Outsourcing. Coming to a Brain Near You.
Posted on | April 28, 2008 | No Comments
There’s been a lot of political and other debate about outsourcing, most of it about jobs being outsourced to other countries. But, there’s a growing trend of businesses and governments outsourcing work to a locale much nearer to home–your brain.
Dozens of companies have launched innovation funds, contests and other initiatives designed to drive you to invent, discover and spread big ideas on their behalf. It’s an old game for a new prize: We’ll dangle some cash in front of you, you’ll do something that you might not normally do to get it.
Big corporations, small businesses, professional associations, nonprofits and investment funds are offering money, prizes, recognition and fame to spur invention, innovation and new ideas that solve (or move us closer to solving) business, social and environmental problems.
Even local and federal government has gotten in on the “innovation incentive” bonanza, awarding $2 billion a year to small businesses (up to $850,000 per business) via its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
Don’t have a business of your own? Don’t worry about it. Increasingly, more and more of these awards are being offered to individuals who enter contests or accomplish fabulous feats of engineering in their own garages.
So, what are they willing to pay for?
The hot ticket is a little brain juice applied to research, product development, technological innovation, advertising and branding and all things green. Not surprisingly, innovation incentives are more prevalent in the technology, pharmaceutical, defense and manufacturing industries.
The most notable innovation incentive is that of the X-Prize. Most recently, X-Prize issued a $10 million challenge to anyone who can create a car that gets 100 mpg. Google closed registration for its $10 million Google Android Developer Challenge. Yahoo hosts “hack days” and “hackU” where the world’s best hackers compete for cash and props. The Knight Foundation has earmarked $25 million to reward innovative ideas in digital media delivery. Innocentive recently launched an innovation marketplace where organizations can post challenges to a community of “solvers” (It’s off to a slow start, but still interesting).
And, if that’s not enough, companies like Idea Crossing, which manages innovation competitions for more traditional businesses (Hilton, GE, Whirlpool and M&M’s), are cropping up here and there to exploit this trend.
If you’re not interested in solving others’ problems, but have a few business or other problems you’d like help solving, consider issuing an innovation challenge of your own. Cobbling together an attractive lump sum award to solve a persistent business problem could actually save you a bit of cash and lots of time, wasted resources and frustration.
Other Incentives You Oughta Know About
Google (foundation) is willing to pay you to find ways to improve the delivery of public services, to develop cheaper renewable energy sources and to stimulate demand for plug-in vehicles.
Sierra Wireless & Wavefront Developer Program – Win promotional support for apps you develop
National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) “Small Business Works for America” Contest – Win $5000 and a trip to Washington, DC
Conservation Innovation Grants – Develop new ways to stimulate the adoption and development of new conservation approaches and win up to $10 million
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Tags: business opportunity > careersthatdontsuck.com > contests > innovation
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