Improving Analytics Capabilities Through Crowdsourcing

Syngenta developed an award-winning suite of analytics tools by tapping into expertise outside the organization — including talent available through open-innovation platforms.

Joseph Byrum and Alpheus Bingham

Summer 2016

How does a company operating outside the major technology talent centers gain access to the most innovative data scientists that money can buy? Assuming you can’t recruit the right data analysts to join your team full time, how do you tap into contractors with the knowledge and creativity you need outside your technical core? In a nutshell, this was the predicament Syngenta AG faced in 2008.

Syngenta, an agrochemical and seed company based in Basel, Switzerland, was formed ...