Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
received the prestigious
2012 BioIT World Best Practice Award
,
13
in the
category of knowledge management, for the capacity of
Innospire
to “mobilize
the innovation potential of all Merck KGaA employees for generation of new
innovative products.” An
Innospire
-derived product for formulation of poorly
soluble compounds has been honored with the CPhI (Convention on
Pharmaceutical Ingredients) 2012 Innovation Award.
14
These results demon-
strate that a formalized process aimed at promoting grassroots innovation can
contribute to mobilizing the full innovation potential of employees, boost the
passion, competence, autonomy, and relatedness and improve pharmaceutical
fi rms' innovation pipelines. In addition, the concepts of self-assembling teams,
the wisdom of the crowds approach, and the survival of the fi ttest philosophy
add new innovative approaches for managing discovery portfolios (Betz
2011
) .
4.5
Discussion
4.5.1
Summary of Key Findings
In this chapter, we offer a conceptual and theoretical framework to help pharmaceu-
tical fi rms structure their grassroots innovation programs. Our framework is
grounded on self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci
2000
) and posits that (1) the
integral mechanisms in grassroots innovation programs (idea sourcing, team forma-
tion, team/idea selection, and training and coaching of participating employees) and
(2) key identifi ed dimensions of management support (resource allocation, visibility
of involvement, tangible incentives, and facilitation of a supportive organizational
structure and tolerance for failure) need to be geared towards boosting employees'
intrinsic motivation for grassroots innovation. Our key fi ndings are as follows.
Employees' entrepreneurial spirit, business skills and competences, and sense of
autonomy were clearly boosted by the
Innospire
process. The capacity of the
Innospire
program to promote networking and connect employees at different hier-
archical levels and from different divisions and regions (i.e., increasing their relat-
edness) proved a crucial aspect of the process and a strong motivator for future
participants. These fi ndings are in line with self-determination theory, which
defends that intrinsic motivation is promoted when employees' intrinsic needs for
competence, autonomy, and relatedness drive intrinsic motivation.
13
Established in 2003 by Bio-IT magazine, the World's Best Practices Awards recognize “organi-
zations for their outstanding innovations and excellence in the use of technologies and novel busi-
ness strategies that will advance biomedical and translational research, drug development, and/or
clinical trials,” see
http://www.bio- itworld.com/2012/04/25/bio-it-world-announces-winners-
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