Compete to innovate smlxl

alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | mit/sloan/boston 2011

For many people the idea that
competitions can spur on innovation
and innovative breakthroughs is
about as inspiring as an egg and
spoon race

Competing to Innovate

The story of Eden
But the Eden project in Cornwall is a great example of
what happens when we engage in competitions



Tim Smit the catalyst for the Eden Project refused to accept that their initial
proposal was “red lighted” at the first round, convincing his team to carry on
working/competing – the result was winning the Millennium prize

Eden contributes £1bn to Cornish Economy
Created 500 direct jobs
Supports 3000 jobs locally
RIBA Award 2001


Be realistic
Be realistic imagine the impossible

The fight for economic survival
The fight for natural resources

imagine the
The fight for the most talented
The fight for a better and fairer society

impossible Poster from Paris riots 1968

We must seek transformation in a world where the only thing that is certain is
uncertainty


And today we faced with some big issues and difficult dilemmas

The fight for economic survival
The fight for natural resources
The fight for the most talented
The fight for a better and fairer society


Challenges of the modern world intractable
and complex dilemmas:
In every sector we need innovation to solve these complex dilemmas. Yet a failure for existing
organisations to truly innovate; healthcare, social, education, commerce, regional development


What we face is a
design problem

The solution is innovation: those economies, argues Will Hutton prepared to stay
open and create national innovation architectures that support a diversified
landscape of vigorous firms, institutions and technologies will repeat the
amazing feat of the British Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th Century –
But such innovation eco-systems will not be created spontaneously we need to
develop an interconnected eco-system that can respond to these dilemma’s by
designing answers that today do not exist.

How do we do that?
How do we unleash our intelligence
and apply our creativity?
How can we
Accelerate innovation?
hundretwasser


Threadless Local Motors

Competition
Enter competitions that can attract people passionate about solving
real world problems. These need to be open access attracting a
true divergence of knowledge as I argue, nobody is as clever as
everybody, or as Eric Raymond would say,
“with many eyes all bugs are shallow”.
Closed knowledge systems on the other hand tend to die.


TopCoder is a company which administers contests in computer programming. TopCoder hosts
fortnightly online competitions — known as SRMs or “single round matches” — as well as weekly
competitions algorithm in design and development. The work in design and development produces
useful software which is licensed for profit by TopCoder. Competitors involved in the creation of these
components are paid royalties based on these sales. The software resulting from algorithm
competitions — and the less-frequent marathon matches — is not usually directly useful, but sponsor
companies sometimes provide money to pay the victors. Statistics (including an overall “rating” for
each developer) are tracked over time for competitors in each category.

TopCoder.com, has figured out how to use markets
and communities concurrently.

An algorithm problem
provided by the Integrated
Medical Model Team at NASA
Experimental Marathon Match will
include an algorithm problem
provided by the Integrated Medical
Model Team at NASA . In this contest
programmers will be asked to help
NASA optimize a space flight medical
kit for astronauts. We believe that the
TopCoder community may have an
interesting take on this problem and
could potentially come up with a
breakthrough that will help NASA
explore our universe.

This Experimental Marathon Match
event has over $25,000 in prizes! In
addition, 10 participants will get VIP
access to one of the few remaining
NASA shuttle launches and all
contestants who actively participate
will receive a limited edition,
personalized TopCoder/NASA T-
shirt.


Local Motors uses competition to innovate in
automotive design, and engineering

This roundel carries the
name of the designer of
body styling on every
Rally Fighter produced


So important observations on the dynamics of competition

“I”
Needs
“We”
to truly be Co-creation

“I”
Carl Jung


Co-creation matters
People embrace what they
create.

competition + co-creation = community

Craftmanship
Competition can inspire people to give their
creative best, to commit to their craft,
to be ‘engaged’


Open
Competitions need to
attract diversity


Competitions create
in a sense a false
deadline, but what
they do is focus the
mind… From NASA, Local Motors, Threadless, Top Coder, Innocentive,
Your Encore, are all contemporary examples of unleashing
innovation through the framework of competition that are
transformative. What in gaming terms is called an Epic win…
Of course there are different reasons for creating competitions
such as the Pultizer, The James Dyson prize an international
award that encourages next generation industrial designers, or
the Ansari X prize The prize $10m but $100m was spent overall
to win that prize.

McKinsey report – The Power of Prizes

1. To spur the development of a revolutionary solution
The Longitude Prize (The Longitude Act was an Act of Parliament of the
United Kingdom passed in July 1714 during the reign of Queen Anne. It
established the Board of Longitude and offered a monetary reward for anyone who
could find a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's
longitude) 

3. To set a standard for an entire field – Nobel prize and
number of academics that have one such a prize

4. To draw attention to an entire industry – Ortieg prize –
Lindburgh and non-stop flight Paris to NYC


Competitions provide
the ability to shift risk,
and generate interest
through networked
communication
technologies.


But why do we compete?

We compete not for money per se, but more often we respond to the
call of a higher order purpose and something we are passionate
about which when tapped is a deep human motivation – we seek
transformation


Reputation = Recognition


pre 1991 97% Nobel and Pulitzer

Before 1991 97% of the value of big prizes was dedicated that recognized prior achievement
Nobel or Pultizer but since 1991 78% of new prize money dedicated to

solving specific goals. In effect the unleashing of innovation.
Yet Will Hutton, a well know Economist and writer from the UK
says there is little political cultural or business appreciation
of the importance of competition
in stimulating innovation…

after 1991 78% Specific goals

Takeaways:

No matter what industry you are in creating competitions can be a means of
accelerating innovation, in the public sector, academia, or commercially.


Takeaways:


With the right structure competition can accelerate innovation and dramatically
enable a company to run much leaner as Local Motors (Cars built 5x quicker 100 x
less the capital cost – competitions in part enables a much leaner run rate)

Bring social and regional development benefits Eden bringing much needed
revenues and media attention into a struggling region and economy, A school
building created networked impacts on its immediate environment. Clapham School
that reduced truancy and local petty crime.

Create Epic Wins: The Saltire prize which could bring economic autonomy and
sustainability to a region


Takeaways:


With the right structure competition can dramatically enable a company to run much
leaner as Local Motors (Cars built 5x quicker 100 x less he capital cost) or
GoldCorp can demonstrate. Goldcorp costs down 80% production up 900%.
Or bring social benefits Eden bringing much needed revenues and media attention
into a struggling region and economy, Buildings created networked impacts on its
immediate environment.

There is a long historical trend that demonstrates that undertaken in the right way
competition harnesses knowledge and intelligence that otherwise would never have
been accessed.

Competition is means of meaningfully engaging communities of interest and passion,
and in fact is in many ways a vital strand of the DNA of our networked world.

It needs rigorous structure but it can inspire people to raise their game and step
forward as unlikely candidates to helping us imagine and then realize the impossible.

If you are not running a competition then maybe you are not innovating hard enough



Thank you Contact: alanm@smlxtralarge.com
www.smlxtralarge.com
Twitter: @alansmlxl

video:
Innovation HP HQ Cupertino: Local Motors,
GrowVC, txteagle http://ht.ly/3H34v

sxsw 2010: Local Motors and making sense of a
non-linear world http://ht.ly/3H37U

Compete to innovate smlxl

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