Large companies quite often struggle with business innovation. They want to leverage the benefits of a large organization and combine it with a start-up like fervour yet that is almost never possible due to the fact that large corporations are backed up by investors who want a steady, constant return. Career advancement at such firms depends on not having failures on one’s CV while large companies even serve mass customers as opposed to early adapters that innovative entrepreneurs cater to. That is why GE has created a team known as First Build to experiment an innovative, agile approach cocooned away from the formal hierarchy of the organization. First Build is based in Louiseville in Kentucky and houses scientists, engineers, industrial designers, students and amateurs working beside the full-time employees. It pursues open source innovation in stark contrast to the proprietary IP followed by GE appliances and other such large firms. Smart appliances have been developed such as the refrigerator Chill Hub, a Bluetooth connected precision cooker, smart wine chiller and talking washer/dryer. These innovations are not one-off but proven successes as even post acquisitions, devices continued working and technology flourished.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/07/how-ge-built-an-innovation-lab-to-rapidly-prototype-appliances?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert&referral=00563&spMailingID=17682608&spUserID=OTY0OTMwNTk5NwS2&spJobID=1061397788&spReportId=MTA2MTM5Nzc4OAS2

Uploaded Date:28 July 2017