Innovation is the key to evolution, not the biological evolution of the human race but the scientific, technological, social and economic evolution of the world. Without innovation, there would have been no internet, no social media, no electricity and not even paper and ink. Innovation is at the crux of all kinds of developments that is not done by nature. But, innovation is not easy. Had that been the case, every second high school pass out would have been an innovator and we would be having flying cars, houses and cures for all known and unknown diseases by now.
From the perspective of companies, regardless of the industry a firm is in, innovation is the driving force of growth. It is the secret to exponentially higher revenues, to business expansion, to increased profits and for a better future. If that innovation is unavailable, companies will cease to have their relevance and success will become elusive, if that is not the case right now.
There are many ways to drive innovation. Being a part of an innovative culture, grooming talents who can innovate, having enough room and rewards for innovators and developing a penchant for innovation and instilling it in all employees across an organization are some routes to innovate. But not all such approaches will work, certainly not to a desirable extent. That is where crowd science can come in.
Crowd science is a relatively new concept. The concept may seem to be inspired from crowd sourcing or crowd funding but it isn’t so. Crowd science has existed even before crowd funding became a reality. Actually, crowd science has existed even before social media and internet, although it has become most relevant in the online era, owing to the access to talents from across the world.
Crowd science is simply sourcing ideas or gathering data from all potential sources and then analyzing the same to identify innovation. Not always does innovation stare at the face and become absolutely obvious. Innovation has to be mined or found, explored and harnessed at times. That is exactly what companies should try and do.
Innovation is hard because it has to be shocking and obvious at the same time, brilliant but very useful at the basics at the same time. More importantly, innovation must attend to the needs, without which innovation will be futile and it will have little or no value.
Explore the info-graphic and learn more about crowd science and how it drives innovation.
Strong proponent of individual liberty and free speech. My goal is to present information that expands our awareness of crucial issues and exposes the manufactured illusion of freedom that we are sold in America. Question everything because nothing is what it seems.
