Collaborate with other corporates
Our corporate open innovation network is called Union™. This is a group of open innovation and venturing professionals that exists for the sole purpose of creating value through contacts. Such value is generated in collaborative projects, knowledge transfer and the mutual recommendation of relevant technologies, techniques or innovative small companies.
Union™ was set up as a collaborative initiative between 100%Open and Oracle and following on from our successful innovation project together Open Alchemy which showcased the power of corporate collaborations.
The Cappuccino Problem
There are now some 100 Union™ members from diverse sectors of UK industry and part of the fun of Union meet-ups is comparing notes with similar professionals from different backgrounds in a social setting. One of the barriers to effective open innovation is the inability to meet enough interesting people in the time available – what David Rajan, Director of Emerging Business at Oracle calls the ‘cappuccino problem’. Union is already enabling members to quickly source innovations or deals via the principle of ‘6 degrees of separation’.
Clients Not Cash
“The 100% Open team with their Union networking event provided an excellent evening’s innovation, networking and entertainment. The meeting enables a diverse range of innovation practitioners from start-ups through to global corporates to come together in a friendly environment to give and get insight and opportunities. ” Richard Copland, Logica
Union™ aims to increase the efficiency of linking up innovative UK based SMEs with corporate partners – brokering direct and valuable relationships. We call this approach ‘Clients not Cash’ and feel that there is often more value in providing a route to market for small companies than in burdening them with VC debt and other strings. Of course Union may lead to direct collaborations between corporates that are more like alliances or technology transfer and this is also one of our objectives. We are prototyping a ‘National Needs Network’ which members can use to compare their open innovation requirements and share SME contacts.
Join the Union
Union membership is limited to corporate members but SMEs and others are invited to events as appropriate. There is no membership fee at present. If you’re interested in joining please email us at enquiries@100Open.com
