{"id":31634,"date":"2018-11-13T14:53:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T19:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/is-crowdsourcing-a-sustainable-value-proposition-for-innovation-a-unilever-case-study\/"},"modified":"2018-11-13T14:59:18","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T19:59:18","slug":"is-crowdsourcing-a-sustainable-value-proposition-for-innovation-a-unilever-case-study","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/is-crowdsourcing-a-sustainable-value-proposition-for-innovation-a-unilever-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Crowdsourcing a Sustainable Value Proposition For Innovation: A Unilever Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has crowdsourcing turned into a barrier for transformative thinking and operational excellence? Many open innovation and crowdsourcing examples have been documented across fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and are credited with sparking innovation spurring the development of new products, services, and business lines. Over time, crowdsourcing has been leveraged across many traditional organizational functions from R&D to marketing to supply chain and manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Partnering for\u00a0<\/b>Sustainability<\/u><\/b>:<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With the stated goal that \u2018By 2020 we (Unilever) will help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being\u20191<\/sup>, Unilever has turned to the crowd for assistance with their sustainability agenda.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 1<\/strong> Unilever Foundry Open Innovation Platform2<\/sup>\"\"<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Through the Unilever Foundry2<\/sup>, Unilever has developed a platform to collaborate with innovators globally in developing opportunities across six distinct areas:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Products & Ingredients<\/li>\n
  2. Consumer & Market Intelligence<\/li>\n
  3. Marketing, AdTech, & e-Commerce<\/li>\n
  4. Social & Sustainability Tech<\/li>\n
  5. Enterprise Tech<\/li>\n
  6. Disruptive Business Models<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Given the magnitude of this task, conventional wisdom holds that although Unilever is one of the world\u2019s leading FMCP companies, making and selling around 400 brands in more than 190 countries3<\/sup>, it needs to rely on the input of willing partners. Unlike traditional crowdsourcing prompts focused on a specific task, as seen by Frito-Lay\u2019s Do Us a Flavor Contest4<\/sup>, Unilever is looking to connect and collaborate with mature startups working on industry-disrupting business models.<\/p>\n

    Setting Up for Success:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    As a result, Unilever has shifted steps of their product development process (ideation, concept, and prototyped) to external partners while focusing efforts on commercializing proven applications. It can be argued that this change in innovation responsibility frees up internal resource capacity to focus on Unilever\u2019s core competency, which is to bring high quality consumer friendly products to market at scale. On the contrary, this may be viewed by outsiders as an apparent step to removing some of the innovation responsibility from internal personal, which in turn decreases the overall culture of innovation.<\/p>\n

    In the short term (next two years), my belief is that Unilever will use this open innovation platform as a pipeline to generate ideas, business models, and ventures that will connect Unilever with entrepreneurs around the world determined to improve consumer\u2019s health and well-being. However, I am not as bullish on their ability to achieve the stated goal of helping a billion people act on their health by 2020 because it requires the following factors to hold true:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Large and consistent pipeline of sustainable ideas that enable individuals globally to act in a dynamic marketplace<\/li>\n
    • Rapid commercialization or implementation of these ideas and opportunities<\/li>\n
    • Tight portfolio management, resource allocation, and project prioritization<\/li>\n
    • Incremental opportunities which drive additional action as compared to the status quo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      To counter these concerns, Unilever has encouraged both brand and function teams to add briefs to the Unilever Foundry which \u2018outline problems that need solving, or opportunities we are seeking to grasp.\u20195<\/sup> Likewise, in order to encourage entrepreneurial talent to work on these briefs they are engaged typically in paid pilot programs that are refined and built through in an incubator approach.<\/p>\n

      In the medium term (two to ten years out), in order to maintain and expand this open innovation capability Unilever must become proficient in a handful of areas. First, the corporate, innovation, and sustainability strategies must be aligned and integrated in order to continue to fund and allocate resources to open innovation. Second, managing an open innovation platform long-term requires a dedicated team of resources skilled across a handful of fundamental competencies including – innovation, consumer insights, technology, and market trends. These skills are essential to being able to develop a criterion for vetting news ideas, prioritizing partnerships, and ensuring alignment to Unilever\u2019s mission and culture.<\/p>\n

      Future of Open Innovation:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      While largely successful since it\u2019s inception in 2014, the Unilever Foundry has \u2018launched over 100 pilots with start-ups and Unilever brands\u20195<\/sup>, it brings to question whether this approach to innovation is sustainable or rather a short-term enabler. Considering the cost benefit trade-offs, between creating a world-class innovation organization with the supporting tools and capabilities in house to one that manages and encourages external innovation, I am curious to see which approach is more advantageous in the long term.<\/p>\n

      In reflecting on Unilever\u2019s approach to solving their sustainability agenda, I am left asking myself the following questions:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Is crowdsourcing an enabler or impediment to innovation and what are the constraints?<\/li>\n
      2. Is there ever too wide a net (brief\/question) for open innovation?<\/li>\n
      3. Is the power of many truly greater than the power of one, when the \u2018one\u2019 is an industry leader?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        (764 words)<\/p>\n

        1<\/sup>For the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan outlining the goal of separating growth from the environmental footprint, see Sustainable Living. Available at: https:\/\/www.unilever.co.uk\/sustainable-living\/.<\/p>\n

        2<\/sup>To view the Unilever Foundry crowdsourcing platform, see Innovation Through Collaboration – Foundry Unilever. Available at: https:\/\/foundry.unilever.com\/#Home.<\/p>\n

        3<\/sup>For Unilever 2017 10k, Available at: https:\/\/www.unilever.com\/Images\/unilever-annual-report-and-accounts-2017_tcm244-516456_en.pdf.<\/p>\n

        4<\/sup>To understand the impact of targeted crowdsourcing though Frito-Lay\u2019s Do Us a Flavor Contest, see Forbes (2014). Crowdsourcing campaign appears to boost brand perception for Lay’s. Available at: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/brandindex\/2014\/10\/11\/crowdsourcing-campaign-appears-to-boost-brand-perception-for-lays.<\/p>\n

        5<\/sup>For a series of successful pilots launched in conjunction with Unilever through the open innovation platform, see Consumer and Marketing – Foundry Unilever. Available at: https:\/\/foundry.unilever.com\/case-studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Point of view on the impact of open innovation on Unilever's sustainability agenda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11862,"featured_media":31721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[74,4642,4240,4239,14],"class_list":["post-31634","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crowd-sourcing","category-fast-moving-consumer-goods","category-innovation-process","category-open-innovation","category-sustainability","hck-taxonomy-organization-unilever","hck-taxonomy-industry-consumer-products","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/rc-tom-challenge-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nIs Crowdsourcing a Sustainable Value Proposition For Innovation: A Unilever Case Study - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/is-crowdsourcing-a-sustainable-value-proposition-for-innovation-a-unilever-case-study\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Crowdsourcing a Sustainable Value Proposition For Innovation: A Unilever Case Study - 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