7 good ways to start with open innovation

Open innovation is increasingly common in organisations to accelerate the pace and impact of innovation by sharing risk and reward with partners. As part of a recent project working with organisations new to open innovation, we have drafted a quick ‘bluffers guide’ with seven main ways you could further quickly implement open innovation into your organisation which we thought we’d share here as follows:

1. Crowdsource

Run a crowdsourcing competition with employees/customers/consumers/general public to develop and refine your ideas and/or proposition  and allocate funding and process in place to implement the best one/s.

[Potential partners: Chaordix, Hype, Crowdicity etc]

 2. C0-create

Host a series of collaborative workshops to work towards a new shared risk/shared reward proposition and business model for working with partners or suppliers.

[Potential partners: Non competing corporate partners or technology suppliers]

3. Open data

Open up and share data (e.g. through an API) for other organisations/developers to play with/build on at a hackday/weekend.

[Potential partners: Rewired State, Mashery etc]

4. Share needs

Open up and share your unmet needs for others to address/solve via an open innovation broker. This could start with a workshop and/or online platform.

[Potential partners: Innocentive, Ninesigma, 100%Open etc]

5. Open up

Deliver open innovation and collaboration training, including developing the appropriate mindsets, behaviours and culture in your teams as well as processes and legal frameworks.

[Potential partners: WeCreate, Creative Huddle, 100%Open etc]

6. AdVenture

Invest in an internal team and/or unleash the potential of dormant IP through incubating an external partner off the P&L to deliver your new product or service in partnership within 2-3 years, after which you retain the right to buy back at an agreed multiple.

[Potential partners: IPSO Ventures, 100%Open etc] 

7. Blueprint

Set a strategic plan with clear metrics for external collaborations that allocates resources, objectives & methods to develop a programme this financial year.

[Potential partners: Fronteer Strategy, Bluenove, 100%Open etc]

Comments

  1. The Open Knowledge Foundation can also help with opening data, including advice on licensing and community engagement, open source software tools for sharing and remixing data, and data wrangling.

  2. […] Open innovation is increasingly common in organisations to accelerate the pace and impact of innovation by sharing risk and reward with partners. As part of a recent project working with organisations new to open innovation, we have drafted a quick ‘bluffers guide’ with seven main ways you could further quickly implement open innovation into your organisation which we thought we’d share here as follows.  […]

  3. Great list from people who I know are practitioners not academic bullshit merchants. Love the way you have a range of options including your competitors.

    What would I add.

    A first step is often opening a cultural door that for too long has been closed in many companies.

    So I’d start, even before the blueprint stage, with:
    Minus 1 :Get jealous.
    Go and visit 10 super productive mainstream open innovation programmes – all available on the web – and so get concrete evidence to share with your board as to what you are missing out on. Orange iDclick, MyStarBucks

    This list from 155Inno is as good as any.

    3M Zukunft Innovation (in German)
    BMW Virtual Innovation Agency
    Boots Centre for Innovation
    Campbell’s Ideas for Innovation
    Cisco I-Prize
    Clorox Connects
    Colgate-Palmolive
    Dell IdeaStorm
    DSM Licensing
    Ericsson
    Ford Story
    General Electric Ecomagination
    General Mills G-WIN
    GlaxoSmithKline
    Hershey´s Ideaworks
    HP Labs Open Innovation Office
    IBM Collaboration Jam
    Ingenuity Working (by Psion)
    Intuit Collaboratory
    Intuit Labs
    Johnson Controls Open Innovation
    Kraft – InnovateWithKraft
    LG
    Medtronic
    Nestlé
    Netflix Prize
    Nokia
    Nokia Beta Labs
    P&G Connect+Develop
    Pepsi Refresh Project
    Reckitt Benckiser
    SAP Coil
    SAP – Sapiens (In German)
    Sara Lee
    Shell GameChanger
    Starbucks – MyStarbucksIdea
    Unilever
    Weyerhaeuser
    YTL Communications
    Xerox

    Zero:: Second I’d ASK.
    I found when going on this journey with LEGO that practitioners in OI have a sense of camaraderie and are willing to share more “gold dust” than in any other area I have explored. So go ask …

    Then you can make an informed decision as to which route to take.

    Oh and like I did … Bring in some expertise and ring Roland.

  4. Thanks Graham. If wordpress had a ‘like’ feature I’d click it on your comment. Very kind. And yes step -1 is critical. And interesting to hear what you say about step 0 too. I guess we all believe that you’ve got to give to get. Generosity is a bit like compound interest. The sooner you get it in the bank, the greater the dividends. Anyway, thanks Graham. You are a star!

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