Category: General

The best Open Innovation posts of 2011

The year is almost over and many of us are spending our holidays search our social media accounts for interesting blog posts while watching the snowflakes or, in our case, the raindrops falling. To make this year’s ending even more comfortable for you, we have searched through the web to gather the best Open Innovation posts of this year.

Note: we have used search enginges such as Twitter’s Advanced Search, Google Search Blog, Digg Search and Delicous Search to create this list. But most of all, we have used our common sense 😉

  1. Create Employee Networks that Deliver Open Innovation – Sloan Review, MIT
    A small number of “idea scouts” and “idea connectors” are disproportionately influential in producing successful open innovation outcomes. Smart companies make sure they are linked.
    http://bit.ly/rJEkAh
  2. The Continuing Payoff from Open Innovation – Strategy Business
    At the heart of the innovation process is the search for new ideas and market opportunities with commercial value.
    http://bit.ly/tZ0rme
  3. 7 Ways to make Open Innovation Work – Investors Digest
    If your company isn’t innovating, it’s slipping behind the competition. With the Internet and the increasing flow of ideas and information,
    internal R&D departments alone aren’t always the answer. More than ever, business owners are embracing open innovation to stay ahead. Open innovation is more than a toolkit, it’s a mindset.
    http://bit.ly/t0iY2t
  4. Lego’s $50 Million Open Innovation Failure – Innovation Excellence (148)
    The headline screams like a disaster. It’s not really that bad. Yes, Lego took a loss around that size when they decided to shut down their
    online game, Lego Universe, but they also learned some valuable lessons.
    http://bit.ly/v1hpWQ
  5. From Open Source to Open Research: Horizon 2020 – ComputerWorldUK
    Last week I took part in a meeting at the European Parliament entitled “Horizon 2020: Investing in the common good”.  Here’s the background: Horizon 2020 is the EU´s framework programme for research and innovation.
    http://bit.ly/u4eccK
  6. Open Innovation Program to develop extreme weather Warning System – Daily Crowdsource
    The extreme weather conditions at the heart of many natural disasters that devastate the South American continent have prompted calls for a better way to deal with these catastrophes. Since the absence of an effective early warning system is a major concern, The Planetary Skin Institute (PSI), a non-profit global research and development organization, along with Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) have recently announced an open innovation program.
    http://bit.ly/vx06Rq
  7. How Open Innovation Saved the Microsoft Brand – Innovation Excellence
    5 years ago, what was your impression of Microsoft? Even if the impression didn’t match the reality of what the company was innovating, terms like antiquated, stagnant and dinosaur of technology were routinely tossed about to describe the software Goliath. But what about today?
    http://bit.ly/sldGaZ
  8. Open Innovation for Heroes: introducting the Veterans Job Bank – Whitehouse.gov
    Today, the Obama Administration launched the Veterans Job Bank, a new search tool designed to help connect veterans with employers.  The Job Bank  works by bringing jobs listings directly to veterans—instead of the other way around—via a search widget that provides a single window into the myriad job boards, social media platforms, and corporate employment sites that are currently spread across the Internet.
    http://1.usa.gov/sIn55P
  9. Open Innovation Companies Help Inventors Move Ahead – NY Times
    Betsy Ravreby Kaufman is a lot of things — a freelance television producer, a former anchor, a wife and mother, a resident of Houston. One  thing she is not, she insists, is an inventor.
    http://nyti.ms/v8enhn

 

Sports & Open Innovation?

Open innovation: A well-known practice for the fans of football club FC Murcielagos in Mexico, where important decision are being made by the DT-Electronico (Electronic coach). Whenever important decisions are being made, supporters are invited to take part in the decision making process by voting through the web or test messages. Not a bad idea, since apparently the team is playing its best season ever (cf. A Bite Of).

Typical decisions to be made by fans include the line-up of the team, forcing the first substitution or who is being substituted by whom, and which player should be awarded a bonus for his performance during the match. An interesting approach given the current results.

