Working out where great ideas come from is one of the big puzzles of modern management. Corporate research laboratories and in-house product development groups are only part of the answer. Innovative products and processes can come from start-ups, competitors, university campuses and ordinary employees. | What do you think of some recent innovative products which are on the market ? How ordinary people generate great ideas Simon London Working out where great ideas come from is one of the big puzzles of modern management. Corporate research laboratories and in-house product development groups are only part of the answer. Innovative products and processes can come from start-ups, competitors, university campuses and ordinary employees. Eric von Hippel, a professor of management of innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent three decades studying the role played by customers in shaping new products. The results are nicely summarised in Democratizing Innovation, a useful book on what he calls "user-centered innovation". How ordinary people generate great ideas(continue) For example, people who do extreme sports such as windsurfing or ice-climbing, play a significant role in the development of equipment which is then mass-produced by manufacturers. Surgical . | What do you think of some recent innovative products which are on the market ? How ordinary people generate great ideas Simon London Working out where great ideas come from is one of the big puzzles of modern management. Corporate research laboratories and in-house product development groups are only part of the answer. Innovative products and processes can come from start-ups, competitors, university campuses and ordinary employees. Eric von Hippel, a professor of management of innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent three decades studying the role played by customers in shaping new products. The results are nicely summarised in Democratizing Innovation, a useful book on what he calls "user-centered innovation". How ordinary people generate great ideas(continue) For example, people who do extreme sports such as windsurfing or ice-climbing, play a significant role in the development of equipment which is then mass-produced by manufacturers. Surgical equipment companies are often led towards new products by surgeons who operate using the equipment. How ordinary people generate great ideas(continue) Users are often the first to develop many, and perhaps most, new industrial and commercial products. For example, 3M, the industrial products group, has programmes in place to collect ideas generated by key users. Von Hippel found that these products at 3M were likely to be more innovative, enjoy higher market share, have greater potential to develop into an entire product line. How ordinary people generate great ideas(continue) Mass-producing products developed by key users is only one possible approach. Alternatives include selling toolkits with which customers can build their own creations. For examble, International Flavors & Fragrances supplies customers with the tools to design theirs own food flavours. Users themselves develop the products. These example revolutionise the traditional division of labour between producer and consumer.
