Grassroots Innovation: A Promising Innovation Paradigm for Pharmaceutical Companies - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 140

• A new highly innovative protein engineering technology for improved
biological drugs.

• An innovative medical device in the OTC fi eld.

• A new probiotic product in the OTC fi eld.

per project in the
central Innospire incubator. Average projected running time from project incep-
tion to expected product launch is about four years. Total project attrition rate
according to data collected so far is 33 %. Termination in most cases occurred
during or right after the fi rst year.
Up to now, more than 20 patents have been submitted based on work done
within the Innospire projects. A fi rst product launch took place in 2012 with
two more product launches scheduled for 2013, all derived from projects initi-
ated in 2010 and more down the road based on the 2011 idea call. The total
business volume that the new business ideas represent is currently estimated to
be several 100 millions of Euros in total.
(e) What happened to non-selected ideas?
While “survival of the fi ttest” was a key driver in the success of the Innospire
process, Merck KGaA proactively managed the possible disappointment of
employees whose ideas did not succeed in advancing through the process. To
avoid such disappointment to contaminate the success of the project, three strat-
egies were followed. The fi rst was to encourage employees whose ideas did not
pass a certain milestone to join their colleagues and help them improve their
ideas.
The second was to conduct further analyses of the non-chosen ideas to select
additional ideas that could be followed-up directly by the business units. Dozens
of ideas were taken up by Merck KGaA's business units either directly after
idea submission or after the innovation marketplace without going through the
bootcamp process. In addition, in 2010, Merck KGaA decided to re-evaluate
the ideas submitted in 2009 and, again, many additional promising projects
were initiated. In retrospect, we conclude that an idea pool is never really com-
pletely harvested and while one needs to apply stringent criteria to be able to
focus on the breakthrough ideas with higher business potential, it is crucial to
manage disappointment of employees with non-chosen ideas and avoid losing
good ideas due to too stringent fi ltering.
The third strategy involved giving visibility to idea owners and signaling
care, by offering them the possibility to have their idea forwarded directly to the
evaluation team of their own business unit, guaranteeing the process was trans-
parent and fair. This proved very important for the reputation of the process and
recruitment of idea owners in subsequent editions.
(f) External recognition of the innospire process
In the meantime Merck KGaA's Innospire program has received considerable
external attention and recognition. For example in April 2012, Merck KGaA

Typical annual project budgets were approximately 1 M €