Archive for innovation
What You Can Never Outsource
// October 15th, 2007 // No Comments » // connecticut, crowdsourcing, entrepreneurialism, innovation
“What you can never outsource, is responsibility.” These were the sage words of Soren Lund, marketing director at LEGO on the In Business podcast from the BBC. Their exodus from Connecticut wasn’t good for the local economy, but their ability to focus their business strategy on something that customers are willing to pay, even in a flat world, is something we can learn from.
Entrepreneurialism: America’s Asset
// April 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // books, entrepreneurialism, innovation
The world described in Carl Schramm’s book, The Entrepreneurial Imperative, will be terrifying to every middle manager you know. Schramm points out how the current cycle of status quo management has gone on too long. Droves of people flocked to investing, operations and professional services to support a waning base of companies and organizations. But, there’s been a corresponding loss in creativity – not creativity as in art, but creativity as in innovation.
Cycles of innovation and management are natural, but right now America seems to be entrenched in a managerial cycle. The danger in this, Schramm suggests, is that managerial cultures lose their appetite for risk and pass that on to their children. One of the most telling signs of this is the precipitous decline in children’s interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Fortunately, America still reveres the entrepreneur in the garage. And, as long as he’s genuine and honest, the community supports him, even if his business is one of the 9 out of 10 that don’t make it. This, Schramm says, is a big part of what we should teach in schools – cycles of innovation and failure. Comfort with these may soon become more of an asset than perfect test scores.
Commercial Crowdsourcing May Just Be Cheap Labor
// October 27th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // crowdsourcing, innovation
The recent wave of commercial open source development (aka crowdsourcing) should be approached with caution. While the process generates a rejuvenating spark, as in the examples on a recent episode of Radio Open Source and Steve Rubel’s recent post, it fails to recognize the long-term contribution of innovators. Crowdsourcing for commercial gain can’t survive for much longer.
Non-commercial Crowdsourcing
That’s not to say that drawing good ideas from the masses isn’t valuable. Linux and Wikipedia, although still rough on some edges, are great examples of useful innovations distilled from the skills of tens of thousands of contributors. However, because these ventures don’t generate explicit profits, contributors are likely to be satisfied with the knowledge that they helped build something.
Commercial Crowdsourcing
When commercial enterprises crowdsource for product ideas, branding concepts and research, it’s arguable that they are paying below market rates for revenue generating assets. The smart people that win crowdsourcing contests are usually awarded some prize at a single point in time. But if those ideas go on to generate future earnings for a company, the contributors rarely have access to them, even though their work may have been a major factor. Chris Lydon, in an interview with several crowdsourcers, suggested companies offer contributors health insurance. The suggestion wasn’t taken seriously by the guests, who cited that many members of their crowds lived in countries where socialized medicine was available.
Solution: An Exchange for Crowdsourcing Contracts
No business can maintain all the relevant talent at all the relevant times. And lots of innovators enjoy the flexibility of working for multiple clients. So, naturally crowdsourcing will continue to provide a wellspring of new ideas. However, to keep the community of innovators engaged, we should consider rewarding them not with prizes, but with equity and benefits. Ideally these rewards would be transferable, providing innovators with revenue and insurance while they work toward their next project.
