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About the Innovation Exchange
The Innovation Exchange is owned by Mygic Ltd (UK) and was created to help release and communicate all sorts of ideas, inventions, opportunities, needs and services to and between the global innovation community. It has a sister site MyGreatIdea.com which connects public creativity with business opportunity and social needs. Both sites are connected by a common database to maximise connections, opportunity and productivity.
Richard Philpott (Cambridge, UK), creator of TheInnovationExchange.com and MyGreatIdea.com, has been fortunate to spend his whole career (29 years and still counting) in the business innovation arena. Starting off as a technologist and moving through project management and commercial roles to lead and guide activities and companies he has more recently been helping organisations improve their innovation performance. This experience confirmed his view that although knowledge transfer and open innovation are currently topical there was no one place where individuals, companies and other organisations could go to securely, efficiently and cost effectively communicate their innovation related needs and offerings across applications, sectors and international boundaries. Angie, Jason and Justin joined the project to develop the websites and support systems, we hope that you find them useful and interesting.
We have many more exciting ideas and you will see this site quickly evolve. Tuning into your needs is vital to us so do send your thoughts and feedback to us at feedback@theinnovationexchange.com.
We have a few "golden rules" about how we operate the site. We:
- Do not have and do not intend to have any preferential commercial agreements with any company which could in any way bias our activities.
- Do not seek, need to or wish to know any idea or invention that the inventor wishes to remain a secret.
- For reasons of impartiality cannot give advice through this site about the potential or value of any idea or invention (use our Professional Support service to gain such advice).
- Will only charge modest fees for introducing potential partners (we do not seek to gain a share of any resulting deal or profit).
- Urge inventors to seek professional help concerning confidentiality, agreements, patents and other intellectual property, negotiations, value and developing and commercialising their ideas and inventions. Such professionals can be found using our professional support service.
- Do not prefer, endorse or warrant the services of any party that may use The Innovation Exchange to feature or advertise their products or services.
- You do not disclose your idea, invention, opportunity or need to The Innovation Exchange or anyone unless you choose to.
- It's FREE to deposit and search for ideas
- We only charge a modest and sensible introduction fee to those interested in your ideas
- We do not attempt to gain a share of deals or future commercial revenue
- Once introduced, it's up to you to negotiate and progress the interaction
- The Innovation Exchange can also introduce you to professionals for advice, funding etc.
The Innovation Exchange does not want to know the confidential details of your need or offering unless you choose to make it public (some people just want to share or make things public, others may wish to prevent others patenting their idea making it free for everyone to use).
The Innovation Exchange works confidentially because you categorise your need or offering with non-confidential information allowing it to be found by industry sector, product classification or your keywords. This allows you to gain interest, partners or help before you e.g. apply for a patent or invest in development speeding up your commercialisation and minimising financial outlay before you gain sufficient confidence to proceed.
There is a lot of confusion out there about the meaning of innovation, for those in need of clarification here's a summary of the principle components:
Innovation is the term given to the end to end process by which ideas are converted into useable outputs. Typically this involves developing products (through what is often called a stage gate process by which a specification is established, designs produced, prototypes made and tested, manufacturing systems established and the final product is launched and marketed) but the output can also be a way of doing something such as a new process to sort letters or a way of doing business or providing a service.
Creativity and Innovation are often confused. Creativity (having ideas) is the front end of the complete innovation process.
Innovation is a very popular term these days but it covers such a wide range of activities that it is hard for many people to really understand how they can improve their innovation performance. It's certainly hard to measure but despite this we see most organisations wanting to improve their innovation performance. We find that opportunity selection, market diligence, project management, external interactions (such as networking and open innovation) and great leadership are key areas where many companies seek to improve.
At The Innovation Exchange we are very interested in what people and organisations are doing or have done to really improve their innovation output, do email your thoughts and achievements to us at innovation@theinnovationexchange.com and we will make this information available for The Innovation Exchange community to share and discuss (there's a forum coming soon).
Our own advice with innovation is not to get hung up on semantics - do your homework, plan and execute well, focus, lead with passion, work across borders and sometimes be less risk averse.
(You can find more information on innovation using the links section)
Businesses, entrepreneurs, investors and those involved in non-profit activities are always looking for ideas and inventions to commercialise or help solve their challenges. The Innovation Exchange provides a forum where these "open innovation" needs can be communicated as widely as possible.
Innovation is not just about business. Many people and organisations just want to share their thoughts for no commercial gain. This could be anything from how to save energy, improve the quality of life for sick people or how we can find alternative technologies to supply potable water to communities at need. The Innovation Exchange welcomes useful social innovation ideas, they might just stimulate someone to do something beneficial!
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