Open Innovation Management Platform

Section A Group 7
Yogita S. Verma – 189278011
Amrinder Singh – 189278077
Charuvind Atre – 189278002
Manpreet Singh Arora – 189278103
Sucharita Kheto – 189278086
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 Two-Sided Platform

Single test to recruit

Coding challenges, for multiple firms but
enterprise sponsored, achieving AI driven system helped
posted on the platform homogeneity on identify low quality
and developers code different parameters problem statements that
solutions online & for multi-brand could be corrected or
receive real-time contest became eliminated before
feedback challenging getting listed
INNOVATIVE CONSORTIUM AI DRIVEN
APPROACH HIRING SYSTEM

FOUNDED IN 2012 2013 FOCUSED

Installed base swelled HIRING
Assist developers and to over 100,000. To Moved towards single
enterprises discover each bootstrap, Enterprises brand hiring.
other paid hiring fees only Incentivize challenge
when HackerEarth creators who posted
delivered a confirmed coding challenges
hire

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 Twin Businesses
With traditional hiring approach
enterprises achieved sub-par
results
HackerEarth ensured that only interested HackerEarth became a medium fir developers to
developers were lined up with them. After upskill and assess their coding prowess and for
commencement, 2-3 weeks to complete the enterprises to evaluate measurable skills across
challenge, 1 week for pruning out low quality 1 the developer community
submissions and 1-2 weeks to conduct
interviews and close hiring
6 2

5 3
4

Developer community could be broadly SAAS based skill assessment software for firms to
classified as: actively seeking new job, assess software programming abilities which could
passive job seekers willing to explore a be customized according to enterprise’s
good opportunity and others who just In addition, owned the logistics demanded specialized skillset
wanted to solve an interesting challenge around creating and managing
the candidate funnel 3
 Innovation Management
 Enterprises realized the benefits that the outside perspectives could bring
 Co-creation through community participation brought in entirely new ideas
Example:

 Brought in crowd sourced ideas to the fabric manufacturer

 Could grow rapidly in a sustainable fashion because of the community
 Brought in ideas which otherwise would not have been possible

 Invited 100,000 members to participate in the design challenge

 Hosted it for the design of the Dreamliner(www.newairplane.com)
 Incorporated ideas from the crowd for its business-critical project

 Firms had to channelize the right set of people to brainstorm the potential product ideas as breakthrough ideas are not easy
 Firms such as HackerEarth brought in the required tools for curation of ideas from outside to help in managing the whole process

Strong cross-side
Developers network effects Innovation
and Seeking
Strong same- Innovators Enterprises Weak same-
side network side network
effects effects

Multi-Sided View of
HackerEarth Platform
HackerEarth platform (Innovation Management) 4
 Enabling Open Innovation Management

HackerEarth adopted a two-point approach:

1 • SaaS based innovative platform for interaction between the communities
• Assisted enterprises to hire the best talent by running engagement campaigns

HackerEarth provided practice sessions, simplified process to host hackathons.

2 Bug bounty challenge and security testing

Experienced community members required to pitch in to evaluate

3 complex solutions

Such freelancers could get paid, also helped in breaking complex challenges
4 which could then be posed to the community

5 Opportunities identified by the founders as firms looked for end to end solutions

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 Strategic Pivot Managing IP

objectives • Help organizations through the recruitment process Unique

Two Primary • Provide Innovation management assistance through
hackathons
Firm’s
competitors
4 solutions far
outweighed
the risks from
exposure

Realizations
•

•
Good programmers gravitate towards engaging challenges.
Enterprises would value access to such a talent pool
The blending of talent offered the enterprises the unique
3 could easily
identify the
challenges that
the firm was
Significant
opportunity to evolve novel solutions and fresh
working on
perspectives challenges to

2
ensure
developers
• Rapid Scaling of the current hiring model was an issue
did
•
Issues
Hiring was very focused on a targeted developer not violate
community Rights to the IP were existing IP
transferred to the
enterprise only when

Opportunity
•

•
Leverage its existing two sides for value co-creation,
innovation management
Businesses could flourish with a combination of internal
and external developers for innovative ideas
1 the solution was
accepted by the
developer and had
rewarded the
• HackerEarth aimed to grow into leader in open individual
innovation management
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 Pricing Model

 Enterprises wanted to use the platform for additional services

 Challenges on the platform generated network externalities
01  Charges for the enterprises ranged from $ 10,000 and above

 Subscription based approach in which company managed

02
everything on their own through the year long subscription
fee payment

 Ascertaining the right price was tricky due to the strategic

03 nature of these hackathons

 These depended on the types of business challenges, they
were attempting to solve

04  Enterprises remained the money side for HackerEarth,

no charges for the developer community
 Did not desire to enter the domain of facilitating or
managing freelance work or outsourcing
 20-25 % member were active at any given point
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 Competitive Market Landscape

InnoCentive JOSEPHS
• Headquarter in USA, offered innovation as a service • Headquarter in Germany, as open innovation laboratory
• Allowed organizations to tap talent from global • Meeting point for curious and engaged co-developers
network of highly skilled problem solvers • Customers used to walk into the “store” to interact with
• Strict IP regulations and strong governance model new products and workflows
• Reduced barriers of participation for both problem • Tenants would pay for using the spots along with support
seekers and solvers from the platform for three months
• Participants from over 175 countries • At end of 3 months, JOSPEHS team gave a detailed analysis
• Biggest international competitor to HackerEarth report to tenants based on multiple parameters
• Focused on problems spanning areas:
• Renewable energy
• Oil exploration
• Genetics
• Healthcare issues
 Competitive Market Landscape

Topcoder Kaggle
• Started in 2001, acquired by Wipro • Owned by Google, an open platform focused on predictive
• Focused on organized crowdsourcing with global modelling using large team of data scientists
community of designers, developers and • Organizes competitions for data scientists and data miners
programmers across the world
• Leveraged developer community for
crowdsourcing HackerRank
• Used a leader board mechanism to allow
• Focused on enabling enterprises to hire quality
contestants to compare themselves with peers
programmers through online screening
• Partnered with IBM to further access to IBM
• Address all three phases: Sourcing, Screening and
Watson and IBM Cloud
Interviewing
• Organized Hackathons “CodeSprints”
• Hosted enterprise product “HackerRank for Work”
• Posed significant threat to HackerEarth due to deeper
reach
 Innovation Process as a Service

HackerEarth claimed to have a Governance model that could weed out incomplete challenges. It worked
with the enterprises to fine tune the challenges so that it addresses the appropriated audience to drive
the expected outcome.

Prepared Interested students to master in new fields such as Big data, Cyber security & Internet of Things

Helped the developers to master the nuances of emerging fields such as Fintech, Lifestyle, Helathcare, social welfare

If necessary intervene with additional marketing campaign and extension of deadlines in order to encourage further
participation & completion rates

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 Enterprise Innovation Dilemma

Workflow Management
Building More
Introduction of
Enterprise Brand Enterprises got
SPRINT
attracted
1 Enabling enterprises to hire
from the crowd

2
Allowing enterprises to
connect with the masses
B2B and facilitate open
VALUE
CREATIO
innovation
N

Provided total control Solved Critical

Enabling closed Innovation Business
3 (facilitating innovation over multiple campaigns,
view detailed necessities &
within firm boundaries) Developer
dashboards, download
reports engagement saw
an up stick
 The Developer Community
The Enterprise Perspective
Perspective

