Crowdcast has been a great success, the platform helped achieve 61% cost savings and 59% time savings compared to traditional new product development methods. Since then, Mina Bastawros has been offered a new challenge within Airbus Corporate Jets as a Strategic Marketing Director. He has now furthered his career in Airbus as VP of Creative & Digital Marketing. This is a project that exemplifies how open innovation can be integrated into intrapreneurship within a large organization like Airbus. Open innovation involves collaborating with external parties, such as customers, suppliers, startups, and the general public, to generate and develop new ideas, technologies, and solutions. In the case of Crowdcraft by Airbus, the company leverages open innovation in several ways
Airbus
Crowdcraft
Airbus was opened to different idea creators and inventors around the world by Crowdcraft, a crowdsourcing and crowd staffing platform to find solutions to technical challenges. The platform connects problems to problem solvers, seeking to reduce work time and cost through more efficient ways for buyers to access goods and services.
So who is the intrapreneur behind this platform that would open Airbus to external innovators and change-makers across the globe? The man responsible for this is Mina Bastawros. His aim? “To design the aircraft of the future with the people for the people.” Mina Bastawros’s journey began with a company-wide call for ideas to shake and disrupt Airbus, Dream big, where he joined a team of like-minded individuals to come up with groundbreaking ideas. Airbus offered direct sponsorship and funding from the HRO, CTO and DTO to the most promising ideas.
Throughout the whole process, from ideation to execution, Bastawros saw Crowdcraft as an internal start-up or venture, with sponsors in Airbus being treated as investors.
Crowdsourcing Ideas
Airbus actively engages with a diverse community of external stakeholders, including aviation enthusiasts, engineers, and innovators, through online platforms and competitions. By crowdsourcing ideas from outside the organization, Airbus gains access to a broader pool of knowledge and expertise, enabling the exploration of unconventional solutions to complex challenges.
Co-Creation and Collaboration
Crowdcraft by Airbus facilitates collaboration between internal teams and external contributors to co-create innovative solutions. This collaborative approach allows Airbus to tap into the creativity and specialized skills of individuals and organizations outside the company, leading to the development of novel concepts and technologies.
Accelerating Innovation
Open innovation initiatives like Crowdcraft by Airbus enable the company to accelerate the innovation process by leveraging external resources, expertise, and perspectives. By collaborating with a global network of innovators, Airbus can rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on new ideas, reducing time-to-market for innovative products and solutions.
Fostering Intrapreneurship
Crowdcraft by Airbus encourages intrapreneurship within the organization by providing employees with opportunities to collaborate with external partners and pursue innovative projects. By participating in open innovation initiatives, Airbus employees can develop entrepreneurial skills, explore new technologies, and drive forward-thinking initiatives that have the potential to transform the aerospace industry.
Driving Disruptive Innovation
Through open innovation, Airbus can explore disruptive technologies and business models that have the potential to reshape the future of aviation. By embracing external input and diverse perspectives, the company can identify emerging trends, anticipate market shifts, and proactively respond to changing customer needs and preferences.