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Just humour me for a moment.

It occurred to me that some of you might be wondering what on earth we are doing talking about innovation and aquaculture on the internet?

In fact its much more arcane than this. We are actually talking about using innovation in a structured and strategic way to overcome the global fish supply gap. Productivity transforming innovations… etc, etc

Anyhow, if you have read this far, then here goes…

Here is an excerpt from a piece written by Jeff Howe for his new book which he has also posted on his blog. He describes how one of the open innovation tools we discussed earlier had resulted in some creative innovation responses. Moreover he analyses who are the most productive innovators.

I found this piece both insightful and instructive. Clearly, it is critical for the number and quality of the innovation outcomes that we generate that we invite an array of people outside aquaculture disciplines to participate in our work… read on

When Lakhani dug into InnoCentive’s data, he discovered that Melcarek wasn’t the exception, he was the rule—the scientists most likely to solve a problem were the ones you’d least expect to be capable of solving it.

“We actually found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise,” Lakhani says. The further the problem was from their specialized knowledge, the more likely it was to be solved. “Think of the problem as a flower. Except the goal is to attract not only the most insects, but the most diverse group of insects.”

And Lakhani’s paper contained an even more interesting gem: A full 75 percent of successful solvers already knew the solution to the problem. The solutions to the problems in the study—many of which, recall, had stumped the best corporate scientists in the world after years of effort—didn’t require a breakthrough, or additional brainpower, or a more talented scientist’s attention; they just needed a diverse enough set of minds to have a go at them.

It would seem to be evidence that Hayek was right: Civilization’s progress lies not in acquiring new knowledge, but in aggregating and utilizing the knowledge we already have.

Astounding!

You can access a link to innocentive and an array of other open innovation sites here.

Please invite your friends and colleagues from other disciplines to join us in our quest.

Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope.

You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility.

Effective leaders are able to shake up their thinking as though their brains are kaleidoscopes, permitting an array of different patterns out of the same bits of reality.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, American business Scholar

For aquaculture, this site contains the floating bits.

Take a look down your kaleidoscope at the bits (challenges and innovation components) and see if you can bring some new and exciting patterns into view.

What does the Finfish Project mean for those already involved in the Western Australian Aquaculture Industry and those that we hope will be inspired to get involved?

As stated in previous posts on this site, the Food and Agriculture Organisation has predicted that by 2030 an additional 37 million tonnes of fish will be required to meet global demand.

While 2030 seems a long way into the future, this shortfall will not occur overnight, rather it will grow as world population increases and wild stocks diminish.

How does this impact what we are trying to achieve within the Western Australian Aquaculture Industry?

Noting the predicted global shortfall, there is clearly an opportunity here for a variety of business enterprises in Western Australia to assist in overcoming the predicted fish supply shortfall through innovative developments in aquaculture technologies that will vastly improve the manner in which finfish are farmed globally.

By bringing together a ‘meeting of the minds’ including representatives from the existing Western Australian Aquaculture Industry, potential investors, technology and engineering based company representatives, those involved in the aquaculture industry globally and government, there is a huge potential for first class innovations to be identified.

Innovations with the potential to change the face of global aquaculture will invariably attract interest from international aquaculture ventures already producing large quantities of finfish and from there, partnerships and relationships can evolve.

So, there is the potential for developing valuable intellectual property and sharing that through various joint ventures/alliances with aquaculture ventures located overseas.

But what about those already farming finfish in Western Australia? By participating on-line you will contribute to the potential technologies identified and can later explore their use locally to increase the efficiency of production. 

Still not convinced? Click here for more reasons to get involved. 

Our next step in the Finfish Project involves inviting 25 experts in different fields of endeavour, nationally and internationally, to come together and participate in face to face meetings - a series of Innovation Roadmapping Workshops.

What exactly are we trying to achieve by holding a series of Innovation Roadmapping Workshops focused on finfish aquaculture? Check out the concept of Innovation Roadmapping here.

What’s different about our approach is that we are opening up the dialogue in the Workshops for everyone to participate and have their say. When we say everyone, we really do mean everyone. Anyone able to access a web browser will be able to share the papers from the Workshop and participate in the dialogue - no matter where they are in the world.  

We are firmly of the view that far superior outcomes will be achieved through holding the face to face meetings of the experts in conjunction with encouraging a broad diversity of external, worldwide participation in the dialogue.

