What is the difference between a Challenge and a Grand Challenge? 

While a Challenge represents the opportunity for multiple parties to collaborate to solve a problem, a Grand Challenge is….. grander.

A Grand Challenge addresses a fundamental problem that is bigger than the need of an individual company or person.  The solution requires broad applications of expertise from multiple parties, and generally multiple industries. Many Grand Challenges also have a positive impact on society, serving an altruistic, greater good.   A Grand Challenge embodies all of the advantages of open innovation, leveraging the synergy of multiple parties collaborating to achieve a breakthrough that benefits the broader community.

For companies, Grand Challenges communicate a concise and powerful message to their entire stakeholder community.  When GE launched their Heathymagination Grand Challenge to invest $10 million in breast cancer research, they broadcast to every GE consumer that GE is committed to medical research.  At the same time, GE communicated to their investors, professional community, and supply chain that GE’s doors are open to discovering breakthrough technology.  Their traditional supply chain was essentially given notice: bring us the best, cutting edge technology or sit by the sidelines. 

A Grand Challenge energizes the investment, inventor, consumer, and technology communities because it opens large companies to the best information from any source, creating a level, competitive field for new ideas.

And the opportunity to innovate at that scale is….grand.

Co-working.  In a world of collaboration and co-creating, we now have co-working.  According to the New York Times July 17, 2011 article “Working Separately, Working Together”, freelancers and telecommuters are finding that being unshackled from the office environment is not nirvana.  Instead, it is a lonely place.   The work-at-home crowd is abandoning their corner Starbucks for membership in co-working spaces called IndyHall and Hive.  These 5000 square ft., open floor plan office spaces offer the community and collaboration that comes from a shared, non-virtual work space.  You can “rent” a cubicle (isn’t that what they were fleeing?!?) and soak in the collaborative energy of tapping keyboards and human contact.

At NineSigma, we witness this collaborative energy in our Linked Innovation programs.  Clients come together to address some of the thorniest problems, recognizing that their combined efforts can accelerate the outcome that they each seek.  One group has been working together for 6 months to address a key sustainability issue that impacts their entire industry.  Merging the perspective of nearly a dozen powerhouse corporations into a shared vision statement and action plan is no small task.  As they toiled to blend the nuances of each company’s viewpoint, I secretly admired their passion and commitment.

These companies recognize that they cannot solve the big, global challenges by “freelancing”.  Whether they are seeking new technologies to achieve their long-term sustainability goals, or finding efficient ways to meet regulatory standards that ensure consumer safety, collaboration is the accelerator.  NineSigma’s Linked Innovation program provides the “co-working” environment for them to bring together their collaborative energy into a virtual and physical place.

And like Hive and IndyHall, we even provide the coffee.