Breakthrough Innovation from Brand Collaborations

Image: Ford

​Corporate Challenge: New Innovations by partnering with other brands

Ironbound Strategy: Collaborate with other brands to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company collaborated with Florida based ADT Security to create Canopy, a smart video monitoring product and service for vehicles.  Every year $7.5 Billion worth of equipment is stolen from work vehicles.  Ford’s collaboration with ADT innovated a new type of smart surveillance with an integrated app to reduce theft.  Brand collaborations can generate phenomenal innovation, when the objective of the partnership creates value for customers, employees, and society.

 * Both Ford and ADT plan to invest $100 Million into Canopy in the next three years, and open a funding round to bring in more automotive partners.  Canopy is currently integrating machine learning algorithms to be able to send an alert if a person loiters near a vehicle, but not send an alert if a cat is at the vehicle.
 
** An average work vehicle carries $50,000 in gear.  Each year motor vehicle related theft affects 230 per 100,000 vehicles, only half are due to owner error.