Connect + Develop, podcast

Business development ideas - connect + develop equals VALUE for any size organization, business, or institution. Are You Reaping the Benefits of Web 2.0 - social networks - community software - participation - connecting? Web 2.0 (also referred to as Enterprise 2.0) is reshaping the way businesses of all sizes must operate in order to succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace. Trends like this one are changing customer expectations, buying behaviors, the way products/services are developed, and the pace at which companies must make decisions and even shift directions.

"Finding That 'Sweet Spot': A New Way to Drive Innovation"

Published: June 27, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton

Larry Huston was vice president of knowledge and innovation for many years at Procter & Gamble. During that time, he was the architect of its Connect + Develop program, the creator of P&G's Brand Bootcamp operation, and innovation leader for the company's global fabric and homecare business, among other initiatives.

Below is an edited version of the podcast.

Knowledge@Wharton: I'd like to start out by asking you, what is the Connect + Develop approach to innovation and why is it innovative?

Huston: Terrific question. You've got to start with: What is innovation in most companies today? For most companies, it's all about inventing everything yourself. Yes, some companies do joint ventures. They mostly do that out of trying to fill in a weakness or a capability gap. But most companies invent everything. Procter & Gamble invented 90% of its innovations. Everything came from basically within the four walls of P&G. We had 9,000 R&D people at Procter & Gamble, but the world has about 1.8 million people who are equal in education and have access to first-class lab facilities, [like] P&G people.

So basically, Connect + Develop is all about redefining our organization as 1,809,000 people -- that 1.8 million plus our 9,000 people -- and then leveraging the intellectual assets and capabilities of the world in a connected model to bring big innovations to our consumers. So it's about connecting, not just inventing. You can think about it as: You want to continue to invent, but you want to connect. It's what you know plus who you know on the outside, so that you can really create a lot of value for your customers or consumers.

I grabbed this from the NY TImes, "The Whole World Is Watching ", By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN.

When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cellphone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload video on YouTube, everyone is filmmaker. When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure. We're all public figures now. The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer †and each of us so much more transparent.

We can all act on our imaginations farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before.