘Success doesn’t require any special skill, except passion’

I am a scientist by profession. My training was in organic chemistry and my present interests are in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, more specifically in cellular signaling. Recently I have joined as a senior scientist in the Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad, India. I did my PhD from National Chemical Laboratory Pune, India working in the group of Dr. M. S. Shashidhar. After my PhD, I moved to Japan to work in the group of Prof. Yutaka Watanabe, Ehime University availing JSPS fellowship from Govt. of Japan.  After two years of postdoctoral stay in Japan, I joined Prof. Barry Potter’s group (University of Bath, UK) as a Research Officer. After spending two years in England, I have received Alexander von Humboldt fellowship from the Federal Govt. of Germany and joined the group of Prof. Herbert Waldmann at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany.  I have published my research accomplishments, till date, in more than 35 international publications.  In recognition of my scientific achievements, my biography has been incorporated in three books by Marquis Whos Who, U.S.A namely, Who is Who in the World, Who is Who in Science and Technology and Who is Who in Asia. Among other academic activities, I am a frequent reviewer of different international journals and I am editorial board member of the journal OPEN GLYCOSCIENCE, a forum for publishing chemical and biological aspects of carbohydrates and related biomolecules.

Apart from chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, I am also interested in asymmetric synthesis, total synthesis of biologically active natural products and analogues, development of methodologies for novel chemical transformations etc.  Such novel methodologies could have potential as tools to study biology.  Another interest of mine is the use of enzymes for novel chemical transformations, which are otherwise difficult to achieve.  In an era when the boundaries between the subjects are disappearing, I believe, working at these closely related, complimentary and interlinked areas of sciences will be exciting.

The challenge by Rockefeller foundation for designing the most economical and safest route to PA-824, the candidate drug for tuberculosis attracted my attention. Why? My mother was the only breadwinner of my family and during my school days (when I was 14) she had to stop working due to tuberculosis and I had to take the responsibility of breadwinning during my school days and college days and I often had to work on weekends and after-school-hours to provide her medication and feed my family.  This was the particular reason I was interested in this challenge of developing an economical route for the anti-TB drug. I am happy and excited that my contribution of developing a cost effective process will be benefited by millions suffering from TB especially from developing and underdeveloped countries.  I am looking forward to hear the success story of my process.

The relation with innocentive has always been encouraging. I am looking forward for future challenges, where my contribution can make a difference.

I am a workaholic person and I often wonder why there are only 24 hours for a day! During free time (which hardly or very rarely turns up) I like to play chess and listen to carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music.