Grassroots Innovation: A Promising Innovation Paradigm for Pharmaceutical Companies - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 132

Fig. 4.2 The fi ve phases of Merck KGaA's Innospire process (initial year, 2009)

These six fi nalist teams all presented a business plan in front of a “grand jury,”
which was a combination of the executive management boards for the pharmaceuti-
cals and chemicals divisions. From the six fi nalist teams, two won support of the
grand jury and received direct Innospire seed funding, while three others obtained
executive committee buy-in for their new business ideas to be supported directly by
the respective divisions.
The idea pool generated was so rich that in the following year the available set
was again mined and the top 15 ideas among those not already picked for the 2009
process were further advanced to business concepts in the frame of a fi rst bootcamp
meeting. We then used a “wisdom of the crowds” approach and gave all Merck
KGaA employees a chance to discuss pros and cons, in an online corporate discus-
sion forum, and vote in the corporate Intranet for the most promising projects
according to their view (thumbs-up/thumbs-down voting). This approach is also in
line with the tenets of SDT, as it should promote feelings of autonomy, competence,
and even relatedness among employees involved in grassroots innovation. Almost
2,000 Merck KGaA employees participated, demonstrating that the initiative was
able to achieve a considerable mobilization of employees for innovation. The fi ve
projects collecting the most support from other employees were allowed entry into
the second bootcamp and advanced to full business plans. From the fi ve fi nalist
teams, one won support of the grand jury and received direct Innospire seed fund-
ing, while three others were implemented directly in their respective divisions.

4.4.2 Design Features of the Innospire Process

This section presents design features of the program in terms of the grassroots inno-
vation program mechanisms (idea sourcing, team formation, team/idea selection,
training, and coaching) and the management support (resource allocation, visibility
of involvement, tangible incentives, facilitation of external support, and tolerance
for failure) described in our conceptual framework (see Fig. 4.1 ). Figure 4.2