OPEN INNOVATION PROGRAMS

REACHING OUT FOR A NEW WAY

We custom-design formal Open Innovation Programs for organizations.

Open Innovation, or simply OI, is a growing approach to exchanging insights and capabilities amongst business organizations.   It has three primary modes, referred to as Outside-In, Inside-Out, and Joint OI.

For most organizations, the most useful of these will be Outside-In, in which the organization pursues insights and capabilities from outside its own four walls.   These insights relate to new innovation opportunities the organization can pursue.   The capabilities relate to being able to deliver new solutions which the organization could not deliver otherwise, whether the nature of the challenge is one of business, design, technology, marketing, or elsewise.

Some organizations will also have the opportunity to leverage the reverse mode of OI – Inside-Out.   Here, the organization sells or licenses its Intellectual Property to outside parties, and/or provides unique capabilities to those parties that are otherwise difficult to come by.   If the exchange goes both ways, as it sometimes does, it then becomes a Joint OI partnership.

Open Innovation thus expands organizations' access to insights on what opportunities there are for them to pursue, and their access to new capabilities on how to address specific business, design, and/or technology challenges.

There are numerous approaches available to organizations for pursuing Open Innovation.   In the context of gaining opportunity insights, these generally involve methods like external innovation tournaments.   In the context of finding new capabilities, these can include a variety of partnerships, such as contracted development, joint development, technology and IP licensing, and so forth.   Furthermore, a number of online platforms have arisen in recent years to help facilitate these efforts.   In the area of opportunities, these platforms typically facilitate innovation tournaments.   In the area of solutions, they typically facilitate crowdsourcing campaigns.   And in the area of capabilities, they typically facilitate new partnerships between those needing certain specific capabilities and those providing those capabilities.

THE ENGAGEMENT

The Open Innovation Engagement typically follows these steps:

1. We begin by listening to you so as to understand your goals for using Open Innovation, and to understand the specific business challenges where it is believed that OI will benefit your organization.
2. We then explain the processes involved in engaging the various Open Innovation communities, along with the implications of using OI and how to manage its unique challenges.
3. Ultimately, we help you determine whether or not Open Innovation is a good path for your organization and, if so, we then connect you with the right resources to make it happen.
4. As desired, we can coach you through the organizational challenges you will encounter when using OI and how best to address each challenge, as well as how to, in general, begin shifting your organization's culture and thinking toward one that is more open and receptive to OI.   This will be necessary if you intend to use Open Innovation on an ongoing basis.
5. As needed, we can provide custom training and workshops around Open Innovation so as to build an understanding and acceptance of it within the organization.
6. If desired, we can remain engaged with you to help oversee the OI initiative, and to coach you along the way so as to ensure it remains on track and does not get derailed by undesirable and inappropriate influences.