Ideas can come from anywhere. Braille was invented by a 15-year-old who was blind in one eye. A young marginalized mathematician called Alan Turing invented the basis of modern computing and his innovations underlie the digital world as we now know it.
Many forward-thinking companies have realized that regardless of how talented their staff may be, going outside the four walls of your organization opens up a whole world of possibilities for inspired ideation and creative problem-solving.
That’s where crowdsourcing comes in. Put simply, crowdsourcing is a technique you can employ to leverage talent outside of your organization.
The heroX platform is a conduit bringing the brightest minds from around the globe together with a broad range of companies to solve challenges. From working with the Jack Brooks Foundation to improve voter turnout to collaborating with NASA to seek solutions to distribute, store, and manage power in space, heroX teams are the cutting edge of innovation.
These are 5 benefits of crowdsourcing that can help your organization remain relevant and ready for the future.
Out of the box thinking
Steve Jobs recognized the inertia that can befall companies who try to do new things the old way. Crowdsourcing brings a breath of fresh air to that dynamic. When you deviate from the traditional corporate hierarchy and you open up a challenge to a team that is assembling around a love of innovation, you get new and different ideas.
The novel perspective of people who do not necessarily know your product or your company allows for new concepts to emerge. Crowdsourcing teams have no bias or agenda, therefore they operate with a freedom that employees inside the organization might not experience.
Diversity
Many medicinal treatments we use today were employed by several ancient peoples throughout Africa. The diesel engine was born in Germany. A Brazillian inventor created and patented the portable stereo cassette player in 1972. The boom box!
They say great minds think alike, but at heroX we beg to differ! Everyone is unique, bringing his or her own distinct set of abilities and experience to their process. And when you open up a challenge globally, you get the added advantage of including different cultural perspectives. Having this rare worldly influence adds an element of diversity and a layer of complexity that brings your problem-solving infinite possibilities.
Saving money
Teams that come together on the heroX platform have a love of innovation. They are motivated not only by winning potential prize money, but they are invested in learning and growing their network as well. Rather than adding full-time staff to your organization, crowdsourcing allows you to target problem-solving and innovation on an on-demand basis, saving on overhead at the same time.
Reduced management burden
When businesses hire teams internally to ideate and solve problems, there is a burden placed on management to orchestrate and oversee the project.
A benefit of crowdsourcing is that there is no need for a traditional structure. Teams are free to ideate outside the boundaries of your organization, which also frees management up to focus on other things. You simply need to establish your objectives around whatever challenge or problem needs solving and let heroX take it away.
Competitive edge
One of the co-founders of heroX is Peter Diamandis, author of The Future is Faster Than You Think, a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next ten years of rapid technological disruption. In the short time heroX has been in existence, we have done amazing things, and we’ve already become a vital part of the future.
The human mind remains the strongest, most flexible computer out there for problem-solving, and harnessing the power of thousands of minds can generate incredible results. Challenge conventional thinking and come innovate at heroX, where you can expect the unexpected.
