The World Resources Institute (WRI), a global think tank that works with organizations to help solve urgent environmental challenges, recently completed an InnoCentive Challenge aimed at helping local communities across the globe adapt to changing climate conditions.  We talked with Eliot Metzger at WRI about the Challenge and the winning Solutions.

Hello Eliot.  Thanks for coming back to tell us about your completed Challenge.  Perhaps you can start by reminding our readers about the goals of the Challenge.

One of our primary goals at WRI is to help people adapt to the impacts of climate change and advance innovative solutions that prevent further damage to the global climate system. With this Challenge, we were seeking creative ideas for communicating local needs in communities dealing with climate challenges they have never seen before.

Communities across the globe are confronting more extreme weather, like heat waves, droughts, and floods.  They also are facing more subtle and long-term impacts, which can be equally disruptive. Sea level rise is one well-known example, but there are also food and health risks as a changing climate creates conditions for increasing pest populations or insect-borne disease.

These are global and regional disruptions creating new needs at a local level. A community in Ghana may be looking for new energy sources to compensate for the hydroelectric power supply that is less reliable because of changing rainfall patterns. A coastal community in Vietnam may be in need of infrastructure to deal with increasing tidal floods because of rising sea levels.

We asked for ideas that could leverage new communication models and advances in information and communication technology to meet these needs. Our challenge to the InnoCentive Solvers was to come up with ideas for a communications platform that linked communities, governments, and companies. We want to see information flow from the local level to inform new approaches for national-level decision making and new goods and services from the business community.

This was an Ideation Challenge, and you made four awards.  Tell us your thinking about that decision.

Well, first of all it was difficult to pick just one idea.  There were several that stood above the rest.  And among those, each offered something slightly different.  I can’t say that any one of the solutions we reviewed had exactly what we were looking for, but nearly all the proposals had at least a few interesting ideas.

There were four ideas that were particularly comprehensive, creative, and still quite practical. We decided to recognize and reward each of those Solvers. It was nice to have the flexibility to spread the award money among several good ideas.

Can you share with us some of the most compelling ideas that were awarded?

Sure. The top idea suggested tapping into local universities to communicate on-the-ground needs for climate change solutions. This was particularly compelling because it would create local champions among university students, who have established connections and a very deep interest in helping their communities adapt.

Another winning idea described ways to get key players involved and excited about meeting new needs in a changing climate. For example, incentives for companies to provide mobile phone services or share intellectual property that could help communities communicate and implement climate change solutions.

Other winning proposals offered ideas for using SMS text messaging and local community networks to collect and disseminate critical information about changing climate conditions.

What now?  Do you have any plans to incorporate these solutions into future programming?  If so, what impact might this have on climate change on a local level?

I expect there will be several opportunities to build these ideas into WRI’s efforts to help countries and communities adapt to climate change.  We have worked recently to develop ideas for how companies, governments and communities can partner to adapt to climate change. Communication strategies figure to be a critical component of any such partnerships. WRI also just released the latest World Resources Report, which focuses on decision making in a changing climate and highlights information sharing strategies among other recommendations.

My team at WRI is actively working to highlight strategies for accelerating private sector innovation to help address climate change. There is much that leading companies can do to help communities adapt to climate challenges. It will require more awareness and information about risks and opportunities, along with innovative business models, goods and services.

This was your first Challenge with InnoCentive, and we were impressed with your thorough review process.  Any advice you might have for others regarding evaluation of submissions or other aspects of the Challenge process?

That’s nice to hear. At WRI, we pride ourselves on thorough and inclusive peer review processes.

Once the ideas were in, we established a review panel of colleagues from across the Institute with a wealth of expertise. Some are working on climate change adaptation policy. Others work with communities on environmental issues. Others work with small and medium-sized businesses on sustainability strategies.

I’d highly recommend pulling together such a group when evaluating solutions.  The diverse group helped us get input about what ideas seemed most promising from various perspectives. It helped, for example, to hear from colleagues working with vulnerable communities about what communication technologies are most feasible (i.e., SMS is a better bet than a fancy smart phone app). In fact, some of our colleagues were already exploring similar ideas in their work and the review panel served as an informal forum for further ideation and information sharing.

I also want to take this as an opportunity to acknowledge the helpful insights we gained from everyone we worked with at InnoCentive.  We very much hope to do more with open innovation at WRI going forward.

Thanks – we hope to work with WRI again soon.

Hello Dr. DiCorleto, and thank you for speaking with us today. Can you tell us a bit about Cleveland Clinic and the mission of the Lerner Research Institute?

