My excitement about open innovation, especially prize-driven contests, was piqued when I attended the X Prize "incentive2innovate" conference in New York earlier this year. One of the best things at that conference was a report created by McKinsey entitled "And the winner is...".
I encourage you to read the entire 124 pages and to pique your interest here are some interesting highlights:
The above chart highlights how drastically the field has grown over the past decade. As a result, an entire industry has sprung up around the funding, administration and support of these prizes. Even though prizes have been around for centuries, this type of growth can only lead to new models of thought and new modes of doing business. Accompanying this rapid growth has been a drastic shift from prizes primarily in the arts and sciences to the fields of engineering and technology.
The report highlights how prizes are particularly well-suited to specific goals including:
- identifying excellence
- influencing public perception
- focusing communities on specific problems
- mobilizing new talent
- strengthening problem-solving communities
- educating individuals
- mobilizing capital
Their success depends on many factors but the report explains how they respond well to the recent trends of new wealth outside of traditional philanthropic charities, a frustration with traditional approaches to change, different approaches to allocating risk in the development of new ideas and greater global interconnectedness through technology.
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