Ed Morrison · General Mills builds its open innovation networks

March 23rd, 2010

Here’s an interesting video on how General Mills is working to build the networks it needs for open innovation (via Stefan Lindegaard).

[Company reps] travel to relevant locations and meet with companies, start-ups, institutions and others being potential innovation partners with General Mills.

The meetings last a couple of hours in which Generals Mills presents their worldwide innovation network (G-WIN), explain how they approach open innovation and the benefits of partnering with General Mills as well as a list of innovation opportunities (project briefs) that General Mills is actively pursuing.

Regional economic development is no different. We need open networks to accelerate innovation. Regions with thick networks will be more competitive in fast changing, knowledge-driven markets. They will learn faster. Spot opportunities faster. Act faster. They will be more competitive.




General Mills Open Innovation Town Hall
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4 Responses to “General Mills builds its open innovation networks”

  1. JS Says:
    March 25th, 2010 at 8:41 am

    If innovation did accelerate, how would you know. That is, without some way to qualify what is or is not innovation, you don’t know where you are or what worked and what was a waste of time and effort.

    Otherwise people chase every half-baked idea and gallop off in a dozen contradictory directions chasing the mythical innovation. Or else hold buzzword compliance meetings where everything is an innovation — including talking about innovation without practicing it.

    Cleveland is fully buzzword complaint. What is needed is an improved understanding of what qualifies as innovative.

  2. Ed Morrison Says:
    March 26th, 2010 at 8:28 am

    Once again, I just do not get what you are driving at. What is an
    “improved understanding of what qualifies as innovative”?

  3. JS Says:
    March 26th, 2010 at 10:43 am

    Yes, well, par for the course.

    Let us say there’s a problem with groupthink and status quoism. Doing the same thing over and over, but calling it innovation doesn’t make it so.

    Because it is easier to say innovation than perform innovation, more is branded innovation that really isn’t.

    For example, Starbuck’s decides to fool itself into thinking it is doing something innovative with a listening project. (Cleveland loves listening projects)

    So, of course we can’t just call it a suggestion box, we have to drag buzzwords like social media into it. Thus is Born MyStarbucksIdea.com to foster “innovation.”

    And over two years 80,000 ideas are submitted. And, Starbucks decides to implement 53 ideas submitted.

    However, upon examination, we track 47 of these ideas as already in planning or execution, before the suggestion box was nailed up (Sorry, sophisticated open network of strategic doing site was launched)

    We might well take 80,000 to 53 as a ratio which hits either something amiss with the structure of the site or the idea evaluation process or both.

    Should we do this, we might change something on the site so — as the excuse goes — idea submitted are more in line with Starbuck’s strategy and branding.

    Should we then look at six ideas as actually coming from outside, we might make this into a rough gauge to tell us something about how innovative we are.

    How many are strategic? How many tactical? Were all the ideas, say, minor tactics, we might then get some understanding of what will and what will not be accepted.

    Given the buzz about social networks, you could well launch “Am I innovative or Not?” where users — not management gets to rate innovation. And thus short-circuiting the closed loop of companies and organizations “throwing their voice” to make believe customers in fake listening projects.

    Give it a couple decades, you’ll get what I’ve been saying. And I’ll seem a lot less cynical and a lot more prophetic then.

  4. JS Says:
    March 26th, 2010 at 10:53 am

    Google “Benchmarks for innovation metrics,” and get what I’m driving at.