• KEY MOTIVATORS for Developers

• Enterprise rely on HackerEarth for Recruitment & Innovation
 Invitation to global hack fests & Conferences
 Incubator opportunity • Enterprises need better participation from experienced
 Seed funding
 Mentoring by experts developers because key business challenges need deeper
 Internship opportunity
 Scholarships domain expertise & technology breath
 Entry into accelerator Programs
• Enterprises were able to get greater wisdom & potential for
 Chances to pitch top executives
 Work with NGOs Path breaking ideas across the world easily
 Memberships in coding clubs
• Code Monk (2015) • Developers from Multiple domains & backgrounds could

 Launched by HackerEarth participate to innovate for a common cause within a fixed

 Higher levels are unlocked when the current stage was
time span
accomplished
• Fight Club (2017) • Enterprises were interested because HacherEarth can provide

 Allowed peers to directly compete on programming skill critical talent pool and alo helped in doing the streamline the
 5000 code fights per week in early 2018
 Helped to keep up engagement levels & Developer hackathon process
motivation
 Enterprises were leveraging this for internal employee
engagement & talent assessment

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The Investor Perspective

• Hacker Earth had raised USD 5 million in Series A funding

• Commoditization pressure due to low cost hiring service providers and low entry barriers

• Operating firm at scale made it harder to manage innovation

• Shripati realized trend catching up in financial sector

• Firm focused on multiday-hackathons for world class output

• The last userbase acted as an entry barrier

• Platform was getting high repeat rates – sign of good engagement

Open Innovation Challenges

• Challenge: ensuring participation from senior developers

• Ability to engage with seniors professionals was linked to willingness of enterprises to pay more

• IP issues were to be dealt with seriousness; Enterprises needed to understand that platforms indeed
reduced conflicts

• Participation of internal and external teams brought new solutions to identified problems

• Increased acceptability of outer teams

• Participation on platform ensured constant skill upgrade

• Rapid industry change challenged HackerEarth to upgrade their tech stack like engagement metrics
Road Ahead

• Open approach did help firms in tackling complex industrial problems

• New and better quality ideas came from people with diverse backgrounds

• Streamlined open innovation approach ensured long term ROI

• One stop shop for managing ideas, stakeholders, and execution details
Question 1
With these two sides of the platform, where would the next big growth opportunities come from? How
should they approach tier-II and tier-III cities which hold the next big growth opportunity?

According to the 2017 Harvey Nash Human Resources Survey, about 15% HR leaders believe AI and automation are
already impacting their workforce plans, while another 40% believe it would be a vital factor in the next 5 years

Approach to target tier-II and tier-III cities:

• Introduction of new product or service
• Social Media Marketing
• Better in app as well as mobile experience
• Vernacular websites and ads
• Boot Camps in the tier-II and tier-III cities
• Google Adwords Campaign
• Partner with NGOs in these cities

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 Question 2
How could HackerEarth ensure more organizations tap into the potential the platform offered to address
talent gaps and innovation shortcomings? The platform needed ways to remove resistance to external ideas
and crowd powered innovation

• Adoption of Lean Innovation

• With organizations moving towards lean innovation model, HackerEarth had enormous potential to attract clients

• Strategy and Leadership

• Organizations with co-creation as aligned with the vision statement and having support from leadership, offered
greater opportunity. HackerEarth should target such firms at its priority.

• Internal and External partners

• HackerEarth should partner with globally recognized subject matter experts, speakers and judges to entice
organizations adopt the platform for co-creation

• Communicate the benefits

• Shortened innovation cycle
• Diversity of quality ideas
• Incur less costs and faster prototyping

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https://cambridgeservicealliance.eng.cam.ac.uk/resources/Downloads/Monthly%20Papers/AprilPapear_Howcanhackathonsacceleratecorporateinnovation.pdf
Question 3

How could the platform influence the evolving scenario of handling IP aspects related to
crowd-sourcing without jeopardizing open innovation machinery?

• Foster cross-referencing culture in the community

• Develop tools to automate referencing to research papers

• Foster teams dedicated to IP related compliance issues

• Ensuring due credit is given to other developers for their work

THANK YOU

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