Crowdsourcing for Innovation
Every thought leader and employee is looking for that new innovative idea to bring into their business.
We all know that more heads are better than one, yet when you're on a tight budget or you're stuck in your groove how do you stay ahead of the curve in real-time and bring something relevant to your market. This is where crowdsourcing comes into play, using the power of many to inspire the next great idea.
Crowdsourcing is the act of obtaining insight and information from a community of individuals on specific thoughts and ideas. Combining the aspects of knowledge gathering and democratic deliberation, and in this way, providing a space for dialogue and debate that can impact problem-solving and insight. Crowdsourcing projects are being successfully implemented all sectors of industry, here's some that caught our eye.
Public Sector | Nesta is a highly respected innovation foundation based in the UK working to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good. Nesta recently ran their "Nesta Government Innovation Summit" to help governments re-imagine public services. Nesta also published their '20 Tools for Innovating in Government' guide this year, which named collective intelligence as one of three key tools for understanding the opportunities and challenges facing the public sector. Their work is instrumental in the open innovation field in public re-form.
Retail | LEGO. That's right LEGO, the kids toy manufacturing business we all know and love. Their program "Ideas in shop" crowdsources their community's most creative ideas into products they can then extend into their product lines. Essentially providing them with an endless growth pipeline sourced from their most passionate, skilful and engaged customers.
Education | We've also seen the success of crowdsourcing in the field of education. Going back as early as 2013, Columbia University, ran a "What To Fix, Columbia" campaign to engage their students in the future of the university and to create a forum for student policy reform. It generated more than 200 ideas, opened up discussion on topics previously stifled by committee review resulting in important regulation reforms that gave students a stronger voice. Importantly, it created a dynamic space to continue this two-way discussion about the university, negating the need for forums and additional bureaucracy.
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