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Crowdsourcing is an organisational model in which a single person or business obtains access to goods and services, including ideas and money, from a large, open and often rapidly-changing group of people,usually via the internet. By dividing work between disparate participants, significant results can be achieved.
Many businesses would probably not consider crowdsourcing a viable option, yet if implemented correctly, it can be beneficial for a number of reasons.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is probably the most known form of crowdsourcing, which involves raising funds through the public via websites such as, Kickstarter or Indiegogo, instead of investors. The business receivesfunds and backers of the project receive specific rewards depending on how much they invested.
Competitions
Crowd contests get the public involved by challenging them to complete a particular task, such as designing a logo, writing a blog or coming upwith a company name, users typically are then rewarded in return.
In recent years, there have been many successful crowdsourcingcampaigns, one of them being Lego. Lego allows users to submit their product designs through their website, which are then voted for by otherusers. The idea with the most votes gets created, and the creatorreceives 1% royalty of the revenue. This way of crowdsourcing is beneficial to both users and Lego themselves. Users are rewarded for their ideas, while at the same time excitement is generated within thefanbase and Lego receive a product idea that they know already has demand within the community.
Sole support
Some businesses have taken this a step further by using crowdsourcing as their primary business feature. An example of this is the mobile application Waze. Waze is a GPS, maps, and traffic navigation mobile application that relies on the community to provide real-time data, such as accidents, road hazards, traffic jams, etc. This data then getsrelayed to all users in the vicinity. This technology allows Waze to provide their users with genuinely useful information and distinguishesthemselves as a maps application from their competitors.
Downsides
That said, with anything, if the necessary steps are not planned out,then it could backfire and negatively impact the business. One of the most famous crowdsourcing mishaps in recent years was by the NationalEnvironmental Research Council (NERC). In 2016, NERC conducted an internet poll to decide the name of their new £200 million polarresearch vessel. The name that received the most votes was “RRS BoatyMcBoatface.” Unfortunately, NERC was not impressed by the results and decided to choose the fifth place “RRS Sir David At ten borough” as the winner, while the name Boaty McBoatface was given to the ship’s hightech remotely operated sub-sea vehicle instead.
Whether crowdfunding is a viable organisational method for your business is down to the goals you are looking to achieve, and what resources are currently at hand. It’s certainly something worth considering if the circumstances are right.
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