Cleveland Clinic is unique in that from its very beginning in 1921, the founders believed that research and education belonged with clinical care.  These elements remain in our mission statement today, and research is viewed as an integral part of patient care.  At the Lerner Research Institute, our goal is to understand the underlying causes of human diseases and to develop new treatments and cures.

Cleveland Clinic is a world renowned research institute.  Can you tell us about some of the specific innovations that have been developed since the organization’s founding?

Cleveland Clinic has enjoyed a rich history in patient-driven innovative research.  Historical results of this include the synthesis of angiotensin II (involved in high blood pressure), isolation of serotonin (involved in depression), invention of the “washing machine artificial kidney” dialysis machine, and discovery of both the first gene linked to juvenile macular degeneration and the first gene linked to familial coronary artery disease.   Many procedures also had their debut at Cleveland Clinic due to innovative research and clinical practice.  These include the first coronary angiography, the first coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), the first minimally invasive aortic valve surgery, the first successful larynx transplant, the first percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, the first endovascular tricuspid valve implant, the first near-total face transplant in the United States, and the first completed transvaginal nephrectomy.

Why did you decide to open your research efforts to include open innovation?

As a leading medical and research institution, finding new and better ways to advance the treatment of patients is a key to our mission.  We look to utilize the most cutting-edge tools available, and InnoCentive’s open innovation platform is one such tool that will assist us in advancing research in a fast and effective manner. We look forward to utilizing the advantages that exist with open innovation.

What do you see as the potential of this collaboration with InnoCentive?

By sharing specific Challenges with InnoCentive Solvers, we hope to expedite the process of bench to bedside research by fast tracking the discovery and innovation process.

If you had unlimited resources, in terms of money, people and time, what medical challenge would you most like to see solved?

It’s hard to narrow it down to just one.  At Cleveland Clinic, we have a very robust biomedical research program, focusing on the entire continuum of diseases, including heart disease; cancer; obesity; neurologic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, MS, and Parkinson’s; musculoskeletal disorders; diabetes; depression; macular degeneration and other eye diseases; infectious diseases; kidney disease; genetic disorders; autism; etc.  Our focus on the patient reminds us that every individual impacted by these diseases, and many others, is important.

Your initial Challenge is about repairing an injury to a ligament or tendon.  Why did you decide to start with this particular Challenge?  Is this part of a theme, or simply one example of many Challenges that you will post in a wide variety of medical disciplines?

This is only one example of the types of focused Challenges that will improve patient care.  We will select Challenges that, if solved, will quickly accelerate advances in biomedical research and/or improve the clinical practice of medicine.

If you could look back on this collaboration in five years, what would you hope to have accomplished?

Although five years is not a long timeline with respect to advancing biomedical research and patient care, we hope that in five years we will have many examples of how this collaboration produced improvements in human health.

The author begins the article with “top-tier surfing” contests at Bells Beach and Rio’s Billabong Pro, Lowers Pro’s “MVP,” Nike 6.0’s “Cash for Tricks” and Volcom’s “kick-flip on camera” challenge, where she has witnessed surfers driven to produce some “performance evolution” kicks, flips and other tricks. She notes that besides the adrenaline-rush and the chance to perform in front of their peers, cash prizes do not hurt in encouraging them to come up with innovative new moves. And why stop there she asks. Why not “ask” or crowdsource innovation within the rest of the surfing industry, like seamless, slimmer, resilient wetsuits and environmentally friendly and surfboard materials and a host of other inventions and enhancements.

Hence, the mention of InnoCentive, crowdsourcing and prize-based innovation; while the idea of prize-based innovation isn’t new, she credits the World Wide Web and InnoCentive with accelerating the use of crowdsourcing and cash prizes for “linking regular people with ideas to problems.” Have a read – the article is so well written and you don’t have to be a surfer to understand and enjoy it!

I am currently a second year MBA student at the Yale School of Management. I graduated from Indian Institute of Technology in 2006 with a major in Electrical Engineering. Thereafter, I worked with British Telecom as a consultant where I was primarily involved in strategy and planning. At BT, I held a cross functional profile that spanned around Crisis Management, Strategy, Technology, Finance and Project and Vendor Management. I am passionate about the telecom/technology sector and am extremely interested in the emerging markets. I will graduate from Yale School of Management in May, 2011.

At Yale, my interests lie in Strategy, Finance and Technology. I spent the last summer with Zephyr Management, a Private Equity fund in NYC. I also interned with IBM in Business Performance Services. I head the South Asian Business Forum at the School of Management and am also a member of the organizing team of Asia Tomorrow- Yale’s premier student run conference.

