Seeking solution for the TRAFFIC JAM (how to avoid and ways to clear it off faster)

Most of the urban cities in India today have a traffic jam problem which results in loss of person hours, causes environmental damage, and increases fuel wastage.

There are thousands of suggestions received to resolve traffic issues by the planning authorities and traffic management agencies across India, however most of them lack either the impact (return on investment), solve too little of a problem or underplay the dependencies which exists to implement those solutions.

Seeker is expecting a comprehensive solution for the “Traffic Jam” problem in the urban cities.

Seeker is expecting solutions for one or both of the following categories.

Category 1 - High impact, low cost, practical, implementable
Category 2 - High impact but DOES NOT NEED TO be low on cost, practical or implementable

Category 2 needs a theoretical solution. Can the solution of traffic Jam come from the problem itself? How do we make the traffic jam problem self heal? Feel free to go WILD with your imagination without thinking about how it can be implemented (Applicable only for category 2)

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Concept overview – collaborative innovation

This concept overview in approximately one minute, tries to convey the When, Why and How of collaborative innovation.

We are compiling the top questions  that enterprises frequently ask when embracing collaborative innovation, open innovation or co-creation. If you have a question on the same then please submit as a comment to this post or send it to us at contact@ideaken.com

We will respond individually to each question, and publish our take on some of the questions in subsequent posts here in this blog.

Why won’t Joe solve my problem?

You might assign the problem to someone, but chances of you asking Joe is real slim.

You may have estimated the effort this solution might require, some of that already used up, but you may not know when you will get a solution or if you will get a solution.  You have a bad problem in hand, but worse is Joe who has a solution for your problem won’t solve it for you.

Here is why - Joe works for a different division!  Joe won’t solve it for you because you won’t ask him, and sure enough Joe won’t get to know that you have such a problem.

Is it possible to find how much an elastic band will stretch without actually stretching it?  Probably yes, a good guess could get you close enough.

Is it possible to find out by how much harder an employee can work for you? May be yes, at least you would know the limitations & boundaries.

But is it possible to find out what your people can solve for you in addition to the work you pay them for? Bit tough, may be you can’t.

In an attempt to leverage this untapped potential - enterprises are now creating a two way specialized pipe within the enterprise, for example a pipe for collaborative innovation. You broadcast your problem to all including Joe via this pipe. All, including Joe tune into this pipe for the challenges the enterprise is seeking solutions for.

Joe is happy to share the solution, provided someone asks for it, a reward of fully paid two nights vacation only makes him happier! 

So is this the end of all innovation challenges enterprise face? maybe not. But if Joe exists somewhere out there, then you will surely not miss out on Joe’s solution.

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ideaken enables enterprises when they need to collaborate to innovate, with employees, customers, research vendors, academia or with global pool of talent.

"Good" & "Bad" of being "Part-Time" creative

Parallelism – is the “in” thing, enabled by the technology, connectivity and the evolution of human brain which has progressively learned how to switch off from the previous task and focus on the next.  Over the years this switch-overs has sped up, so much that it has attained parallelism. The best of the parallelism is applied in being creative. Never under estimate the idea you end up getting in a shower! 

If you love chocolate ice-cream the most, and if you are thinking of trying a new flavor today, ‘you are being creative’ even if you end up having a chocolate one in the end. Creativity is all about thinking differently, only criteria is being truthfully spontaneous!, no point thinking of a strawberry  flavor for the sake of it.

You either know that you are creative or you do not know it yet, there is no such thing as not being creative.  You either have the right audience who appreciates your creativity or you do not have it yet, it is not possible that such an audience does not exist. 

You may not be creative, between two of your creative spells. ‘Part-time creative’ - that’s how most of us are.

If you are wondering what could be the “Bad” of being part-time creative, then you are wondering for the right, there isn’t any “Bad” in being part-time creative, as long as you are capitalizing on it.

Eureka moments, now smaller, incremental and widespread

Path breaking innovations are few and getting relegated to a once in a decade phenomenon. What we see all around us are small and incremental innovations. The benefits delivered or dollars saved from these small and incremental innovations are turning out to be worth taking a note of.

Water tanks provided a quick solution to personal water storage problem, but putting wheels on it provided a solution for century old water transport challenge in remote villages of Africa.

