After working with a number of management consulting firms in the areas of process improvement, benchmarking, sales training, and pharmaceutical thought leadership, I was intrigued by the concept of Open Innovation (OI) to find solutions to companies’ challenges from very different industries.  As a consultant,  I had worked across multiple industries and had participated in adapting solutions from one industry to another but the challenge was usually in finding solutions that were available to share with clients.   I was, therefore, very excited when the opportunity arose to join NineSigma whose business it is to connect the world to innovation and, in so doing, to help people find solutions to problems that had eluded them.

Stepping into the world of OI with the NineSigma team is inspiring, exhilarating, and absolutely fascinating.  The internal team of Program Managers who conduct the research are highly intelligent and curious people and are the heart of the company.  They happily share their current Open Innovation projects from diverse industries, all of which touch our lives – consumer products, automotive, healthcare, industrials, energy-- and the list goes on and on. No two projects are alike but the needs from the client are the same, i.e. to “help us find solutions to the problems we’re facing.”   As these Program Managers talk about their projects and share the results of their work, a newcomer can only be amazed at the unexpected connections that are so often the outcome of these projects and inspired by the results that OI produces.  So far I've hear about connections between electronics and butterflies, industrial fibers and CAT scans, biomedical needs and marine animals, and more. Some of these results can even change the world.  It’s hard to believe that ‘going to work’ can get better than that.