Crowdsourcing gains credibility

A new survey by leading senior marketing executives networking group MENG suggests that business is increasingly looking towards external collaborations as the source for new ideas and innovation.

62% of senior marketers questioned rated crowdsourcing and collaboration as either effective or highly effective, compared to 73% who said the same of internal research and development (R&D), and 63% for employee contributions (workplace innovation).

Most intriguing of all, only a measly 54% rated the use of traditional consulting firms and professional services firms as an effective source for new ideas.

The main pillars for crowdsourcing are:

  • Self select / self organisation
  • Meritocracy’s
  • Open-source development (Linux, Wikipedia, Google open API etc.)
  • Customer service via mass collaboration

These findings are great news for the practitioners and followers of crowdsourcing and the open-source movement, however, what it doesn’t highlight is the reasons underpinning this shift. A need for greater democracy is clear in emerging markets, but pressure to follow the example of such leading lights as IBM, Lego and Dell is perhaps going to lead to as many poor imitations as good.

For business to capitalise on the wisdom of the crowd, the right environment must be created. Business needs to be aware of the great challenges of the mechanisms of sharing & distributing co-created value (reward), be it of a social, emotional or financial measure.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Crowdsourcing gains credibility,” an entry on dub

Published:
03.13.08 / 8am
Category:
collaboration, crowdsourcing