It then
refines and promotes to its clients the most promising ideas.IBM adopted the open operating
system Linux for some of its computer products and systems, drawing on a core code base
that is continually improved and enhanced by a massive global community of software developers,
of whom only a fraction work for IBM. To open its own labs to ideas being generated
elsewhere, P&G’s CEO Art Lafley decreed that half of the company’s ideas must come from
outside, up from 10% in 2000. P&G instituted the use of technology scouts to search beyond
the company for promising innovations. By 2007, the objective was achieved: 50% of the
company’s innovations originated outside P&G.