In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at the new paradigm of the crowd economy, why intrapreneurship helps companies thrive, and innovation lessons from the history of warfare.
A New Paradigm: The 14 Parts of the Crowd Economy Landscape
From Crowdsourcing Week:
“Crowdsourcing’s goal of driving business and societal value, is not just an ancillary benefit, it’s actually baked into its DNA. It’s a defining difference with some of the other “cotton candy” of previous big web movements … and it’s been proven to be faster, fairer, cheaper and better than the alternatives. So let’s get excited about the potential of the town square rallying around your next civic, causeworthy, entrepreneurial or corporate idea, in all its constituent forms.
Historically, what has been an issue with this whole space is the wide ranging taxonomy of the crowd landscape. Prior attempts have been outdated before their ink is dry or define the crowd economy too narrowly, when a much bigger world is out there.
Here’s our carved up 14 slices of the landscape – from most directly monetary-focused to most directly society/community-driven (although there is admitted interplay between even the polar ends of the crowd landscape).”
Our take: As industries turn to open innovation tactics for idea generation, resource management, and problem-solving, best practices are emerging. This parsed-up guide to crowdsourcing is not only reflective of how business strategies are changing, but it makes for a well-thought out guide to how leaders can utilize crowds for innovation, growth, funding, and product solutions.
Read the full article or Tweet this!
Big Companies That Embrace Intrapreneurship Will Thrive
From Entrepreneur:
“It has been well-documented that big companies typically struggle with innovation. Once companies get to a certain size, their investors become more conservative, their leaders less entrepreneurial and their employees less willing to stick their necks out with “out-of-the-box” ideas that may not work out, resulting in them losing their jobs. Without innovation, companies get too “comfortable” with their past successes, and eventually go out of business (see Woolworth, Montgomery Ward, Borders, Blockbuster, American Motors, Pan Am).
Although that is largely the rule, there are several examples where entrepreneurship inside a large organization can and does prosper. This is the world of intrapreneurship, a term popularized by academic researcher Howard Edward Haller, management consultant Gifford Pinchot III and the great Steve Jobs back in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Several big companies today actively promote intrapreneurship within their organizations, allowing their employees to spend 10 to 20 percent of their time on innovative ideas that are unrelated to their normal jobs. Companies such as Google, 3M and Intel are well known for their efforts in this regard. Not surprisingly, these are some of the best performing big companies in the world of business today. But they are surely the minority, and more big companies need to get on board.”
Our take: Innovation is not an outside-in process. If you want new solutions to existing or potential problems, it makes a lot of sense to start mining perspectives closest to the issues — those that come from employees, stakeholders, and long-time customers. Intrapreneurship not only results in viable ideas, but it’s empowering, motivating, and engaging — all elements of creating a positive culture and a successful company.
Read the full article or Tweet this!
4 Innovation Lessons From The History Of Warfare
From Forbes:
“What do the Hydrogen bomb, the Minuteman missile and precision guided weapons all have in common? They all provided crucial financing for technology that we now carry around in our pockets. It is a curious fact of modern society that civilian life, in large part, is powered by the technology of war.
Even today, national security budgets continue to play a big part in technology. While politicians argue about green energy, the military is moving ahead full throttle. DARPA, the agency which brought us the Internet, helped invent self driving cars. The CIA even has its own venture fund.
Many believe that the enormous impact the military has on technology is a moral dilemma and they may be right. Leaving that aside, however, we can also learn a great deal about innovation by studying the history of war.”
Our take: Unfortunate though it may be, war plays a massive role in shaping global culture and driving technological change. It’s been a major catalyst for innovation in a number of areas; not only weaponry, but tactics, emergency response, security, medicine, automotive technologies, communication, and much more. Why not apply our learnings directly to the products and services landscape?
Read the full article or Tweet this!
The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: The 14 Parts of the Crowd Economy, Embracing Intrapreneurship, and Innovation Lessons from Warfare appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad.