NoAE, the Network of Automotive Excellence, has just opened the second round of its open innovation competition for the automotive industry. NoAE is a German network of more than 100 companies from the automotive industry, including many OEMs (like Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Mazda, MAN, Porsche, and Volkswagen), first- and second-tier-suppliers, and related companies. It is one of the best examples of a non-hierarchical network I know.
For the second year, they also organize an innovation competition where everyone can submit ideas and concepts within three areas:
(1) Health and Wellness in the automobileThe contest itself is a good idea, the execution however follows not the state-of-the-art of open innovation principles: You really have to be motivated intrinsically as you can win nothing than a place on a conference exhibition where the 30 best ideas will be presented. The claim of the organizers is "Ideas become projects, projects become contracts".(2) Infotainment and Navigation
(3) CO2 Reduction, lightweight constructions, and new materials
Well, many small inventors know that it is a large and difficult path from an invention to a profitable contract in the automotive industry. The structure of the competition still mirrors the hierarchies and traditional structures in this industry.
There may be some value for inventors to get publicity, PR, and an access to auto managers. But in order to really motivate innovation, this may be not enough and sustainable. I believe that in the future, the success of such competitions, and the quality of the ideas submitted there, depends on more than just providing a platform for presentation.
For example, NoAe could
- provide detailed feedback to any idea so that inventors could improve their concepts,This incentive structure may also explain why in 2007, almost all winners were companies and no single inventors or "lead users". For a small company, participating in such a competition may have the value of getting an award that can be exploited for marketing purposes. They also may have the skills and capacities to follow up an interested party in a professional way. But for individual actors, I believe there are much better idea competitions to profit from a creative idea.- offer free prototyping capability for inventors lacking this,
- provide networking between the inventors so that some could cooperate to bring their idea on a higher level,
- provide active matching of ideas with potential industrial users,
- pay prize money and honor good ideas and input to the industry.
Important: To submit an innovation, you already should have a patent or design protection for your invention, as participating in such a competition may mean that you have revealed your idea in public and thus you may not be able to protect your idea later. And this industry still is very much about conventional patent protection and not about open source hardware. So submitting a great idea without having IP protection may harm the commercial value as potential users may expect problems of non-exclusivity.
Here is all information about the competition http://www.noae.com/wettbewerb.html However: To participate, you have to understand German as all information is just in German language (but they say in German on their website that they are open for non-German contributions :-)
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