IBM's Innovative Jam

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IBM has created a reputation as being a quality innovator in a fast$-$paced industry. One approach used to spawn innovation was the IBM Innovation Jam, where IBM gathered data and ideas from thousands of individuals within and outside the organization. This resulted in the emergence of numerous new innovative ideas and the launch of new businesses.

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Managing innovation within a corporation is difficult since companies must find the appropriate level of incremental versus radical innovation investments. IBM struggled with focusing too much on incremental innovations in an industry that demanded radical innovations. To spawn creativity and ideas, IBM launched the Innovation Jam to gather ideas from employees, partners, and other individuals.

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Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.

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IBM is one of the best$-$known corporations in the world, but the company saw a major challenge for the firm. Although IBM had great ability to do basic scientific research and owned the rights to over $40,000$ patents, it had struggled to translate its patented knowledge into marketable products. Also, it had built a reputation with investors as a firm with incremental product development, not the reputation needed in dynamic technological markets. Crowdsourcing was one choice to move IBM forward in a bold way.

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In $2006,$ IBM hosted an Innovation Jam, an open event that involved $150,000$ IBM employees, family members, business partners, clients, and university researchers. The jam took place over two $72-$hour sessions. Participants from over $100$ countries jammed for $24$ hours a day over three days. The discussions were organized around $25$ technologies in six broad categories. While the jam discussions were rich in content, it was a challenge for IBM to pull meaningful data from them. The $24-$hour format meant that no single moderator could follow any discussion, and the volume of posts to the discussion threads left IBM with a huge amount of data to wade through. The discussions yielded $46,000$ potential business ideas. To make sense of the data, IBM organized the discussion threads using sophisticated text analysis software and had a team of $50$ managers read through the organized data. Using data from the first session, the managers identified $31$big ideas.$$ They further explored these $31$ ideas in the second jam session. IBM then used another set of $50$ global managers to review the discussions from the jam. Teams of managers focused on related groups of ideas, such as health care and the environment.

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IBM$$s managers saw the jam as serving three purposes. First, it gave individuals both inside and outside IBM who already had big ideas a forum in which to share their vision with top managers. Second, it gave individuals with smaller ideas a venue to link up with others with related ideas, resulting in larger major initiatives. For example, individuals who had ideas about better local weather forecasting, sensing devices for water utilities, and long$-$term climate forecasting came together to create $$Predictive Water Management,$$ a comprehensive solution for water authorities to manage their resources, a business solution no one at IBM had thought of before the jam. Third, the global structure of the jam allowed IBM, early on$,$ to see how employees, partners, and customers from different regions had different goals and concerns about possible new businesses. For example, what customers wanted from systems to manage health care records varied greatly across regions.

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Based on the jam sessions, IBM launched $10$ new businesses using $$100$ million in funding. One, the Intelligent Transportation System, a system that gathers, manages, and disseminates real$-$time information about metropolitan transportation systems to optimize traffic flow, has been sold to transportation authorities in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Dubai, and Australia. Another, Intelligent Utility Networks, became a core product in IBM$$s public utility business. A third, Big Green, became part of the largest initiative in IBM$$s history, a billion$-$dollar project on better managing energy and other resources.

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By $2022$ the Jam, now a proven management tool for driving innovation and collaboration, turned into a core a business for IBM. The offering is ideal for companies and enterprises looking to kick$-$start a transformation or change programs through a transparent $$conversation$.$ Unlike other ideation platforms, the Innovation Jam is a strategic online event lasting a few days, often tied to a larger campaign. The output helps clarify$$and in some cases course$-$correct$$activities and initiatives established at the highest level of an organization. The Jam is the first online solution to gather and make sense of the voice of the employee $($VoE$)$ to help organizations realize their strategic imperative.