How to Implement Challenge-Driven Innovation

Delivering on the Promise: An interview with David Ritter [link]

Interviewee David Ritter is the Chief Technology Officer at  InnoCentive . “Since 2001, InnoCentive has helped corporate, government, and non-profit organizations to better innovate through crowdsourcing, strategic consulting services and internal Software-as-a-Service offerings. The company built the first global Web community for open innovation.” [Link]. Some of Innocentive’s clients include Procter & Gamble, SAP, Eli Lilly and Company, SCA, GlobalGiving and the Rockefeller Foundation. David oversees product management, R&D, and IT operations functions.

Main Points:

• “Open innovation is a way to efficiently take advantage of resources irrespective of where they may be.” [Ritter, 4:00]
  
• Successful innovation is not deploying innovation projects or events.  Successful innovation is developing long-term and sustainable innovation capabilities within your company.
• Idea management platforms and social media tools require clear and concise problem statements, incentives and systematic implementation to successfully drive innovation.

Review:

In this  interview by Custom Solutions Group’s Bill Laberis, InnoCentive’s CTO David Ritter shares his experiences with the successes, failures, and best practices of companies turning to IT as an engine of innovation. David argues that while social media, groupware and intranets provide useful platforms for collaboration, without systematic implementation, incentives, and clear and concise problem statements that include solution criteria, these tools are doomed to fail.