Credit crunch: perfect circumstances for open innovation!
With a tough recession ahead we all save money while there’s a greater need for competitive advantage! These contradicting preconditions represent the ultimate stage for open innovation.
Using open innovation (Henry Chesbrough, 2003), organizations combine internal & external sources of knowledge in their innovation process. They seek inspiration from outside an organization’s frame of reference: suppliers, users, specialists, hobbyists, etc. to notice out-of-the-box chances and solve problems from another point of view.
Leveraged by web2.0 open innovation has grown to an effective innovation method. In particular ‘crowdsourcing’ (Jeff Howe, 2006) uses the full potential of new ways to share knowledge. By the use of crowdsourcing a whole crowd is challenged with a particular assignment at once. The collaborative knowledge & creativity of this crowd is able to find innovative solutions and bring the assignment by itself to a higher level.
Involving crowds has many advantages, like thinking across sectors. Often a specific problem has already been solved in another sector. Crowdsourcing channelizes and widens the use of knowledge & creativity. Another great advantage is low costs. Knowledge holders are rewarded for the knowledge & creativity they share. But these costs are not even close to in-house knowledge –which you should recruit, maintain and provide with a profound infrastructure. As a result crowdsourcing means cheap labor, even for expertise which organizations can’t permit to possess their selves!
Crowdsourcing enables organizations to look further than regular solutions. Crowds take organizations down The Long Tail (Chris Anderson, 2006). The crowd offers countless creative solutions, mainly by the use of less obvious knowledge. Knowledge from –like it seemed to be– less relevant opinions (niches) which can force a breakthrough (hit) from new point of view.
Please share some thoughts about why you think organizations should (or not) use crowdsourcing during these tough times of recession!
