By Christophe Deutsch, R&D Manager at Telops (www.telops.com) and Quebec Seeks Solutions strategic advisor
I am very proud of this second edition of Quebec Seeks Solutions (QSS). All the nine seeking companies have left with very interesting solution potentials after a two day working session. Around 160 participants have worked hard on technical problems going from the optimisation of the green coke calcination process to the manufacturing of fur boots.
In order to help those less familiar with the open innovation concepts, QSS started with 3 presentations on the topic. Frank Piller, Richard Bendis and Marko Torkkeli have given an excellent overview of different aspects of open innovation.
After this more traditional introduction people went to the laboratory space in order to better understand the problems and to try to bring solutions. Here are a few outcomes of the second edition:
1- Networking outside the “normal” network: the seeking companies have met people that they would never have thought of contacting themselves. Furthermore these people were interested in their problems much more than just in selling them their capabilities.
A seeker told us that, before its QSS experience, he would never have expected that the problem he was facing could interest someone (he thought the problem was not technical enough)!
2. Serendipity: it was amazing to see how what can be expected from open innovation happens in reality. In fact during the presentation of the Textiles Techniques Chaudière-Appalaches’(TTC-A) problem, another seeking company discovered that they faced nearly the same problem few years ago and that the machinery they used to solve it was available and that they could perhaps sell it to TTC-A. Ev en after more than one month of broadcasting it took the real face to face event to bring make this solution emerge. This is one of the reasons why QSS is a success: bringing people together at the end of a broadcasting of problem!
3. Exploring problems: two companies explained us during the wrap-up at the end of the event that they came with a precise technical problem and that they quit with more than just potential solutions but also with business opportunities that appeared after discussing with the solvers.
Prior to the broadcasting of problems, the seeking companies have been supported by experts to ensure their problems were well defined. During this process one of the seeking companies did discover that they already had a solution in house.
These two examples confirm very clearly the gain of a process that takes time to explore the problems before going directly to a solutions and this is another of the key success factors of QSS.
4. Intellectual property: As during the first edition, we saw no issues about intellectual property! This comes mainly because the goal of the day is not necessarily to solve the problem but to give the seeking company enough material to do it after the event. Therefore all participants can fully play the game and be passionate. The negotiation steps and contractual aspects come only after the event.
As for the first edition we are going to follow the seekers in the following month to validate if the potential solutions will concretise. But we can already clearly state that the benefits of a Seeks Solutions approach are real. They have now been proven twice and there is even a new concept behind it: local open innovation! The second edition has improved the process in several ways. One of them being to have the event over two days. This allowed a psychological process of maturation of ideas overnight.
There has been a long way since the first steps in March 2010. Today several Seeks Solutions events are already planned for conferences (ISPIM) for cities (Baie-Comeau) for clusters (Plastic industry). A new web platform to support the organization of such events exists. The model has now proven its value but it requires some key elements to succeed so do not hesitate to contact us if you want to organise such an event in your region!
