Why Outsourcing Innovation Makes Sense

From BusinessWeek.com -- Innovation & Design:

Earlier this year, BusinessWeek asked readers how they would advise their boss to boost innovation internally. Only 3% of the 614 respondents said they would hire an outside innovation and design firm. In fact, hiring an outside firm was the least popular solution. (Other options included internal crowdsourcing, which got the most votes, or hiring a chief innovation officer.)

Faced with this alarming reality, design and innovation companies have been forced to hustle. The innovators have had to innovate themselves, to tailor their pitches to acknowledge clients' straitened circumstances and show they're not themselves a luxury. One way to do that: to make the case that companies should use them to get a head start on developing new products and services for the post-recession marketplace.

"Some [clients] were hit hard and are hunkering down. But crisis is a great opportunity. If it will take years to show results, [they] might as well start now," says Dev Patnaik, founder and chief executive of Jump Associates, a San Mateo-based consultancy with clients that include Nike (NKE) and Target (TGT). Patnaik says that business started to pick up again in the end of the second quarter.

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