An Open Innovation POV
The most innovative companies accept that great ideas can come from outside their organizations. Innovation distinguishes products in the marketplace and drives brand expansion. Companies require a sustainable approach to expanding their innovation portfolio if they are to grow successfully.
The model called "open innovation" enables you to access fresh, insightful solutions to key development needs by reaching beyond your traditional networks. You tap the creativity and expertise of the global marketplace to bring new ideas, technologies, processes and products to your customers and end-users.
Around the world, millions of scientists, engineers, developers, designers, nutritionists and inventors are developing stores of knowledge that represent a huge pool of untapped innovation capacity. With open innovation, you leverage that expertise from both related and adjacent knowledge bases to help invent solutions to specific technical, process or systems hurdles that go beyond their own networks and experiences. You add new ideas that can be developed both faster and more cost effectively.
For consumer products companies, the model poses several challenges. Leaders must develop an open innovation strategy; develop processes and roles to integrate ideas into the new-product introduction process; and create new metrics and rewards that guide the organization to think differently and encourage a positive view to overcome cultural hurdles.
Consider that in every function across your product lines -- from design to manufacturing, and development to marketing -- hundreds of problems could use faster or more insightful solutions. The challenge is to develop a systematic process and be proactive to identify and prioritize these opportunities.
What You Need
Key elements to an open innovation strategy include:
Lead the change. By far the most significant element in your strategy is commitment from top management. Leaders must:
Set the direction and goals to attract, unearth and pursue external innovation
Prioritize the areas that drive value for the organization
Assign resources/develop roles to champion new ideas
Enable funding and optimize the budgeting process to develop external partnerships
Champion successes
Develop the process for your enterprise. Solving problems externally will involve project teams in a new way. A process-driven approach to external innovation helps reduce the perceived risks of working externally and provides a mechanism for metrics and continuous improvement. Make sure your product teams have the capabilities and the resources to scout external opportunities and to integrate this capacity into your organization.
Align the corporate culture. It's critical to secure the buy-in of your teams -- and that doesn't happen the same way in all companies. Food product companies, for example, tend to spend less on innovation as a percentage of revenue than personal care companies. If your company has a strong history of delivering innovation from within, teams may find it difficult to welcome good ideas from outside. Cultural alignment is a key success factor.
A First Step
The simplest way to begin open innovation is to launch a pilot program -- which means prioritize your top 10 or 20 needs -- and train people to champion these projects and enable them to institute a global search for technology or innovation partners to meet those needs. The best programs offer a structured approach for testing the concept and measuring results within your organization.
Key components of a pilot program include:
Identifying/enlisting sponsors
Selecting appropriate projects
Conducting the technology request/search process
Reviewing proposals and, most of all
Choosing the right people
Whether open innovation is new to you, or you want to expand an existing program, training and process coaching from someone who specializes in this area can greatly enhance your results. You will find that leveraging knowledge and expertise from the global marketplace yields valuable new ideas, reduces risk in decision-making, and accelerates the innovation process.