OWP liVe REPORT

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I N N O V AT I O N How quickfire, crowdsourced innovation can help your company build competitive advantage in a digital world

Never has the need been greater for organizations to learn how to innovate at speed and engage more stakeholders to co-create solutions for today’s complex challenges. Companies can “harness the collective intelligence of crowds” in swift cycles of tech-enabled, open innovation to sustain a competitive edge and keep pace in a rapidly-changing and increasingly digital world, according to Professor of Innovation and Strategy Louise Muhdi. In her session - “From challenge to solution in 48 hours: Accelerate innovation by leveraging the collective intelligence of stakeholders” - Muhdi, the architect of IMD’s new Accelerate program, said the boom in digital platforms and the need for rapid evolution demanded a rethink of organizational problem solving. “Competitive advantage is transient – it’s not something you build and then keep,” she said. “We have to continuously adapt to change and keep trying to build competitive edges to be high performing and to stay relevant.”

“If you want be ahead of your competitors today and stay relevant and continue to add value – I’m sure you’ve made innovation part of your DNA, it’s the first step to growth, but you also need to accelerate it.” Muhdi argued that crowdsourced, open innovation – done at speed in a curated, hybrid environment - can transform the way companies find solutions for their challenges while also enabling others to find answers to their most pressing questions. “The open innovation model challenges traditional organizational boundaries and opens up knowledge work to be performed by anyone who chooses to contribute, allowing the flow of knowledge from the outside in – so you get the knowledge and can integrate it in order to help find solutions, but also inside-out - you also share internal knowledge,” she said. “Furthermore, crowdsourcing today enables crowds, people from around the world, to connect with each other or to a

system or organization to bring about that collective contribution around a common goal – in this context, the purpose behind any initiative is becoming increasingly important in attracting diverse talent for problem solving.”

LOUISE MUHDI IMD Professor of Innovation and Strategy

"If you want to be ahead of your competitors today and stay relevant and continue to add value – I’m sure you’ve made innovation part of your DNA, it’s the first step to growth, but you also need to accelerate it."