I am thrilled to announce that as of July 1st, I will become the “Chief Innovation Evangelist” for InnoCentive.
If you are not aware, InnoCentive is an incredible company that is changing the world. They are leaders in the Open Innovation space. If you have a problem you want to solve, you can post the challenge on their website, and their network of 160,000 solvers will work to find a solution. Although it started off as a tool to accelerate R&D for a pharmaceutical company, it has expanded into solving all types of problems ranging from corporate challenges to social issues.
InnoCentive is incentive-based innovation. The person who provides the solution gets a monetary reward that is established up front. For example, if someone can find a biomarker for ALS, they will get $1 million.
There are some amazing success stories. One well-publicized challenge was the removal of oil that remained trapped after the Exxon Valdez accident back in 1989. A solver applied his knowledge of the cement industry to the challenge and won $20,000…and solved a problem that perplexed scientists for two decades. Watch the video…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaLUTpfxxo[/youtube]
I’ll discuss more about my specific role over the coming weeks. To give you a clue…my corporate title is “VP Strategic Consulting.”
I am thrilled to be part of an organization that is changing the world, one challenge at a time.
P.S. I will continue to write books and give speeches in addition to my InnoCentive work.