There was a time when P&G primarily relied on their own capabilities for generating new ideas, developing them in to new products and delivering them but this was not enough as the company was very fast in growing their innovation model. In 2000, CEO A.G. Lafley decided to do something about it. He introduce Connect & Develop.
P&G’s Open Innovation Model:-
What is Open Innovation?
Open innovation also known as crowdsourcing or Co-creation is a way for companies to harness the ideas and strength of people outside their organization to make improvements to internal processes or products.
Open innovation is also a way for companies to avoid the stale, repetitive thinking that can happen when employees are accustomed to their internal ways of solving their problems. By including more outside ideas, companies can ensure their ideas stay fresh and new while providing opportunities for those outside their organization to participate in technology development.
How do Companies Benefit from Co-Creation?
Co –Creation allows companies to expand their technology quickly without dumping excessive money into internal R&D. While keeping trade secrets confidential, P&G can open information about problems they are trying to solve to the community at large to solicit new ideas. By drawing on a larger pool of ideas, we get insight from a rich diversity of people.
P&G’s Current Needs:-
Personal and Family care Innovation
Vitamins Minerals supplements
Respiratory Technology
Digestive Wellness
Enhanced delivery of oral care actives and flavours
Beauty & Grooming Innovation
Solid Lubricant
Household care Innovation
Packaging Innovation
Refillable Dispensing Package for Wet wipes
Industrial and Manufacturing Innovation
Digital, Business and Retail Innovation
Other Innovation
What is Connect & Develop?
It’s P&G’s version of Open innovation: the practice of tapping externally developed intellectual property to accelerate internal innovation and sharing our internally developed assets and know how to help others outside the company.
How does it Work?
Connect + develop is a P&G open innovation strategy. The idea of partnering externally to accelerate innovation is applied across the company and around the world in all our work and with all their brands.
Within P&G, they have a global team dedicated to empowering C+D , searching for innovations, working with prospective partners and shepherding breakthrough innovations through the company and into market. That dedicated team is called Global Business Development.
Academic Partnership:-
University and P&G
In the United States, two agreements have been formed to better enable collaboration between P&G and state-wide university systems. In 2010, P&G formed a Master Strategic Alliance with the state universities of Ohio, followed in 2011 by an agreement with the state universities of Michigan. The agreements, modelled from an earlier contract between P&G and the University of Cincinnati, establish a framework for all future collaboration between P&G and public universities in these two states. The agreement lays out standard terms for all agreements, such as intellectual property rights and confidentiality obligations. Only unique terms (i.e. cost, scope of research, milestones) need to be negotiated for each project. By having all the principles established before individual projects are identified, researchers are able to focus on the research project at hand rather than working through IP terms each time a new collaboration opportunity is identified. In addition to enabling projects to move faster, a constant connection between P&G and