The Case for Collaboration.

Henry Chesbrough’s  concept of  ‘Open Innovation’,  (IO) or collaboration, has been steadily gaining traction for the last ten years, but the necessities of the challenges of reducing costs and adding value and being more innovative, for both product service and process improvements means that it is a very bright spot on the radar for many public and private sector organisation, SME’s and academia. If not that its just a little fuzzy image.

For those of you who are aware of IO but are seeking some clarity and trying to get a handle on whether it might be time to take that leap, here are some Beautiful Questions that might help you decide.

Firstly, just to allay some misconceptions. What IO it isn’t?

It isn’t giving away the family silver

It isn’t about stealing or plagiarisation

It isn’t about commercial espionage

It might be about talent scouting and acquisition though ;)

Most of us start from the point of what we could call a 'Closed Innovation' position. The not invented here syndrome, the belief  that we have all the expertise we need to do what we need to do,  and that sharing knowledge is very risky, both at a personal and company level. The move to paddle on the shores of open Innovation requires that first we have to ask ourselves some searching and possibly painful questions, that change many assumptions.

So....

Do we really have all the smart people we need to deliver this?

…..Or do we need to get our smart people to work with other smart people?

To profit from our R&D do we really need to find, develop and distribute the product ourselves?  or…Does our internal R&D just claim part of the value of a much bigger pie?

Does it matter if, by doing do it all internally, that we are first to market?  Or do we have to originate the research to profit from it?

Do we know what are the real benefits of being first to market? Or ….  With a product or service is it better to have a business model that works better then the market first?

If we create tons of ideas, and have the most and the best will we really win? Or, if we make the best uses of external and internal ideas will that give us the best chance of success

Do we really need to control our IP? Or is it better for us to profit from others use of our IP and acquire others if it help us develop and improve our business model?

If you answer No to the first and Yes to the second then Open Innovation is your path.  If however you answer Yes to any of the first questions, then your competition will, in all likelihood, leave you behind sometime in the next 24 months, if they haven’t already.  Sorry!