However, this approach also raises a number of questions. Are these supporters indeed better managers, or are there other factors that should be taken into account? Could such a model be applied in other sports too? And.. what about more substantial issues, such as the transfer of players, or how much the club should offer to attract certain players? After all, deciding about the ‘man of the match’ is a decision far different from running the club as a whole, and the question arises as to what extent should one involve supporters and where should one draw the line?

Inpex 2012 Open Innovation Conference

Inpex, America’s largest invention trade show, will host the 2nd annual Open Innovation Conference. On June 13 & 14, open innovation experts and practitioners will come together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to address the latest insight on open innovation throughout the innovation-to-market cycle.

More info can be found here.

Teaming up on Open Innovation: art or science?

Earlier this week, ABN AMRO, released a report on Open Innovation, titled “Teaming up on Open Innovation: art or science?”. Although solely released for the food sector, it explores Open Innovation theory from a new and interesting perspective. The report is authored by prof. dr. Omta (University of Wageningen), dr. Fortuin (Food Valley) and drs. Dijkman (ABN AMRO).

The core of the article consists of 5 key elements: the critical (failure) factors for Open Innovation.

What are the critical (failure) factors of Open Innovation?
  • Defining problems and setting goals: according to the authors there are three ways of overcoming this issue. First of all, do a lot of (premature) research and dare to stop when you’re on a dead end road. Secondly, create road maps. Meaning: use trends and market knowledge to look at least 5 years ahead, because that’s time it takes for a radical innovation to land. And lastly, “look different, look foward”, referring to Henry Fords quotation: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
  • Partner selection: try to find partners as fast as possible. Management commitment in this process is essential. Also, don’t be egocentric. Open Innovation is about contributing rather than perceiving. And lastly, there is more contracts. A succesfull collaboration is built by mutual trust and commitment.
  • Building a contract: set rules and find and define the risks that are involved in collaboration. It is easy to say that risks are inevitable, but in fact, they are not if you think about them thouroughly.
  • Executing the Open Innovation project: don’t let fear rule the process. It happens to every project that – at some time – there is some distrust or mistrust in the partnership. Invest in trust, do what it takes. Link cultures and communicate oftenly and profoundly. This also means investing in speaking each others (technical) language and managing conflicts.
  • Monitoring the project: start off by knowing how important costs are, how the project will be managed and what other preconditions are necessary during the project.

Art or Science?

Oddly, the report doesn’t give an answer to the question that is raised in the title of their work. Which gives us the opportunity to ask you: what do you think: is Open Innovation art or science?

“Innovation does not happen in a vacuum”

Last month, Rogier van der Heide, Chief Design Officer of Philips Lighting, spoke at TEDxAmsterdam about Open Innovation. He explained a few beaatiful examples of collaboration in the design phase to maximize possible outcomes. An impressive 7-minute speech, in which he – instead of using the normal powerpoint sheets – touched the audience by showing video’s, playing with light effects, got ‘Fergie’ of the Black Eyed Peace on the stage and made an old Rembrandt litteraly alive. More information on his speech: here.

On the Philips website he adds: “In order to get to innovations, it is essential to collaborate well and to share knowledge. Innovating is not something you do alone, it works like a ‘pressure cooker’, in which the innovation of LED technology is being accelarated in the application for – for instance – the illumination of art and buildings.”

He rounds off his speech with the following quote:

“Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You’re never alone. No one has the key just by himself.”

Stanford Technology Ventures Program: already 50K subscribers

Next January, new (free) courses on Technology Entrepreneurship will be offered at Stanford University. The programs consist of separate video colleges of about 8-12 minutes each, counting up to almost 2 hours a week on course material. And above all, this is – amazingly – completely for free. We would like to recommend the following two courses:

Technology Entrepreneurship

Do you want to know how to get entrepreneurial spirit into your – small or large – organization? Do you want know how to accelerate entrepreneurship and create new markets? According to their program website, these are exactly the questions that you will get answers for. The course will teach you about taking risks, managing ideas and turn these into opportunities. The courses are provided by professor Chuck Eesly. In this video he will introduce himself and the course:

Subscribe direcly for this course here.

