Firms, Collective Intelligence, and Sustainability
Can firms harness collective intelligence and advance sustainability goals? How large is the intersection between digital tools that permit expanding collaborative networks and reducing the time and cost of innovation?
These were some of the areas discussed at the Crowds and Climate conference held at MIT on November 6-8th organized by the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.
Peter Evans, Vice President at Center for Global Enterprise, participated in a plenary panel with Nancy Pfund Founder and Managing Partner, DBL Investors and Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer, MIT; Founding Chair, Presencing Institute. Jason Jay, Director, MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative served as the session moderator.
Evans’ presentation focused on the how firms can leverage the power of internal networks through the use of digital platform tools and crowdsourcing. His remarks drew upon his experience at General Electric leading the company’s largest internal company crowdsourcing event. The GE Energy Imagination Jam took place in 2011 used digital crowdsourcing platform to tap a major GE business unit’s 14,000 strong engineering organization.
Evans pointed to a number of key lessons that are broadly applicable to firms considering the use of crowdsourcing techniques.
Increase the speed of innovation: In a highly competitive world, faster innovation can mean greater competitive advantage.
Reduce the cost of innovation: Innovation is far from free. There are a hosts of costs associated with learning customers problems and then finding the right people within the firm who have relevant expertise and the ability to build cross functional teams needed to translate ideas into action.
Deepen collaborative networks: Firms, like other organizations, are made up of clusters of employees, with a certain degree of linkage between these clusters. Crowdsourcing platforms can deepen connections in ways that enhance collaboration, which, in turn, can accelerate the innovation process.
Align innovation with customer needs: A firm’s customers face a variety of real-world challenges. Crowdsourcing practices offer an opportunity for firms to harness their internal talent pools to focus innovation on tangible customer problems.
There are a growing number of companies that have experimented with crowdsourcing. British Telecom, Siemens, Bristol Meyers, IBM, Unilever, Sony, Cisco, China Light and Power are just a few companies who have experimented with large scale digital collaboration.
Ultimately, the true test for the application of crowdsourcing to sustainability objectives is whether firms can turn winning ideas into successful products and services.
Peter Evans’ presentation can be downloaded here.
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