What (and who) is driving global innovation
It’s incredibly exciting to witness the life-altering innovations taking shape across the globe. Entrepreneur Dean Kamen can transform raw sewage into drinking water. Qualcomm is crowdsourcing the development of a personal medical scanning device — a real-life version of the iconic Star Trek tricorder. Dickson Despommier developed his concept of vertical farming, which promises to dramatically reduce land use.
So what — and who — is driving innovation across the globe? Peter Diamandis, an international pioneer in the field of innovation, points to several trends:
The Bottom Billion — Formerly existing in strictly localized environments, people in countries like Africa or regions like Southeast Asia are today contributing to the world in exciting ways. As these parts of the world develop new and beneficial connections across the globe, the power of innovation is growing. Entirely new generations of contributors are reimagining systems, products and solutions unlike anything we’ve seen before. These individuals represent, as author Charles Leadbeater coined them, “a new breed of frugal innovators in the developing world.”
Uber-Wealthy Activators — These are the individuals who have an abundance of time, creativity and resources. They are the people like Virgin Group founder and investor Sir Richard Branson, who continues building for the needs of future civilizations. Not willing to wait for advancements to come tomorrow, these types of individuals are going out and making them happen today with little to no regard for the cost.
DIY Engineers — Some of these small organizations and individuals are intrinsically motivated to create change. They’ve experienced a pain, a hardship or even an annoyance they believe can be rectified. Meanwhile, advances in technologies and communication systems have made it possible for them to share their ideas with the masses. Large, established companies are taking notice. Lowe’s, through its Innovation Labs, is partnering with these start-ups, entrepreneurs and developers — entities it refers to as “uncommon partners” — to identify and tackle problems consumers face every day. DIY engineers are drawn to the hackathon and lab competitions sweeping the globe. These are events like the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, BMW’s Virtual Innovation Agency, NASA Tournaments Lab, or closer to home, the Citi Mobile Challenge. Smartly, these big-resource organizations are supplementing their internal bright minds with the energetic, homegrown DIYers to reimagine the unknown. This is sometimes referred to as “open innovation,” and it’s worth digging into a bit more.
The Value of Open Innovation
There’s great potential in “the crowd.” We see it in the trends of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, each of which can significantly impact several different areas of a business. Take marketing, for example. In what was an epic success for Doritos, the company went beyond its internal creative army, beyond its external marketing agency, and tapped the American public — arguably the entire world — for its next great Super Bowl commercial.
Beyond giving the Doritos marketing staff access to the world’s creative bank, the crowdsourcing strategy invigorated the way the company engages with consumers. Consumers are no longer considered an audience; rather, they are seen as active producers and distributors of brand content. It’s been such a successful effort, Doritos CMO Ann Mukherjee says leveraging the creativity of thousands of fans is a permanent strategy.
The key to effective crowdsourcing is to first understand the motivations of your contributors. Doritos promised the winner of its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest a $1 million prize. Yet, the prestige of being named the winner of such a competition — not to mention the experience of working alongside such a well-known brand — may have been the bigger carrot for some in the crowd.
Open innovation happens in one of three ways: outside-in, inside-out or a coupling of the two. At TMG, we have achieved great success in innovation through the marriage of outside-in and inside-out strategies, namely through strategic partnerships. Take our proprietary, patent-pending reporting and cardholder data tool Springboard. Built on the bones of First Data’s open architecture, Springboard now solves a series of problems for both internal and client teams.
To push the credit union industry forward, leaders in the movement must explore opportunities by tapping into both their own entrepreneurial spirits and the world’s macro knowledge.
Shazia Manus is CEO at TMG (The Members Group). A former credit union CEO and an entrepreneur since the age of 17, Shazia’s spirit of innovation, commitment to collaboration and keen sense of sound business management have propelled TMG to record growth. She can be reached at shaziam@themembersgroup.com.
