Colgate uses Ideagoras

It probably comes as no suprise that a leading consumer-products corporation, Colgate, uses ideagoras to solve some of the problems it encounters with it’s new products.

The story, as outlined in the ground-breaking ideagora piece in Business Week called “A Marketplace for the Minds”, mentions Colgate and a problem they had with getting it’s toothpaste into the tubes efficiently. Their internal R&D department couldn’t come up with a satisfactory method for this task, so Colgate used and ideagora, InnoCentive, to post their problem, and a reward for a successful solution. 

Ed Melcarek, a Canadian Engineer, found the problem, and suggested implementing a positive charge on the fluoride powder and then grounding the tube. The solution worked, and was one that was never considered by Colgate’s internal team of chemists. For his two to three hours of work, Colgate rewarded Melcarek with a cool $25,000. Nice. Nice for Melcarek obviously, but also nice for Colgate. $25,000 is likely far less than they would have spent for the additional needed to come up with a workable solution to thier problem.

Colgate uses ideagoras more and more for problems of this nature after this success story.