Connect + Develop

An article published by knowledge@wharton on June 27 discusses outside innovation with former vice president of knowledge and innovation at P&G, Larry Huston. Larry discusses the importance of going outside your company to find new ideas. P&G is one of BrainReactions' clients, so I know first-hand how important outside innovation is to P&G. Huston states that 90% of companies drive all their innovation internally through their R&D departments. P&G had 9000 R&D employees, but Huston developed Connect + Develop to reach out to the 1.8 million educated people that also have ideas for new products. That's what we believe at BrainReactions: Quantity leads to Quality.

Huston remarks on the size of P&G and how much it needs to innovate in order to see continued growth. P&G is experiencing growth by asking people outside the company to help them innovate. Creation through Collaboration!

He gives this advice to other companies, "I really do think that the most important thing is that wake-up call -- for people to realize, then for companies to realize, that big companies have lots of money but need to act like little companies who don't have a lot of money. And be open to the outside world and making connections. That's fundamentally what it's about. I do think that's the most important thing."

The article is very in depth and worth checking out. Click here to read of listen to Larry Huston's Interview.