City of York Council
created Jul. 28, 2011
2
Meeting Community and Economic Needs through Open Innovation
The problem
The idea
Local government faces severe challenges with reducing budgets and increasing expectations. Traditional approaches have focussed on improving efficiencies: this is no longer sustainable and is bringing forward diminishing returns. The way forward is to focus on effectiveness and transformation which has innovation as its core. Traditional ways of generating ideas within a Council are myopic. Innovation should not be a closed process and the principal role of the Council’s Leader or Chief Executive. But innovation will not happen organically: it needs to be made to happen and CYC wish to take advantage of ideas whatever their source. In business digital communications has facilitated a shift in boundaries, with an increase in the number of partners involved in the innovation process andwith a new focus on the cross fertilisation of ideas. Proctor and Gamble is on record suggesting that over 50 percent of its new innovations will come from external sources. Of the private sector models for introducing innovation the "Open Innovation" approach appears to offer the greatest potential built on the principle of “opening up” the innovation process to parties outside their organisation. The City of York Council wishes to seek transformational opportunities by opening up innovation to outside the council and outside the extended “Council family”. Using "Open Innovation" would be a first amongst the local government community.
Through a series of Open Innovation workshops we are seeking to innovate upto 5 major transformational projects/ products or processes which would also:
a) promote new methods of engagement with residents and businesses;
b) Result in the saving of resources and/ or time;
c) Be sustainable; and significantly;
d) Be the driver for the introduction of new “thinking outside the box” culture within a public bureaucracy.
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