The Lean Launchpad

Do you rather want to know how turn ideas into small companies or start-ups, when you are aware when there is no big money available? Do you prefer not to care about business plans, revenue models and organization structures? Then you’re wright, because this class will teach you nothing about that. It will teach you about turning those small ideas in the interesting business models for start-ups. It will make you ready for real practice. Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur, will tell you more about it:

Subscribe immediately here.

Are you in?

Please let us know below if you are following the course and what you’re expectations are. Have fun.

What Steve Jobs did (not do) for Open Innovation

Last autumn Steve Jobs passed away and everybody seems to agree: Steve Jobs was an inspiring and creative leader. His visionary view on technology stood at the basis of several radical innovations, which changed the lives of almost every single one of us. The fact that the iPhone, iTunes and the iPad are probably the three most important “disruptive innovations” of the last decade, surely isn’t a point of discussion. However, what does come to mind when debating about key issues of innovation at Apple’s is the fact if their way of innovation is future-proof. Apple has been blamed regularly that the company has proven to be more than average skilled to exploit the consumer by utilizing above-mentioned radical innovations. Which is an effective Business Model as long as there is a constant of flow of radical innovation finding its way through the funnel. But: is Apple’s methodology really sustainable?

Open Innovation:

Characteristic for a sustainable business model are the following 6 fundamental principles of Open Innovation:

  1. Not all the smart people in the field work for us. We need to work with smart people inside and outside the company.
  2. External R&D can create significant value: internal R&D is needed to claim some portion of that value.
  3. We don’t have to originate the research to profit from it.
  4. Building a better business model is better than getting to the market first.
  5. If we make the best use of internal and external ideas, we will win.
  6. We should profit from others’ use of our IP, and we should buy others’ IP whenever it advances our business model.

Let’s take a closer look on these elements:

Steve Jobs & Open Innovation:
  1. Steve Jobs has built its organisation around the best people. And the best people should work for Apple. The New York Times has published about this phenomenon:

    “In choosing key members of his team, he looks for the multiplier factor of excellence. Truly outstanding designers, engineers and managers, he says, are not just 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent better than merely very good ones, but 10 times better.”

  2. Apple’s perspective on tapping into external using doesn’t comply with the “rules” of Open Innovation. This results in a paradox, because Apple’s products (iTunes, iPhone) are fundamentally changing our options on sharing knowledge with each other. Former Apple employee, Tasra Mar, argues:

    Having worked there for a year, I know firsthand about the tight hold that is placed on knowledge and information—basically everything is on a need to know basis. No open discussions, forums or free conversations. That philosophy has paid off handsomely for them.

  3. As well as the former two principles, also this one isn’t acknowledged by Steve Jobs:

    “To all outward appearances, Steve Jobs believes that knowledge and information confer power only if they are carefully guarded.” (Xconomy)

  4. To be honest, on this matter Apple’s needs to receive compliments. Steve Jobs has been able to combine both elements: creating and succesfully implement new business models (such as iTunes: The iTunes Business Model and its widespread effects) and focusing on a very short Time-to-Market (How Apple manages time-to-market thanks to Open Innovation).
  5. At least to the outside world, Apple seems to be a very intransparant company. The company isn’t open about new developments and outsources only very small elements of the production process. The role of Steve Jobs in this strategy is much-discussed and important

    Jobs’ flippant communications style may not adversely affect Apple’s reputation or brand value, but a front-of-store employee telling a customer to “Please, leave us alone” surely would. (Rosanna Fiske).

  6. Sharing IP isn’t exactly one the stronger points of Apple, even not when it could contribute to Apples business. Apple is very conservative when it comes to sharing IP, while the current trends are moving opposite, such as Creative Commons, being Android an excellent example. The following table shows Android’s market share growing rapidly over the last few years. For those of you who now think: “Apples share isn’t doing bad as well”, I would like to point out that this is mainly due to the fact that iOS is an obliged system for a hugely popular device, not because the system itself is so popular.
    (October Market Share report)
Conclusion: Steve Jobs is an innovator, not an Open Innovator per se.

