Distinctive Attributes of Prize Competitions

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Blaise Logan
5 years ago
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1 McKinsey Report Overview Table of Contents 1. Distinctive Attributes of Prizes 2. 7 roles of prizes 3. When to use a prize 4. 6 Archetypes of Prizes 5. Stages of Prizes 6. Measuring Impact Distinctive Attributes of Prize Competitions - Expressiveness: o Embody aspirations, priorities, values, and a commitment to desired changes. A high profile prize, prizes can help even non-winners secure sponsors and, more importantly, can produce a paradigm change: they can change what people is possible - Flexibility o At their best, prizes inspire people and teams to push their efforts beyond conventional limits. Prizes also add additional layers of motivation beyond money, such as prestige and intellectual curiosity, competitors can turn their efforts to issues that the market may overlook. - Openness o Prizes attract diverse groups of experts, practitioners, and laypeople, regardless of formal credentials - Success-contingent Rewards o The efficiency of prizes lies in the fact they only pay people once they ve been successful 7 Different Roles of Prizes - Identifying Excellence o Recognizes prior achievement or pays for a specific excellent result Result: Shapes goals, highlights exemplars, and creates powerful motivation to excel o a prize s ability to identify excellence can be critical to its ability to tap into the six other sources of change - Influencing public perception o Prizes offer a powerful loudspeaker They grab attention and can influence public perception o Previously: have helped to legitimize a field catalyze market demand for modern fiction books (Man Booker Prize) - Focusing communities on specific Problems o Focus a problem solving community on a specific well-defined challenge France s Food preservation prize

El Pomar Prize are designed to encourage organizational excellence among Colorado s nonprofits - Mobilizing new talent o Attract diverse talent, generate unexpected approaches, and reveal unusual

2 El Pomar Prize are designed to encourage organizational excellence among Colorado s nonprofits - Mobilizing new talent o Attract diverse talent, generate unexpected approaches, and reveal unusual perspectives in the face of a problem or challenge InnoCentive has taken this approach even further to create a price-driven innovation platform, posting ideation and technical problems on its website linked to prizes ranging from $5000 to $1,000, Strengthening problem-solving communities o Bring people and ideas together to encourage future collaboration and innovation Ex: Ashoka uses event-based social networking tools to connect competitors and social entrepreneurs worldwide. - Educating individuals o An under-utilized lever, but can be a principle goal of a prize Ex: First Robotics Competition which encourages high schools to develop robots with the mentorship of teachers. - Mobilizing capital o Mobilizes further financial or intellectual capital in the form of participants who put forward their own funds to support the projects; i.e., the prize host only pays participants who win. When to use prizes: (pg 37 in document)

6 prize archetypes: (p 48 in report) Quote from report: These six prize types are not exhaustive and the growing prize industry will inevitably produce new variations in the coming years.

3 6 prize archetypes: (p 48 in report) Quote from report: These six prize types are not exhaustive and the growing prize industry will inevitably produce new variations in the coming years. But for most potential prize-givers, studying these archetypes can be helpful for choosing a strategy and serve as templates that can help inform subsequent choices in prize design, process, and follow-up. Further Explanation: Exemplar: - Ex: Nobel Prizes - Trade-offs/limitations: o Prizes trail breakthrough by considerable time and overlapping prizes reduce influence of any one prize Exposition Prizes - Ex: World s Fair - Note: Often helps to broadcast even the ideas that don t win Network Prize - Ex: El Pomar Prize o Build connectedness within a community and connect community members to necessary resources/sponsors Participation Prizes - Ex: NBC s tv show, the Biggest Loser to encourage people to lose weight - Ex: FIRST Robotics

4 - Encourages some type of behavior (losing weight and exploring science and technology respectively). Market Stimulation Prizes - Ex: Ansari X prize competition to launch a re-useable manned spacecraft. - Overcomes the barrier that creates market failure, i.e. lack of investment, limited supply base, or poor consumer understanding of product potential. Point Solution Prizes - Focus a community and mobilize talent to solve a well-defined problem with no clear path to solution Stages of Prize Design (p 51-60) (Skeletal Outline) 1. Determine Participants 2. Defining participant Rights (IP) 3. Creating the rules a. Criteria for winning i. Easy to skew results of prize if criteria is not fully focused to goals ii. Objectivity for fairness, subjectivity in fields where objectivity is not possible and debate actually increases the audience of the prize iii. Simplicity b. Staging and Timing c. Participant interaction i. Collaboration vs. pure competition 4. Setting the Awards a. Non-monetary incentives i. Glory the hero-making of challenges b. Number of prizes c. Size of the prize i. Match to the needs and types of participants you want 5. Creating and Executing the prize (60-68) a. Attracting quality participants i. Nominations approaches ii. Long list/short lists approaches iii. Self-nominating approaches b. Competing i. Preparing contestants to compete ii. Contesting the Prize 1. Whether allowed to change submissions as competition goes on 2. Whether allowed to work with other competitors 3. Whether a competition is remote and via internet platform or all in one location (or multiple locations) iii. Selecting Winners

1. Critical how you pick judges need credible judges 2. Allowing judges enough time to gather the information they need 3. Clear and consistent criteria c. Celebrating the winners and the prize i.

5 1. Critical how you pick judges need credible judges 2. Allowing judges enough time to gather the information they need 3. Clear and consistent criteria c. Celebrating the winners and the prize i. Announce winners 1. Big celebration to fit the long-term impact goals a. i.e. Ashoka Changemakers network together, Templeton Prize meets the Duke of Edinburgh in a publicized ceremony ii. Amplifying the message and ideals of the prize 1. Not just propagate names of the winners but also the ideals that drove their selection 2. Make winners and finalists feel part of a larger community iii. Publicity 6. Post Prize: Driving Impact, legacy, and Improvement a. Making societal benefit stick i. Connecting winners ideas to investment/sponsors ii. Linking winners to larger institutions 1. Ex: world Food prize has winners speak at a youth institute they developed around food sustainability, etc b. Creating a legacy for future impact i. Prize s goals and criteria for winners must evolve to stay relevant ii. Document the ideas for future use iii. Continue to strengthen networks 7. Measuring Impact and Improving a Prize

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