At FirstBuild’s headquarters there’s a sign reminding all who do work at the appliance-development factory that “A prototype is worth a thousand meetings.”
It’s an operating tenet for FirstBuild and other companies trying to change the way new products are created by liberating the process from the confines of slow-moving, bureaucratic research-and-development departments.
Using a concept known as open innovation, companies are learning how to quickly harvest loads of ideas for new products from business partners, suppliers, consumers and their own employees outside of their R&D staffs. At the same time, they’re shrinking the time needed to create prototypes to months from years.