Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Corporate use of Innovation Networks is rapidly expanding as many fast followers adopt them. The result? Organizations are now managing diversified portfolios of innovation sources that include not only in-house engineers and product managers but also external customers, suppliers, partners, and investors. Thus far, only crowdsourcing — sourcing innovation from the undifferentiated masses — has taken its rightful place as a source of ideas within the Innovation Networks tool kit. It's now time to add expert sourcing to the portfolio of innovation sources. Expert sourcing is the practice of tapping specialized, professional-grade know-how and talent. Providers like NineSigma have pioneered this approach by aggregating expert-level innovation sources and offering their access to corporate clients as a brokered service. As it evolves, the expert-sourcing model will lead the way in organizing the world's innovation. In turn, this will drive the full potential of Innovation Networks toward process maturity — as a corporate sourcing discipline structurally analogous to supply chain sourcing.

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