P&G is one of many companies who have invested in the concept of openly recruiting new ideas and talent from outside their employee talent pool. Their website, P&G Connect, asks for “game changing” products, technology and business models and beckons innovators to submit. “Connect & Develop” is their mantra.

The “Connect & Develop” concept has slowly trickled down to main street communities particularly as business owners struggle to survive the current economic climate. Our recent interaction with corporate execs and owners confirms the notion that companies of all sizes are now more open to identifying and partnering with outside entities. This new way of “thinking outside the cubicle” is opening many doors here for collaboration. At a recent meeting with one Cumberland county-based engineering firm, we learned of their 2009 initiative to accelerate innovation. The company has developed a formal ideas submission process, including screening and committees, to quickly kill or act on ideas brought forth by employees. (This also has the side benefit of energizing employees.) Once the idea is deemed to have merit, organizations like ITN can provide further due diligence to save time and speed the process. Faculty active in a chosen industry segment can be identified by the ITN team and connected with the company’s project leader. (This process of identifying and connecting will be further accelerated in September, when ITN’s online Enclave community launches.) The ability to support a product or market launch with third party research offers companies ammunition to run the concept “up the flag pole” and seek the CFO’s blessing.

In addition to corporate meetings, we’re also talking with organizations like MANTEC, whose hot-button is helping manufacturers and other companies innovate and drive top line growth. ITN can sift through the faculty at local colleges and universities, find pockets of expertise, and identify willing and available candidates for a specific project. From there, it can be as easy as hosting a lunch discussion to see if the project has potential. For company project managers, interaction with researchers and experts outside the business offers a new perspective and perhaps different ways of looking at a product or process. On the flip side, it also helps the faculty understand that when you move from theory to practice, many other factors come into play – financial, market timing, employee motivation, customer demands.

In other meetings, Managing Director Asher Epstein of the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, shared a few of his lessons learned with me. One such lesson includes figuring out how to get faculty/students and industry (which includes both investors and business owners) together as quickly as possible in the idea generation process. From his perspective (and the Center’s 23 years of experience) the faster research and ideas meet real-world obstacles and opportunities, the sooner all parties can determine the viability of a project and move it to execution, or the trash can.