Peter Robbins

Innovating the innovation process: an organisational experiment in global pharma pursuing radical innovation

The challenge of managing the fuzzy front end of the innovation process is particularly acute for large, multi-brand, research and development (R&D)-intensive firms. Poor performance at generating radical innovations has resulted in many large organisations seeking to innovate how they organise for innovation. This paper presents an inductive, longitudinal study of an organisational experiment that sought to get ‘game-changing, radical ideas’ into the new product development funnel of a top three pharma. The immediate outcomes of a team-based internal innovation tournament included 33 new product ideas, 14 of which were radical. The medium term outcome of the experiment was a reorganisation of how the firm now pursues radical innovation activities. We link these outcomes to team leadership, contrasting innovation processes, including decisions about how to incorporate the ‘voice of the consumer’. The inductive, longitudinal study suggests causal interconnections between innovation team leadership, innovation team processes, and innovation outcomes.

Design, Thinking and Science

Research and education in the field of management studies strive for relevance to practice as well as academic rigour. Many management science researchers have invoked design science as the paradigm of choice for achieving relevance through prescription-oriented research, where prescriptions are delivered in the form of artefacts or technological rules. Design thinking is another prominent application of design that is used by management researchers and educators for benefitting management practice. Surprisingly, there is little intercourse between the different groups that employ these two approaches, yet both groups are part of the same broad (management study) discipline. Here, we explore the relationship, commonalities and complementarities between design thinking and design science. We do this in the context of an introduction to the broader discipline of design and its history, the desire of management scholars to be relevant to practice, and the nature of that practice. We show that design thinking and design science are complementary components of an overall design paradigm. The appropriate application of either approach depends on the context and nature of the problem being addressed.

Citizen Crowdsourcing: ‘Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You…’

Abstract In his inauguration speech of 1961, John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic and youngest-ever holder of the office of US President, famously exhorted citizens to ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.’ At the time, few would have interpreted this as a call for open innovation or even citizen crowdsourcing: neither the language nor the architecture then existed for either. But the sentiment he expressed marked the beginning of a campaign of citizen engagement in developing ideas for government. It was, in effect, the first national exhortation for the crowdsourcing of ideas, and Kennedy’s words have subsequently been adapted by Jeff Howe for the modern crowdsourcing context. Citizen crowdsourcing is now well-established. This chapter sets out to assess how successful it has been as a mechanism for finessing original and meaningful ideas that advance social goals. We look briefly at leading examples of crowdsourcing for social good. We also look at the underlying factors that support it, including the knowledge and input solicited from the crowd; the crowd’s willingness to participate; and the mechanisms through which the crowd can engage. We trace the idea and practice of crowdsourcing back to Socrates in ancient Athens. We look at prosocial behaviour, exploring selected annals of public intellectuals, including Emerson. We examine citizen science as a forerunner of crowdsourcing, then move into the business strategy of open innovation and, finally, we arrive at crowdsourcing for social good in various guises. In conclusion, we explore what has been learned from initiatives that can now be considered current best practice in this area.

Dublin’s and Ireland’s Entrepreneurial Revolution: The Force Awakens

100 years ago, Dublin was choked with the smoke of heavy artillery fire as the British army quelled the 1916 rising with chilling brutality. Landmark buildings had been eviscerated and key Irish political figures executed. A terrible beauty was born. Politically, Ireland was pursuing an isolationist path, trying in vain to become self sufficient and to be able to avoid the pitfalls of trading with other nations. The country was on a slow but inevitable path to international irrelevance. But today, Dublin is a vibrant, thriving, entrepreuenrial, highly connected society and economy. This paper examines how the Irish economy managed to overtake its European neighbours - again.

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Even mature companies can use startup tactics. Peter Robbins, Julian Birkinshaw and Johnny Ryan examine The Irish Times