Perspectives on Innovation

Innovation Program Manager Kevin Mobbs, shares some insights into the RTP Challenges.

Plug and play solutions to long-standing, or technically demanding, problems are few and far between. Almost all novel technologies require considerable development before they are ready for roll out. This is the reality of product & process development – it is very hard work!

As Thomas Edison said “Opportunities are missed by many because they wear overalls and look like work!” Using a Challenge Driven Innovation approach to source solutions, it is key to focus in on the aspects of the problem most amenable to the community of Solvers your channel addresses. There is a great deal we can do to properly position Challenge statements in order to stimulate Solver engagement and perhaps the most influential factor driving this is the deliverable required from the Solver.

Many Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenges require Solvers to provide solutions, or materials, that have been validated. While there are many advantages to the Seeker organization of having a ‘menu’ of solutions available to be delivered and tested by their in-house experts, the Solver perspective is somewhat different. Typically, fewer Solvers engage in RTP Challenges than in Theoretical Challenges and so some diversity is lost from the ‘menu’ of potential solutions. Higher awards for RTP Challenges are intended to engage Solvers and compensate their investment of time and materials, but this assumes that most Solvers with the insight and intellectual power to innovate a solution also have access to the resources required to produce e.g. a novel nanostructure, or a high-flow particle filter. (more…)

Innovation Program Manager Christian Stevenson explains the basics of the Novel Molecule Challenge.

It is a fact that all corporate R&D labs will have some gaps in their molecular libraries. Their internal researchers try to fill in these gaps, but quickly find that synthesizing these compounds requires methods and materials not readily available in-house. But, more importantly, it also requires a lot of their time – filling in the called-for structures distracts internal researchers from testing their application hypotheses. And the irony is that the com¬pound needed could already exist – not in commercial catalogs but in small vials with hand-written labels and covered in scotch-tape. They are buried on shelves, in cabinets, and refrigerated storage areas all over the planet.

InnoCentive solves this problem. With the Novel Molecule Challenge we do all of the recruitment for you from within our global network of over 250,000 Solvers in more than 200 countries. University labs, custom synthesis houses and independent compound collectors are all included. Once you find a match, you pay only for the compounds that meet your needs.

Identify the Need: The first step in the process is to identify the gaps in your current collection and to develop a generic structure that describes the molecules you need. Keep in mind that the small reward for NMCs means that the general structure of the molecule should be known in the literature and/or relatively easily prepared without developing new chemistry. (For novel chemistry, try using our Theoretical or Reduction-to-Practice Challenge types.)

Post the Challenge: After working with me to define the structures you’re seeking, we engage two primary resources to find molecules for you. First, we immediately search our in-house database of libraries from our Solvers and other small chemical providers. Second, we post the Challenge to our website advertising your need. In addition to Solvers who have the compounds already in hand, some of our Solvers will offer to prepare molecules in their labs specifically in response to your Challenge.

In addition, you can choose to take advantage of our Fingerprinting technology, which masks the exact compound you need, but still provides enough information to determine whether it is the structure you seek. This protects you and the Solver, increases the number of unique molecules you can have access to, and keeps the IP transfer process clean.

Receive the Compounds: Following Challenge posting, InnoCentive works with you to evaluate the submissions (giving you a single file in SDF or Excel format with all the proposed structures) and track the status of Solvers’ submissions. You receive the compounds as well as characterization data and are allowed to confirm that data in your own lab. Once you’re satisfied the compounds are correct, InnoCentive pays out awards to the Solvers, then sends you a single invoice for all the compounds in the Challenge.

This post, by InnoCentive Innovation Expansion Manager Chad Carrington, shares his views from InnoCentive’s Oil & Gas Symposium in Houston, Texas on November 17th, 2010.

Hart Energy and InnoCentive co-hosted an Oil & Gas Symposium in Houston last month.  Industry leaders participated in a discussion about the power of Challenge-driven innovation, where important solutions can be delivered from unexpected sources.

The interactive session included the firsthand experience of guest speaker Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) Scott Pegau.  Using InnoCentive’s network, OSRI has access to a diverse group of more than 220,000 global Solvers to potentially help them source important solutions to some of their most difficult problems. OSRI minimizes their ongoing risk by augmenting their own innovation efforts by using InnoCentive’s structured methodology to establish a sustainable open innovation capability, where they fully leverage challenge-driven innovation for optimized solution sourcing both internally and externally. (more…)

InnoCentive Innovation Expansion Manager Chad Carrington spoke with E&P Editor Judy Murray about InnoCentive’s Oil & Gas Symposium in Houston, Texas on November 17th, 2010.

During last month’s Oil & Gas Symposium, E&P Editor Judy Murray made the point that as the oil and gas industry faces greater and more exacting technical challenges, it becomes more important to be able to innovate rapidly.  In a follow-up E&P article online, Judy emphasized that this reality has become increasingly difficult, with the notable gap between the aging experienced resources and those newly hired to the industry.  For more event details, see Judy Murray’s perspective in the following article,  Open collaboration takes a giant leap forward.

In an effort to mitigate the risks, the industry trend has been to organize for more effective collaboration in an effort to more efficiently address escalating field intelligence requirements.  Today, leaders are learning that timely viable solutions can be found well beyond traditional industry sources when diverse resources are engaged in a structured Challenge-driven approach.  The result is that novel solutions can be found and securely utilized across industries. E&P has been following the growing trend to explore how technology is being transferred across industries and the increasing value of solutions when motivated minds approach a problem from different directions.

Here is an E&P article about the changing landscape and InnoCentive’s participation in facilitating it: Open innovation changes the playing field. Additionally, here is an E&P blog with more thoughts about the possibilities with transferring technology: Technology transfer gets an edge.

- Chad Carrington, InnoCentive

Elly Madrigal, Program Operations Manager, tells us what makes an InnoCentive Champion successful.

Over the years, InnoCentive has helped implement open innovation programs within a variety of organizations, and we’ve learned that there are certain traits that make some programs very successful. The leading factor is “The Champion,” InnoCentive’s single point of contact within our Seeker organizations. He or she is the Seeker’s lead Program Manager responsible for managing the organization’s Open Innovation program.

The InnoCentive Client Services team has been building a correlation between “good Champions” and “successful Open Innovation programs,” confirming our beliefs that you need a recognized, informed leader to successfully implement Challenge-Driven innovation…..you just can’t throw software at the problem! (more…)