Tag / innovation

by YannigRoth

Is Theodore Levitt’s article “Creativity is not enough” still accurate today?

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

 

I just finished reading Creativity is not enough, an HBR article that Theodore Levitt wrote more than 40 years ago. As the title indicates, the father of globalization theory says the creativity is a good thing, but that companies should not pay too much attention to creative types because they might be harmful to the business. My first thought was “Wow, Theodore Levitt was pretty tough on creatives“… but it’s still an interesting read, especially today where everybody is praising creativity as the panacea for innovation and competitiveness. Here are some excepts of this crusade against creative types, and some thoughts about today’s situation. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Quelques extraits du webinar sur Local Motors et la co-création

Vendredi dernier, le Co-Creation Forum organisait un webinar sur Local Motors, une entreprise dont j’ai déjà parlé sur ce blog. Durant ce webinar (ou slidecast, enfin quel que soit le terme…) on a pu écouter Damien Declercq, directeur du développement commercial de Local Motors, présenter Local Motors ainsi que son rôle au sein de l’entreprise. Damien Declercq est français (Normand même), mais l’ensemble de la présentation a été faite en anglais. Voici quelques passages retranscrits en français pour ceux qui ne maitrisent pas tellement la langue de Shakespeare… ou qui n’ont pas envie d’écouter trois quarts d’heure de webinar! Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Merging two crowdsourcing platforms: what challenges?

innocentive-omnicompete

A week ago, InnoCentive announced the aquisition of OmniCompete, another innovation-contest platform. To my knowledge, it’s the first acquisition of one contest-platform by another (correct me if I’m wrong). In the blog post that announced this strategic move, InnoCentive’s and OmniCompete’s CEOs explain the rationale for this merger, but I think that this type of operation also implies interesting challenges concerning platform- and community-management. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

One brand, different platforms (part 8) – Nokia’s wise approach to crowdsourcing

The world is too fast, complex and networked for any company to have all the answers inside

Yochai Benkler, author of The Wealth Of Networks

Wow, it’s already the 8th part of this series about brands and their web-based participatory efforts. Companies like Danone, Heineken, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Unilever, GE and Dell do leverage web 2.0 to innovate and engage consumers, this part is dedicated to Nokia. The Finnish cellphone manufacturer seriously missed the co-creative push ushered by Apple and its applications, so they had to catch up and innovate their own way out of this crisis. Here are some of their initiatives, and they’re still learning.

connecting people

Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Crowdsourcing: Serial participants end up proposing less diverse ideas

thumbnails

Right after writing that blog post about crowdsourcing at Dell, I read an interesting piece of research about participation in the Dell Ideastorm crowdsourcing-platform. The paper is authored by Barry L. Bayus an d will be published in Management Science in the next months (see the first version, and the second version – by the way, it’s a great way to see how mauch a paper evolves durring the reviewing process). While it has not been published yet, the findings are interesting to look at, because they’re among the first ones to analyze participation in crowdsourcing over time. And it seems that there are challenges ahead for Dell… Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Crowdsourcing for innovation, a visual confirmation of the trend

the-power-of-crowdsourcing

Images via smilespread.co.uk, 99designs.com and oBizmedia.com

I like visualizations, as much as I like to write about the trend of crowdsourcing. Since the term is certainly overused (as in this article about an “crowdsourced” electric vehicle, which is actually the result of an innovation cluster), what do you think about getting back to some facts about crowdsourcing-platforms? I mean websites like InnoCentive, Hyve, Jovoto or Zooppa which leverage a crowd of contributors to participate in online-hosted contests. Let me share my visual perspective about 2011, a year in which crowdsourcing gained a lot of steam! Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Un voiture électrique co-créée: la petite allemande StreetScooter

streetscooter avantRécemment, Turbo faisait echo de Local Motors, une entreprise américaine qui s’appuye sur une foule de contributeurs pour concevoir et construire une voiture de A à Z. Selon certains, ce type d’initiative constitue la prochaine innovation de rupture dans le secteur automobile. Et maintenant que l’armée américaine a utilisé ce système pour un de ses véhicules, et que même Barack Obama en a vanté les mérites (vidéo), tout le monde en parle. Il se trouve qu’un consortium allemand initié par l’université technologique d’Aix-La-Chapelle a créé un véhicule électrique de manière similaire: le StreetScooter. Quelques précisions sur ce prototype dans l’air du temps… et appelé Zeitgeist. Continue reading →