Some of the biggest names in business, from tech to entertainment, have embraced crowdsourcing as part of their business model. Wikipedia’s evolutionary, digital take on oral history depends on factual, thoroughly researched user-generated submissions; Airbnb depends on users offering space in their homes and apartments for other users to stay at.
These companies and their services wouldn’t exist without user-generated content and input.
It’s a transferrable model that, we believe, is one of the best ways to solve the issues in your organization—whether they’re financial issues, cultural, or otherwise.
In short, crowdsourcing gets to the heart of employee and consumer issues more quickly and efficiently than through other means.
In 2006, Wired editors Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson coined the term crowdsourcing to describe the shift in the publishing and entertainment industries.
Technological advances in everything from product design software to digital video cameras are breaking down the cost barriers that once separated amateurs from professionals. Hobbyists, part-timers, and dabblers suddenly have a market for their efforts, as smart companies in industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the crowd. The labor isn’t always free, but it costs a lot less than paying traditional employees. It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.
“The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” Jeff Howe, Wired
In the above instance, crowdsourcing is utilized to save a business’s bottom line, tapping outside talent for internal use. Crowdsourcing can also be utilized to add your bottom line by tapping internal talent.
Employees know your business best. Those on the frontlines intimately know the pains of customers, by turn letting management know their own pains. By implementing a platform for all employees, regardless of role or title, you open a dynamic conversation that can result in financial change.
There are, however, hurdles you have to overcome when implementing crowdsourcing as part of your business model. You might not have a diverse crowd; potential participants might not have access or the time to share their ideas; or you never attract enough of the crowd to motion any change in the first place.
That’s why enabling a culture of innovation from the get-go is vital—as well as investing in a well-designed idea management software.
We know the pains of the crowd and management alike: People want to be empowered with a voice, especially by their employer, and management wants to ensure that the process is efficient and cost-effective.
Idea management software is more efficient than Excel and email chains, and building your own platform is time-consuming and costly—more so than buying a packaged product.
Ideawake has features to help track the innovation pipeline and assign ownership to ideas, which ultimately optimizes the process from start-to-finish.
