Ivanico's blog

I just came across Stephan Lindegaard blog and without knowing much about open innovation I found it quite interesting by reading through some of his articles. On one of his posts he lists a series of articles that talk and expand about it. I just wanted to quote from one of those the following that outlines clearly the benefits of open innovation:

What are the biggest advantages of using open innovation?

While this wasn’t a common question, and the participants were already sold on using open innovation, I want to address it to end on a positive note. The two key benefits are speed and the ability to capitalize on knowledge and labor regardless of where it resides.

Speed. Open innovation fostersfaster exchanges of ideas through innovation action networks and shared development. Open innovation is more agile, better able to deal with uncertainty of markets and enables technology development processes that are more adaptive and efficient. Every company is facing greater demands to respond faster to their market and open innovation can enhance those efforts.

Distributed knowledge and labor. Organizations can more effectively capitalize on skilled labor that is mobile and independent. We are reaching the end of knowledge monopolies based on conventional business models. Globalization trends require increased knowledge to compete in other markets. However, in practice, companies are reducing their internal knowledge bases in an effort to run lean. The best way to meet knowledge and labor limitations is to use open innovation methods.

Open innovation is about more than a small change in R&D. It has the potential to revolutionize business. But at this stage of the revolution, the open innovation process is chaotic. My advice is to get involved early, fail quickly and often, learn from your mistakes and develop best practices for your company.