Friday, 22 November 2002 8:30 am
Innovation on Demand. Webster’s defines innovation as “a new idea, method, or device”.  Being able to conjure up a new idea, preferably the right new idea, on demand, would be the next best thing to magic.  We would all want the ability to do that.  Companies with mature product lines and markets would simply demand new innovation and voilá, problem solved.  Since many companies find themselves in that situation today, the idea of innovation on demand is a hot topic again.  But can it be done?

As we are all well aware, when we demand new ideas from our troops, research department, or consultants, we normally do not get innovation.  What we get instead are retreaded old ideas, or occasionally original ideas that do not solve the problem at hand. 

The way experienced managers of research organizations address this problem is by focusing their researchers in scientific areas that are the most likely to have a the desired useful positive result, and then giving them free reign to see what they can discover or create. But timing remains a big problem: when a significant discovery or invention will take place is impossible to predict, and has been known to take decades (and even centuries).  Hardly what one envisions by “on demand innovation”. Also, when the valuable breakthrough takes place, it is statistically more likely to happen somewhere else in the world than in your corporate research lab.

Nevertheless, some companies such as Battelle, SRI, Sarnoff, SAIC have specialized in what they call "contract research" and are very good at it.  Yesterday IBM announced its intention to join the fray, saying it represents a “fundamental shift in the IT industry”, “change of agenda for IT research”, and “change how services companies think about going to market”.  So outsourcing innovation is a topic that it is time to think seriously about for all businesses.  We have successfully outsourced our computing, cafeterias, HR systems, legal departments, manufacturing, and strategic planning to specialists - why not innovation?  Throw in modern IT concepts such as data mining, knowledge management, unstructured data processing, knowledge discovery, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, etc., and perhaps we can create a whole new thing: a worldwide intelligent network that can link us to exactly the right knowledge and exactly the right expert to solve our particular problem.  Going one step farther, imagine that once having found the appropriate experts and knowledge, you could click on a button and they would start organizing into a team to develop your next new product, complete with a business plan to take it to market.  

It's a great vision. I will discuss in an upcoming column ways of moving in that direction.