Open Innovation

In the past I have written several blog entries about the power of Open Innovation. The most robust open innovation website out there is InnoCentive.

Yesterday I decided to try some open innovation for my own business – on a much smaller scale.  As mentioned before, we are launching a new website with a new web-strategy.  As part of this, we are returning to the “24/7 Innovation” brand.

And for this, I need a new logo.  The logo above was the original logo from 2001. 

I have had friends and professional designers provide their ideas, but with little luck.  I could not explain what I wanted.  I’m a “I’ll know it when I see it” kind of guy.

So I turned to an open innovation website called 99designs.com.  There I was able to post my brief and within 12 hours I had over a dozen designs by different designers.

When the process is completed (in 6 days, 10 hours), I will ask for your vote on your favorite.  Or you can chime in now by adding a comment with the number of your favorite logo.  Click here to view the designs and the brief.

In the past, I used eLance.com for some design work.  But there you select designers based on a portfolio and how much they charge, not the finished product.  99designs is a truer open innovation model in that you select based on the solution, not a bid. 

Where in your business could you benefit from open innovation?  What open innovation website do you use?  I would love to catalogue a large list of good open innovation sites.

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