Sasha Vyash, my team mate, is a second year MBA student at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She has a master’s degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (India). She is actively involved in the South Asian Business Association and consulting club at Tuck. She has extensive experience in the retail and analytics industry. Before Tuck, she worked for an Analytics firm called Dunnhumby. At Tuck, she majors in Marketing and Strategy. She spent the last summer with Fidelity and would be joining McKinsey & Co. in June, 2011. She has a huge interest in economic development and emerging markets.

Having spent a major part of lives in India, we have been constantly exploring areas and opportunities for development in the emerging markets. Emerging markets, due to the dynamic, ever changing landscape presents a challenge to the entire business community. There are principally two challenges involved here- to construct innovative business models that are sustaining and more importantly, touch the base of the pyramid. In our opinion, emerging markets are revolutionary because there is a huge room for innovation and entrepreneurship in these regions. As we challenged ourselves to come up with good solutions, we heard of the Economist Innocentive challenge. This was an excellent platform for us to showcase our idea and also gather feedback and response from the rest of the innocentive community. We have a good mix in our team. I have a background in engineering. So, I have a good grasp of things from an implementation perspective. Sasha has a background in Economics thereby proving the bigger macroscopic picture. In addition, both of us being MBAs have a fair knowledge of the other factors that are crucial for a sustainable business model. Winning the challenge has been absolutely thrilling for us and we definitely look forward to solve more challenges here!

Summary of the Proposal

Our idea revolves around leveraging the telecom revolution in emerging markets and using sophisticated analytics techniques to enhance the agriculture value chain. Our tool- Agro-Engine would help identify trends and deliver unique insight to farming communities, processing plants and retails giants that would help them in investment management and portfolio optimization. The scope of this tool is huge in emerging markets.

Background: The advent of 3G services (in developed and emerging markets) has laid the foundation of a seamless information exchange platform that would connect the rural markets. The challenge lies in bridging the huge digital divide and using this to further advance the rural population. Presently, a large number of farmers allocate their resources based on their legacy and word of mouth. Processing plants and retail majors have no ways to identify or predict future supply and thus cannot optimize their investments.

We propose the conceptualization of a data driven, Portfolio Management Tool that would help the industry identify trends based on historic data and performance. The tool is apt for developed economies where there is already sufficient telecom penetration. Agro-Engine would aid farming communities and large corporate giants in the retail and agriculture sector in allocating their resources and optimizing their portfolio. For example, a typical farmer’s portfolio would consist of crops he intends to grow on his land. Our analytics tool would incorporate multiple inputs such as previous track record, financial constraints, risk appetite and time to market. The tool would leverage the 3G revolution in developing economies through rural penetration and existing rural infrastructure. With increased usage and data availability, the tool would become more and more robust and gain credibility in identifying trends and delivering useful recommendations.

Some of the report highlights include:

1. Ninety-eight (98) percent of the executives surveyed believe that innovation will be critical to the success of their organizations over the next five years.
2. The most important reason to innovate is to facilitate future organizational growth (79% of respondents). For commercial enterprises, the second most important reason to innovate is to support profitability (74% of respondents); for the public sector, reputation is the second most important reason to innovate (59% of respondents). InnoCentive’s work with public sector organizations (e.g., Air Force Research Labs, NASA, In-Q-Tel and the intelligence community) in particular reveals that they are serious about finding solutions to problems that matter most to their missions, advocating public-private partnerships, and promoting transparency, openness, and collaboration across agencies.
3. Thirty-five (35) percent of organizations do not appear capable of measuring the success of their innovation efforts. This number is somewhat troubling and is probably low. Establishing a measurement framework with feedback loops and regular milestone checks should be a key deliverable for all open innovation programs and projects.
4. The majority of executives interviewed believe that they are innovation leaders in their respective industries, with 74% of CEOs indicating said leadership. Since the majority of respondents also indicated that CEOs are most responsible for guiding innovation efforts, it’s not surprising that the majority of CEOs self-report leadership.
5. Inadequate funding and technology were recognized as significant barriers to innovation. I’ll go ahead and add a few one more: A lack of methodology, process, discipline, and expertise. InnoCentive’s unique methodology, Challenge Driven Innovation, is an innovation framework that accelerates traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation and crowdsourcing along with defined methodology, process, and tools to help organizations develop and implement actionable solutions to their key problems, opportunities, and challenges. The key point is: Methodology matters.

Overall, some thought-provoking data courtesy of HP.