Paul Sloane explains open innovation and crowdsourcing, drawing on his edited book and case studies from LG Electronics, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Scion, and Intuit. He defines open innovation through Henry Chesbrough's framework and crowdsourcing via Rennie Hopkins, then shares practical tips for organizations looking to adopt these approaches.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Paul Sloane. I help organizations improve innovation. I go around the world, work with large companies and small companies, and facilitate workshops. And this year I edited a book which I would recommend to you called A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing. Open innovation and crowdsourcing are hot topics in the world of innovation at the moment. And what I did was I asked many of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field to contribute to this book. And we've got over 30 great experts who've written chapters. So what is open innovation and what is crowdsourcing? Well, open innovation was a phrase coined by Henry Chesbrough, who wrote the foreword to this book. And he describes it as a means whereby valuable ideas can come from inside or outside the company and can go to market from inside or outside the company. So with open innovation, you get external resources to help you develop and bring new products to market rather than developing everything yourself. And what's crowdsourcing? Well, Rennie Hopkins describes it as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent or employee and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. And in this book, you get many examples, tips, stories, rules, guidance, what to do, what not to do, how you can change your culture to take advantage of open innovation. And as well as leading commentators and consultants, we've got practitioners: LG Electronics, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Scion, Intuit, all tell their stories about what went right and what went wrong when they implemented open innovation. So if open innovation or crowdsourcing are of interest to you and your company, I would recommend that you get this book. It's a great read.