For further information on how you can participate click here.

Aquaculture Innovation Roadmapping - come and join us!

Innovation guru Scott Anthony recently shared some insights on his blog regarding change and innovation.

He indicated that six key points that seemed to be in common:

• The need for a crisis or some kind of “burning platform” to motivate transformational change
• A clear vision and strategy … that allows room for iteration
• A recognition that transformation is a multi-year journey
• A need to put the customer or consumer in the center of the transformation equation
• The critical importance of demonstrating to skeptics that different actions can lead to different results
• The need to over-communicate to employees, customers, stakeholders, and shareholders

So, whilst Scott’s comments were developed in the context of large corporate innovation in a US context, I think these insights are also important for our desire to identify and introduce productivity transforming innovations in aquaculture.

I think we may have a burning platform!

What do you think about the rest of his points?

If you would like to take a look at Scott’s post please click on this link.

I find that one of the most useful tools for helping to prioritise the most important innovations required into the future in any industry is to start by looking at some of the major changes facing that industry. Any change can result in a shift in customer satisfaction with present solutions thus leading to a potential opening for new and innovative solutions.

Some of the main changes impacting Aquaculture include:

• a shift from a production driven approach to a market driven approach with emphasis on the whole supply chain from producer to consumer
• increased globalisation resulting in greater competitive pressures, growing power of trans-national companies especially in food industry research, processing and marketing
• an exacting range of demands by consumers including product consistency, reliability of supply, food safety, product choice, and more recently, sustainability of production
• a revolution in technologies applied to aquaculture including genetic manipulation of plants and animals, precision farming and information management —this involves a trend to patented input systems
• the development of an industrialised system of aquaculture with increased vertical integration, a systems approach to aqua-industries and implementation of industry-wide quality assurance
• continuing increase in mechanisation and capital intensity
• concern for the environment, especially the issues of water quality and degradation, air quality and climate change
• reduction in the number of mainstream commercial farms, increasing farm size
• an increase in the ‘critical mass’ for aquaculture required to support up-to-date infrastructure, information systems, processing, reliable year-round supply capacity and marketing

Is the list complete? Can you help by proposing other important changes?

We are building a world wide community of innovators to help overcome the massive shortfall in global fish supply. Assist visitors to your site to explore a world wide community of aquaculture innovators.

Like the Aquaculture Council of Western Australia and the European Aquaculture Society you can help us to get the word out about the Finfish Aquaculture Innovation initiative. Include a finfish button and text on your website…..

Please use these buttons:

You may also care to use some of this text to help explain the finfish initiative:

The finfish.org web site provides a communication platform for a significant global effort in aquaculture innovation. The focus of this effort is to produce industrial quantities of premium quality table fish for the world’s most competitive markets. One of the key steps in the process will be the development of a Finfish Innovation Roadmap.

The Roadmap will define productivity-transforming innovations. Through the Roadmap, appropriate entrepreneurial, corporate and innovation capabilities will be assembled to enable the innovations to be developed and applied in the marketplace.

The need has emerged due to a fish supply gap. The FAO project that the gap will be 37 million tonnes per annum by 2030.

The finfish project is seeking participants. Please visit http://finfish.org to find out more about the project and how to participate.

The aim of this post is to create a collection point for open innovation web sites that offer innovation components up for trade. An objective is to provide innovators seeking to locate innovation components with a place from which to embark on their search.

You might care to contribute by sharing your views on the usefulness of some of these innovation component collections or by raising our awareness to collections we are yet to identify.

Our stated focus is on aquaculture but there is a wide variety of disciplines that can be involved in the delivery of aquaculture product from a glint in the eye of a couple of milt and egg contributors on some romantic sandy stream bottom through to the presentation of sashimi or gormand bait in a six star restaurant. Given this we are pleased to include in our list all forms of innovation component collections not just this from sources of aquaculture IP.

Here is the beginnings of our resource list:

BirchBob helps customers who are selling and buying technologies. BirchBob identifies technology seekers and thereby meets offers and demands. By the same token, BirchBob’s ability for marketing innovation is directly related to contacts made in the course of its Procurement business.

yet2.com is focused on bringing buyers and sellers of technologies together so that all parties maximize the return on their investments. Whether you are working with a team of our licensing experts or using our virtual technology marketplace, yet2.com offers companies and individuals the tools and expertise to acquire, sell, license, and leverage some of the world’s most valuable intellectual assets.

