The pace of technological change means that today’s most innovative thinkers are in high demand. They’re also more accessible than ever, thanks to the internet.<\/p>\n
And when tricky questions arise for big companies, tapping into the hive mind by crowdsourcing <\/strong>solutions is one way to arrive at outside-of-the-box answers, faster. Major multinational companies from Amazon<\/strong><\/a> to Unilever<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>have benefited from the crowdsourcing model, and many more are following suit.<\/p>\n Mikron Machining<\/strong>, a division of the\u00a0Mikron Group<\/strong><\/a> and a world-leading supplier of customized industrial machining systems, was interested in exploring the possibility of crowdsourcing knowledge<\/strong> to improve elements of their development processes. Hult undergraduate students<\/strong><\/a>, known for their fresh ideas, collaborated with the company earlier this year to propose an effective crowdsourcing method to meet their needs.<\/p>\n “During a fascinating executive training on Digital Futures<\/em>, run by Ashridge Executive Education at the Ferrari HQ in Maranello, I met\u00a0Undergraduate Dean Ronan Gruenbaum<\/a><\/strong>,” explains Walter Sayer<\/strong>, General Manager at Mikron.<\/p>\n Ronan was one of the speakers on the Digital Futures\u00a0<\/em>program. Between sessions, he and Walter spoke about the potential of doing a project with Hult students. “I was quite skeptical<\/strong> at the beginning,” Walter admits. “I knew that the students were quite far away from our highly sophisticated machine tool business.”<\/p>\n However, under the guidance of their Professor\u00a0Dr. Evangelos Markopoulos<\/strong><\/a>, Hult undergrads in the MGT415\u00a0<\/strong>class proved more than up for the challenge.<\/p>\nAn unexpected collaboration<\/h3>\n