Welcome to this week’s edition of the Keystone Column. We focus on innovation, business stories and public procurement opportunities that drive business growth for ambitious companies. We have decided to put out the tender report in two formats from now on – an innovation of our own! In addition to the report by sector which allows the grouping and quick scrutiny of potential opportunities, we are also publishing a version that shows the tenders by date of publication. This second view will allow regular users of the report to rapidly identify new tenders this week.
Business stories
NASA has started to crowdsource its ideas for innovation programmes. We first came across this concept about 10 years ago in the book, Wikinomics. In the book, details are provided of the mine owner Rob McEwen who bought an old gold mine but was unsure how to extract gold from it. Against all advice, he ran an open, online competition (with a generous prize fund) and shared maps and geological data with participants. He did this so that he could source breakthrough ideas that could help his company extract 6 million ounces of gold from the mine.
The contest was an innovation and a roaring success. As he owned the land, from his perspective the risks of publishing what his team considered sensitive data only had an upside. Without running the contest in the way they ran it, they would never have identified a means of extracting the 6m ounces of gold. This thinking was radical a decade ago when Web 2.0 was in its earliest incarnations but McEwen anticipated what is becoming normative behaviour today and his foresight was rewarded by the “crowd”.
NASA recognise this now. They recently ran a competition to get ideas for a flying robot that can help astronauts complete tasks on the International Space Station. In total, over 3,000 submissions were received and NASA now has potential solutions that they will work their way through. It will cost them almost nothing (less than $500 in reward money). What a way to leverage the prestige of the NASA brand to get cutting edge innovation.
Interesting trends
Keeping on the theme of disruptive change and breaking conventions, we liked this article. It focuses on the importance of being able to respond to changes in the marketplace. Many businesses we meet and speak with seem oblivious to the imminent changes that are coming and need for continuous evolution and innovation.
For instance, it could be argued that many security companies are better placed from a system, training and infrastructural perspective to offer care services to the elderly than nursing homes when you think down the line.
With robotics (to aid mobility), self-driving cars and online pharmacies delivering repeat prescriptions to the door, nursing homes and the nature of senior care will change rapidly from a model that groups people in one place and provides little in the way of choice to a service user model designed around individual needs. How well prepared are healthcare providers for the inevitable innovation that is both coming and will be demanded from them? How many have started to look at the technology used by (amongst others) security companies to see how their processes and tools could enhance autonomy and independence?
While garages will probably have some sort of future, will the car dealership still be around in 20 years or will we simply order an Apple car from the i-store? What does airbnb mean for real estate agents?
Every business can benefit from identifying the potential sources of disruption in their industry so they can keep up with or get ahead of innovation trends.
Innovation – things we have seen and like
The service we are featuring also represents a potential opportunity for fitness providers and gym owners. The ClassPass made a number of breakthrough service lists in 2014. It is a great innovation concept that is clearly focused on meeting new user needs. This monthly subscription service allows people to access fitness and related classes across networks of gyms. It is the airbnb of fitness classes. Users can identify free spaces in a gym in the city they live in or in another city that ClassPass operates in when travelling. If they were simply a member of a gym and a class was full, they simply cannot take part. This maximises users access to the activities they want to participate in.
Initially set-up in the USA, it has expanded since then but not beyond a handful of cities in Europe. This service crowdsources demand to fill spare capacity that would otherwise be underused. What a great idea. Will anyone pick up the baton and offer this service before ClassPass hit their market?
Note: we are in the sourcing & procurement business. We highlight things we like or that are novel or innovative. We seek neither compensation nor recognition for doing this. We are fully paid up members of the pay it forward mindset. Innovators should be encouraged.
New tenders this week
Visit the Keystone website to view our take on the public procurement tenders published this week if you are in any of the following sectors:
- Construction and related trades,
- Professional & Advisory Services,
- PR, Media, Advertising and related,
- Supplies (opportunities across many products),
- ICT supplies and services,
- Training,
- Financial services,
- Property & facilities management,
- Vehicle & automotive,
- Catering and related services,
- Trades,
- Other services and supplies.
Businesses interested in any of these opportunities that are unsure of how they can follow-up on these tenders can contact us at any stage. We would be happy discuss your needs. These opportunities are sources of business growth and innovation for companies across the country.
Please note, e-tenders often has public procurement opportunities incorrectly categorised so people relying on e-tender alerts could easily miss out on opportunities if they are dependent on it. E-tenders is only as reliable as the people inputting tenders and mistakes are made very frequently. The Keystone Column includes all live tenders posted on e-tenders since January 4th 2016 that are still open as at 12:00pm on 04/02/16.
