The Social Media MBA in Practice: An Essential Collection of Inspirational Case Studies to Influence your Social Media Strategy

Innovation

22

PricewaterhouseCoopers – Crowdsourcing

From Crowdsourcing to Smart Sourcing

This case study explains how PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has amplified “one firm” working to create a client-focused team of thousands in order to deliver value for clients in a way never done before.

Executive summary

Overview

Social networking platforms have provided the opportunity for PwC to capture the power of their people and deliver exponential value for their clients. It has enabled 16,000 minds that don't think alike to collaborate and focus their experience and specialist expertise on a client's business issue.

Key findings

• It is critical to understand your client's business issue and then communicate this to the crowd in a clear and concise question.
• Gamification of ideas management does drive engagement – in a first client campaign, close to 70 per cent of PwC's people participated.
• You must identify a clear process for implementing ideas and communicate this to the crowd if they are to know that their efforts will make a real difference.
• A well-engaged team creates exceptional value for clients.

Recommendations

1. Crowdsourced innovation is not an abstract exercise to generate isolated, unstructured ideas.

2. Explain the rules of the game from the outset so that the crowd understand what is expected of them to win and how they will be recognized and rewarded.

3. Clear creative ...