How Did Innovation Management Enable a Global Consumer Products Company to Increase Invention Disclosures by 445%?
Background
A leading consumer products company with tens of thousands of employees distributed worldwide was grappling with intense competition, rapid technological advancements, and growing concerns about its products' environmental impact. The company recognized the necessity of fostering a more innovative culture to stay ahead in the market and address these pressing issues.
The Challenge: Empowering the employees with proactive innovation processes
In 2021, when the new Chief IP Counsel stepped in to transform the company’s innovation strategy, they were challenged to reinvigorate a mature company’s sleepy innovation program, bringing innovative ideas to the business units to help them succeed and protect these innovations.
They worried that the existing innovation process was passive, relying too much on employee voluntary invention disclosures. They also knew that high inventor engagement and participation were critical to responding promptly to market and environmental challenges.
An underwhelming response to the ongoing patent program
As the new IP Counsel soon discovered, the challenge was that only a small number of employees shared ideas and participated in the invention disclosure process.
Given the intense competition, rapidly evolving technology, stringent environmental regulations, and high customer expectations, the company recognized the need to prioritize innovation and reassess its existing program.
The issues were:
- Resource-Intensive Disclosure Process: The reliance on email communication and Word forms for disclosures was resource-intensive, requiring significant manual effort and increasing the risk of losing or mismanaging valuable intellectual property.
- Resource Constraints: A major concern about implementing a new system was the lack of time and resources to implement it or provide comprehensive training.
- Supporting a High Volume of Disclosures: The existing system was not equipped to handle a high volume of disclosures, restricting the company’s ability to scale its innovation efforts effectively.
- Inability to Track and Gain Insights: The use of spreadsheets to track disclosures hindered the company’s ability to efficiently manage the innovation pipeline and limited its ability to gain valuable insights into innovation trends and priorities.
Essentially, the patent program needed to leverage the full creative potential of the workforce to deliver the expected results.
The Solution: Extending the innovation program's bandwidth
Fortunately, the new IP Chief discovered InspireIP, recognizing an untapped opportunity to use the platform not only for passive innovation collection but also to proactively gather ideas through Innovation Challenges, thereby expanding the program’s reach.
Most global teams find it challenging to achieve a high volume of innovations, and maintaining this level consistently over time is often seen as impossible. Furthermore, handling a high volume of innovations requires substantial effort by the IP team. However, InspireIP enhances the capacity of the management’s innovation efforts, allowing them to collect more ideas in the repository and execute them at scale.
Implementing a repeatable and scalable process
Since late 2020, InspireIP has been helping the IP Chief go beyond the fundamental capabilities of capturing ideas, facilitating collaboration, and analyzing through Innovation Challenges.
Launching Innovation Challenges was intentional
It made it possible to reach out to more than 10,000 employees spread across 18 countries, increasing inventor participation and targeting strategic technologies and environmental goals.
The Chief IP Counsel partnered with the Business Units to launch targeted innovation challenges, encouraging employees to focus on areas such as sustainable product development and advanced manufacturing technologies.
Seal of approval from employees
The response from employees was overwhelmingly positive. A notable comment from a Manager highlighted the impact:
The innovation challenges significantly boosted inventor participation in the disclosure process, engaging a broader segment of the workforce and tapping into their diverse skills and knowledge. Additionally, these challenges facilitated cross-business unit collaborations, knowledge sharing, and novel approaches to solving these problems.
Business Unit Collaboration
Running challenges as a collaboration between the IP Group and the Business Units has significantly changed the company’s perception of the IP Group. Previously seen as focused on “protecting innovations,” the IP Group has transformed into a vital problem-solving partner addressing critical company problems by leveraging employees’ creativity, unique business knowledge, and technical expertise. This transformation was made possible by the InspireIP platform, which supports innovation challenges and provides the necessary efficiency to manage a high volume of innovations effectively.
The business units now see the IP team not just as a support group for filing patents but as a vital resource mobilizing the company’s best and brightest to solve critical problems.
Results and Improvements
43% of Disclosures From Innovation Challenges: Innovations focused on strategic technologies and critical business problems
Through the use of the InspireIP Challenge feature, the client transformed the flow of disclosures from 100% random to 43% focused on strategic technologies and critical business problems.
400% Participation Growth: Broader participation of employees from across the organization
Employee participation in the IP program increased four times after implementing InspireIP. The intuitive interface, collaboration, streamlined submission process, and innovation challenges all contributed to inspiring employees to start sharing their ideas.
445% Growth: More invention disclosures
In the years since launching the first innovation challenge, InspireIP has become an invaluable partner in generating more disclosures. The company saw a 445% growth in disclosure submissions, including submissions from innovation challenges.
Positive Inventor Feedback
The patent program received exceptionally high ratings from inventors who felt like management really appreciated them and their ideas.
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