Corporate Explorer Fieldbook

CHAPTER 7Ideation from Outside: A Step‐by‐Step Guide to Challenge‐Driven Innovation

Bea Schofield and Simon Hill

OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPLORERS

The benefits of accessing the wealth of ideas, insights, skills, and experiences within and outside organizations offer tremendous opportunities for Corporate Explorers to find breakthrough ideas to customer problems. Platforms enabling organizations to connect to brainpower inside and outside their walls are becoming commonplace; tools and approaches for harnessing a global network of capabilities are getting more sophisticated yet more accessible.

NETWORKED PROBLEM SOLVING

In 2009, a well‐known carbonated drinks company posted an open call for ideas on how to manipulate the size of bubbles in soft beverages. Posting anonymously on a platform called InnoCentive, the company shared its belief that changing the size, shape, and texture of bubbles would distinguish its products from competitors and make the company a market leader.

Eight thousand miles away, in Mumbai, India, Manish M. Pande was working on a PhD in metallurgical engineering. Having spent three and a half years in the steel industry, Manish had developed a knowledge of metallic foams and the physics of foaming in metals. The challenge piqued his interest, and Manish went about proposing a method to manipulate the characteristics of bubbles based on his knowledge. His idea turned out to be the winning solution, and Manish was awarded a $15,000 award.¹

Imagine that for every ...