Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
network of laboratories and cubbyholes populated by feverish inventors and
dauntless entrepreneurs who let their imagination fl y in all directions” (Peters and
Waterman
2004
, p. 14). More recently, other fi rms have taken the same cultural
approach to grassroots innovation. Google is known for its democratic “brink of
chaos” management system, IBM for its Emerging Business Opportunities pro-
gram (launched in 2000), and Whirlpool for its company-wide innovation philoso-
phy as described in Hamel and Breen (
2007
). All these rely on informal mechanisms
to promote grassroots innovation.
Another well-known deployment of grassroots innovation principles is the entre-
preneurial bootcamp program of French telecom equipment manufacturer Alcatel-
Lucent. In 2006, Alcatel-Lucent Belgium started organizing an annual
Entrepreneurial Boot Camp with the goal of inspiring all employees to propose new
ideas and identify new business opportunities for the company (Camacho et al.
2012
). By 2012, this practice has been globally rolled out within Alcatel-Lucent
from US over Europe to China and is an important component of the innovation
funnel of the company and its R&D organization Bell Labs.
Grassroots innovation initiatives have also been implemented in the pharmaceu-
tical industry. Germany-headquartered Bayer AG launched its
Triple-i,”
-
i
initiative in
2006. Standing for “inspiration, ideas, innovation,”
Triple-i,”
-
i
is a grassroots innova-
tion initiative through which Bayer seeks to strengthen the innovation culture
throughout the organization and develop new lines of business consistent with the
company's mission statement.
4
Employees can use
Triple-i,”
-
i
's portal to submit their
ideas and rate or expand on their colleagues' ideas.
5
In order to fi lter such ideas,
innovation experts—based at Bayer's headquarters—fi lter the most promising ideas
in terms of customer benefi ts, novelty, feasibility, and fi t with the company's mis-
sion and portfolio.
6
The screening questions are kept simple and the whole process
is quite informal and entrepreneurial. Between 2006 and 2011, more than 11,000
ideas have been submitted, 150 of which have been approved, from which fi ve have
translated into new products.
7
4
Goals that Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG in 2006, was
confi dent were already being achieved by
Triple-i,”
-
i
'
s
fi rst edition, see Bayer Annual Report 2006,
p. 7. Available in
http://www.bayer.com/en/gb-2006-en.pdfx
, last accessed on March 3rd, 2013.
5
Bayer,
Sustainable Development Report 2010
, p. 31. Available in
http://www.sustainability2010.
on March 3rd, 2013.
6
Waghorn, T. 2010. “How One Company Gets Its Employees Innovating.”
in Forbes
.
com
, March,
15th. Available in
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/15/bayer-employee- innovation-leadership-
managing-engagement.html
,
last accessed on March 3rd, 2013.
7
Bayer News Channel (2011), “Record Participation in Triple-i,” April 20th. Available in
http://
on March 3rd, 2013.
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