Today, a solution for your challenge or your need, might already be getting discussed, sought, worked on - in another part of the world, in just another corner of your enterprise, or sitting idle in somebody’s mind. You need to collaborate with these sparks, which most probably are eager to collaborate with you as well. What you need is - a mechanism to connect.

In the past, innovations came out of eureka moments, then came people with fancy titles who would innovate for you, now we are back to where we started – it has become increasingly acceptable for anybody to have a solution which solves a given challenge.

Today, enterprises are adding up these small solutions, ideas and innovations rather than waiting for one big bang.

Seeker looking for a device that allows a player, to set up dominos faster for a toppling game

Seeker is looking for device design, which should allow a player to set up the dominos faster than any other traditional method of setting them up possible today.

The device design should allow the user to create interesting patterns, including but not limited to circles, trees where one row becomes two and two becomes four, curves. Also allow predefined shapes, which could connect to each other to make a longer domino queue. Patterns and shapes could be created by using the device multiple times (in other words, the device does not need to release the pattern or design in one go)

Player should be able to repeat the whole process for any number of times, which means that once the dominos fall, it should be easy to set them again.

Solver need to submit the technical design for the device with details.
A video capture of a) technical design with explanation and b) the design at work; is must.

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Little book of collaborative innovation by ideaken on display at Odyssey outlet

Seeker is looking for a solution to save stranded Whales, Dolphins, and other big fish

Every year more than 2000 fish/mammals around the world get stranded and majority of them do not make it back to the sea. The occurrences of big fish/ mammal stranding and the causes are still a subject of scientific research and debate. Current known ways of rescuing, results only in saving a few, smaller and younger ones.

ideaken.com platform is hosting a challenge to identify  practical solution to save stranded Whales, Dolphins, and other big fish

The challenge is looking for a solution in following areas.

Point 1) Identification of the reasons that causes stranding and ways to fix those reasons.
OR
Point 2) a) Keeping the stranded big fish / mammals alive, far longer than possible today b) solution to move them back in the deep sea, and c) ways to avoid re-beaching
OR
Both Point 1) and Point 2) above.

Your solution will be reviewed by the experts in big fish/ mammal rescue field for applicability and suitability.

Read more about the problem here or Sign Up Now to start solving.

Putting the theory of collaborative innovation to practice - ideaken.com is live!

We call it a beginning of  how power of social media shifting from instant gratification to creating a sustainable value.

ideaken team is excited and proud to announce the launch of a platform for collaborative innovation.

We believe our platform offers many firsts on how software as a service (SaaS) is getting rolled out to the world. We also believe that we offer the best possible platform to date which facilitates innovation via collaboration. And we are committed to keep it that way.

Check out collaborative innovation concept overview and how the platform works

Welcome onboard!

On what my obstacles feed?

To increase the speed, I need more power; more power is at the expense of more weight, which in turn decreases the speed. Be it an automobile or an enterprise, knowing - on what your obstacles feed - helps. Following questions; when answered, will find some of yours.

Culture / Mindset

1) Do you associate part of your employee satisfaction to the innovative culture?
2) Does your enterprise enforce people to think only in terms of their roles?
3) Are you stuck with the thought that innovation is responsibility of HQs?
4) Is conviction that you are an innovative enterprise holding you back from doing more?
5) Is the world passing by? Are you too internally focused?

ROI / Priorities

6) Are your stakeholders’ & investors’ short term focus backed by solid reasoning?
7) Is your customer-acquisition spending primarily on tangible aspects?
8) Does your enterprise facilitate ability to change course on the way?
9) Do you deal with R&D cost Vs Benefits same as you deal with Cost price Vs Selling price?
10) Do you stay ahead of competition or follow it?

Enablement / Motivation

11) Does your leadership tend to notice the crisis manager more often than the one who avoids crises?
12) Does your enterprise recognize importance of incremental innovation?
13) Do you have an on-demand, two-way pipe between the business challenge and the idea sources?
14) Do you believe remuneration is good enough motivation for someone to innovate for you?
15) Have you visualized your junior employee taking a brilliant idea to implementation?

Somewhere between ‘why’ & ‘why not’ – that worthwhile journey begins.