Steve Jobs has proven to be running a very succesful company. However, that doesn’t answer the question: is Apple’s methodology sustainable and future-proof? Based on above-mentioned comparison: no, it isn’t. It seems to me that in the unfortunate case that Apple doesn’t continue creating disruptive innovations, their business model could fail in the near future. Or is Apple the perfect proof that Open Innovation may not be the only sustainable business model?

5 steps towards Open Innovation

Open Innovation is a broad and relatively new concept. And while ‘opening up’ your company’s innovation it isn’t easy to a grab a book from the shelf, find the perfect page that addresses your question and start implementing a new model in your organization. No, you are probably disappointed: the current literature is mainly theoretical and offers little useful information to get started immediately. One of my favorite works by Lindegaard makes an ambitious attempt, but is still too abstract for an innovation manager who needs to start á la minute.

It’s time for a – basic but concrete – roadmap:

1. Business Unit

The first important step is to implement Open Innovation in the processes of the research department (or new business development, innovation, etc.). Taking a top-down perspective, this means that the innovation manager is starting to spread the word, facilitates co-workers and needs to emphasize the importance for the organisational process. This results in the fact that employees will have to adapt to new circumstances and start shifting towards an open-minded attitude. R&D isn’t secret anymore and sharing knowledge becomes a basic routine. Even if all the ingredients for succesfull knowledge sharing are present, the succes of this step will be dependant on a number of soft factors, most importantly trust, networking and social talk. This is the first and most difficult phase. If you start something off well, you’re already half on your way

2. Organisation

The second step aims at implementing the model in the enterprise as a whole. R&D can’t only be “created” between thick walls in the clean room. No, R&D has to become a process in which every part of the organization is participating. First of all, start by getting the Marketing, Supply Chain and Production departments involved in the process. Having done that, start with the other departments. The best ideas come from the most unexpected places and an enterprise-wide network of open-minded people accelerates this process.

3. Suppliers

Depending on the sector you’re operating in, the next three steps could be started in whatever order. Start with the group which is most influenceable from your position.  In traditional markets those will be your suppliers. It is now time to get them around the table and talk about cooperative strategies. So, don’t start talking about integrating each other supply chain but about combining your innovation efforts. Share knowledge, share people, share managers. Get to know each other.

4. Customers

For companies in a Business-to-Business environment, this step will be easier than for companies in a Business-to-Consumer market. In B2B follow the process mentioned at step 3. Don’t be shy in sharing your knowledge about critical details. In B2C you’ll have to meet consumers and start talking about co-development and co-creation.

5. Competitors

Last but not least, your competitors. If your organization has development a strong Open Innovation strategy and made a reputation of an open-minded player, it is time to start talking to your competitors. Get involved in each other’s R&D-developments, research, suppliers, customers and mission statements. Go your own way if there is no cooperation possible, but work together if you could stay ahead of other competitors this way. Remember: the best people may be working for them and not for you.

Get started

Easier said than done, but this is a start. You’ll need a culture change, about which you’ll find more on this site. In what steps are you foreseeing the most problems? What things would you do different while starting implementing Open Innovation. Let’s co-create a better 5-step-model together.

New website launched!

Today we have launched our new website. After six years of heavy duty, it is now the time for a new look. The new layout aims, more than last version, to bring together professionals from the field and create fruitful conversation about Open Innovation, Co-Creation and related items.

Please, let us know what you think of it.

Kind regards,
Maurice, Vareska and Jan

Companies need to collaborate on innovation

The news paper “Financieel Dagblad”, Financial Daily, has recently published an article on Open Innovation. It was based upon several interviews with industry leaders regarding a research paper published by Deloitte earlier this week. The title says it all: “Companies need to collaborate on innovation.” In the article, the author is referring to Open Innovation as “cooperation between organisations and institutions.”

The interviewees all mention the need for Open Innovation, though still have second thoughts about Intellectual Property. According to Wasili Bertoen (Deloitte): “Open Innovation is the way to go, since product life cycles are getting shorter and knowledge becomes easier accessible and shareable. It is basically impossible to ‘own’ all this knowledge. So, in our opinion, collaboration is crucial. And that is something we’re doing only sparsely.”