Open+Innovation

Open innovation, open business models
Problem solving by virtual teams is being driven by the trend towards “open innovation” which includes a move by large firms over the last decade to outsource some areas of R&D which in the past would have been conducted by in-house R&D divisions. The idea behind “open innovation,” in many ways an extension of the open software movement, is that knowledge is global and that firms should acquire outside resources by buying or licensing know-how, processes or intellectual property. Also, a company’s own intellectual property which is not being used internally can be out licensed. Firms may develop roadmaps for open innovation.

The strategic advantage of the open innovation model is that via strategic licensing firms may transform their proprietary technology into industry standards, dictating the market trends and further growth of the market.

Online communication platforms, increasingly based on open source software that is used by organizations to communicate with employees or enable work teams or members of communities of practice to share innovative ideas with each other, tend to be carefully structured. Online social networks such as Facebook and YouTube, or the millions of blogs and wiki’s, are less organized and more chaotic. But, many of these latter networks are evolving from their original purpose of being virtual meeting places for friends and the sharing of opinions or favorite videos to becoming a platform for innovation. For example, customers can provide instantaneous responses on products and services purchased, and businesses can communicate directly with customers.

How will the open innovation movement, innovation platforms, and the burgeoning diversity of social networks as innovation platforms help developing countries to absorb, adapt, and commercialize knowledge and innovative technologies? How should developing countries use and adapt such networks to create partnerships for development and good innovation practices? What cultural factors in and between countries need to be recognized?

Seekers and Solvers
A number of web-based marketplace networks have been created that connect organizations that have problems to solve with people who can offer solutions. InnoCentive www.innocentive.com has implemented an Open Innovation Marketplace where individuals or groups needing answers to complex challenges on a host of issues can submit their questions on an open web-based platform to be reviewed by subscribers to the program who specialize in their area of interest. Financial awards are provided only when solutions are created. This model of virtual problem solving is very useful for the developing world where expertise on innovating new products from new or existing technology might not be within a limited network of collaborators. These virtual experiences can also promulgate more tangible partnerships in the long-term. Similar web-based marketplaces include: **Tekscout** []; **Yet2.com** [] and **NineSigma** []. **Innoget** [] A longer list is at []

A Rockefeller Foundation/InnoCentive partnership provides non-profit organizations in developing countries access to InnoCentive’s global network of over 160,000 problem solvers in engineering and science. This partnership is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of open innovation to developing countries and ultimately encourage its use more broadly across the development sector.


 * Innocentive** has found that as the number of unique scientific interests in the overall submitter population increased, the higher the probability that a Challenge was successfully solved. In other words, diversity of potential scientific approaches to a problem was a significant predictor of problem solving success. Results also showed that the further the Solvers rated the problem was from their own field of expertise the more likely they were to have solved the problem.

Note that these Seeker/Solver networks are different from, and probably more effective than, Technology Matching networks (below).

Innovation Jam™
Since 2001, IBM has used jams (a reference to jazz “jams” - informal groups of musician trying out their skills before an audience) to involve its employees around the world in exploration and problem-solving. These are online brainstorming sessions which, in the 2006 Innovation Jam, brought together more than 150,000 people from 104 countries and 67 companies. As a result, 10 new IBM businesses were launched with seed investment totaling $100 million. Jams have been used also for social issues such as developing the agenda for the 2006 UN World Urban Forum. People from 158 countries shared their ideas for improving the environment, health, safety and quality of life in the world's burgeoning cities.

Technology Matching
Technology matching services seek to match those offering technologies to those seeking technologies and technology solutions. Examples include the US National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC) and the European Union Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) Network. In response to the client's statement of need, the NTTC's technology analysts search for available technologies that may meet the need. Solutions may be found from a given set of available technologies, or from all possible sources including US Government laboratories.

The 10 year old IRC network, now part of Enterprise Europe claims to be the world’s largest network building technology partnerships and has helped more than 110,000 clients across Europe, most of them small businesses. IRC technology matching services have been replicated in Central and Eastern Europe. The IRC networks deliver Transnational Technology Transfer (TTT) agreements and other services to clients. However, a substantial number of TTT contracts have yet to deliver convincing results, the performance of individual IRCs varies significantly, and some cannot be self-sustaining (**Strategic Analysis of the Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) Network**, available at: [|http://www.mediainnovation.it/upload/doc/IRC_Study_exec_summary_final.pdf)] Another difficulty is that R&D staff in companies does not have time to scan and review “technology offer” websites – which are typically unbalanced in containing far more pushing of technologies than request for technology needs.

10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure
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Top 10 lessons on the new business of innovation - MIT Sloan Management Review
[|http://sloanreview.mit.edu/files/2011/06/INS0111-Top-Ten-Innovation.pdf#page=37]

How to Accelerate Innovation through Challenge Driven Innovation
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"Challenge Driven Innovation is an innovation framework that accelerates traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation and crowdsourcing along with defined methodology, process and tools to help organizations develop and implement actionable solutions to their key problems, opportunities and Challenges. The CDI framework augments and adds value to historical paradigms, such as Stage-Gate ..... that have dominated innovation business processes for decades."