YourEncore is a network of retired and veteran scientists and engineers providing our clients with proven experience to help accelerate their pace of innovation. We are uniquely positioned to help our clients recover lost knowledge and to enable them to make remarkable connections to solve challenging problems using expertise from a variety of industries.

NineSigma enables clients to source innovative ideas, technologies, products and services from outside their organizations quickly and inexpensively by connecting them to the best innovators and solution providers from around the world. Our unique “Discover-Connect-Solve” approach is based upon the principles of Open Innovation. Our clients access the largest and most comprehensive open network of scientific researchers in the world to solve their business needs.

UTEK is a technology transfer company focused on open innovation. UTEK enables its clients to find and acquire technologies from universities and research laboratories worldwide. UTEK has developed a proprietary database of intellectual properties available for immediate license, which combined with its network of over 2,000 universities and research laboratories provides its clients with access to external innovation.

The Innocentive Open Innovation Marketplace, allows Seekers- commercial, academic, and nonprofit organizations - to draw on a global network of Solvers - more than 125,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, and business people - to meet challenging needs and move their organizations forward in various areas.

Strategic Allies, have experience in the global search for innovative technologies, products, strategic alliances and other business growth generating opportunities.

AUTM, the Association of University Technology Managers includes a search engine for university, non profit and for profit organisations on its website.

CORDIS technology marketplace is a free on line service of the European Union where you can find research and technological development results and search for innovative business opportunities on emerging technologies.

The InnovationXchange (IXC) is a commercially neutral, not-for-profit, global knowledge network which delivers the ground breaking IXC Intermediary Service to business and research - a new way to find the connections you need.

US Agriculture Research Service - ARS continually looks for opportunities to partner with businesses, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and universities. These partnerships are designed to augment research programs, expedite research results to the private sector, exchange information and knowledge, stimulate new business.

Please make your contributions by leaving a reply below.

The concept of ‘open innovation’ is making a significant impact on the ability of organisations and individuals to develop new products and services and create competitive advantages.

Naturally enough, open innovation is usually described by comparison with its opposite - closed innovation. Closed innovation describes the practice of keeping innovation efforts confined within the four walls of an organisation. It is usually described by referring to an industrial company that introduces only those new products developed by employees within its R&D department. In contrast, open innovation is about introducing ‘virtual’ or ‘outsourced’ aspects to how innovation is managed.

Open innovation practices have been promoted by economic trends such as the increased cost of R&D, escalating technological complexity, the increased tendancy for valuable inventive steps to occur at the interface between fields of knowledge (eg bio-informatics, materials-electronics etc etc) and enhanced communication via telecommunications, travel and internet.

Open innovation refers to the practice of drawing together the components of a new product or service from a number of sources, including sources external to the innovating organisation. One of the most memorable statements used when describing open innovation is “not all the smart guys work for us”. That is, it is possible to take advantage of the opportunity to access ’smart guys’ (not employed by you) to help build your business.

There are many and varied means to access the other smart guys. Alternative transaction types you might consider include:

• consultancy
• contract R&D
• technology licensing
• alliance
• joint venture
• acquisition or merger with a business

The result of the transaction is that you have defined rights to make use of some knowledge or intellectual property or capability that you did not have before.

Roadmapping is the process of capturing information and knowledge and presenting it on a timeline.

Innovation roadmapping is a form of strategic planning for innovation. The information and knowledge collected on the Finfish Innovation Roadmap will include business vision, objectives, strategies, market requirements, product or service plans, technology plans, and capability plans. The timeline will be from the present day out to 2028.

Four Key Steps

Innovation roadmapping is a four step process:

• developing an understanding of the major changes that are impacting an industry - in this case fin fish aquaculture

• looking at the structure of the market and the relative positioning of market participants

• creating a technology landscape by looking at how the most important value creating technologies are likely to be created and used in aquaculture business

• once this is achieved, it is possible to analyse how the changes identified in the first step may lead to a shift in the needs or requirements of the marketplace. This helps expose the innovation efforts that are most likely to lead to valuable results.

An innovation roadmapping program is focussed on evaluating marketplace needs as they shift in response to the forces of change. By making a deliberate effort to dissect and understand each of ‘market’, ‘technology’ and ‘change’ we maximise the likelihood that our innovation investments will be soundly targeted at marketplace needs that are both important and not yet satisfied by alternative solutions.