If you're like me, you are still catching up on your professional reading from a month back. My colleagues and I are always looking for good, instructive articles on open innovation whether they are theoretical or practical in nature. We try to share these with our clients and industry colleagues as often as possible. Below are a few noteworthy references in case you missed them as you were wrapping up 2009. If you have any other recent references you'd like to share with the OI community, please post a comment.

• Harvard Business Review, December 2009: How Open Innovation Can Help You Cope in Lean Times (excerpt of article)
• The Market for Open Innovation: Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the innovation process, December 2009 (excerpt from report by Kathleen Diener and Frank Piller)
• Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2009: Outsourcing Innovation 
• New York Times, October 31, 2009: Everybody in the Pool of Green Innovation
• University of Cambridge Centre for Technology Management, Institute for Manufacturing, 2009: How to Implement Open Innovation

Boy it's hard to stay focused today while tracking the latest live tweets from the CoDev 2010 conference and live blogs of the Apple event to launch the iPad (not to mention documenting project status reports, updating my NineSigma portal with new projects, etc.).  But actually, this hunger for new information (and how to make sense of it) is an important characteristic we look for in our own employees, and is also a driving force in the Open Innovation Champions we meet every day.  But what other skills are needed, and how can you spot your company's next Open Innovation Champion? 

First, it is important to recognize that (at least for now) 99% of the Open Innovation Champion roles are created internally by companies (so far I have seen very little movement to fill these roles externally).  This is because it is important for these OI Champions to really understand their organization, the IP requirements and preferences, and how much the organization can stretch.  Quite often, it is redefining a role that someone has been playing already informally, so filling internally makes a lot of sense. 

Critical internal experience also includes success at team building, visibility with the organization (and credibility across multiple disciplines, not just for the technical organization), exposure to corporate/business strategic goals/initiatives, and experience navigating approval and gaining buy-in to new initiatives (not to mention flexibility and adaptability).

In terms of external skills: deal facilitation experience, comfort interfacing with vendors/university partners/etc., and a passion for external collaboration.

Additionally, since OI Champions have to juggle quite a few tasks (many are in this role only part-time), excellent organization and communications skills are a must. It is critical for the Champion to be able to build, collect, and communicate best practices within the company and outside of it, and having ninja-like Excel and Powerpoint skills certainly is a plus.  

What is really quite interesting, is that although many of the OI Champions "grew up" through R&D or product development, OI Champions can really come from any role - marketing, business, operations, legal.  This reinforces how Corporate Innovation initiatives cross many different disciplines and organizations.  And as these roles continue to evolve (along with the evolution of the corporate innovation strategies), continued learning and training are essential. 

What thoughts do you have on good (or bad) characteristics for OI champions?  Feel free to comment below.

The technical and popular press have devoted a great deal of attention to open innovation, and the concept of being "open", in recent years. It is undoubtedly the way all companies are headed, to varying degrees. I wanted to touch on the concept of Openness, and how I have come to view it.

Prior to launching an open innovation program, the leadership team should do a quick check of the organization’s degree of openness. Here I define openness within the context of open innovation across two dimensions. The first is the organization’s willingness to openly share information externally.  The second dimension is being open to embracing and acting on new, innovative ideas that are presented to the organization from the global innovation community.

For open innovation to be successful, organizations must be open to sharing their innovation needs with the global innovation community. It is hard for an external group to determine how they can offer effective help to an organization that will not share what it is seeking. Clearly, this does not mean sharing competitive or confidential information with the global innovation community. But, we see many organizations struggling with what they can share, when they can share it and how best to share. NineSigma’s Program Managers have worked with many organizations to help them answer these questions and to develop Briefs describing innovation needs that can be broadly shared with the global innovation community.

The second aspect of openness is the willingness of the organization to embrace and act on new, innovative ideas from outside the organization. Many times we see firms overcome the challenge of sharing what they seek - only to not follow up on what they find. Here the challenge is being open to ideas that did not originate within the firm. Some may refer to this as NIH, but many times it is more a matter of the firm’s reward systems and culture.

As the leadership team considers an open innovation program or initiative, they should take some time to assess the organization’s openness. The degree of openness will play a pivotal role in the overall success of the open innovation program. If the leadership team is concerned about openness then they should consider including a change management workstream in the open innovation program.

Contact us today to launch your open innovation program with NineSigma.

If you are reading this blog, you’re probably already aware of the fact that open innovation (OI) has not yet reached its prime across all industries.  In fact, many business leaders still haven’t heard of it yet, or want nothing to do with it.  So why is it that some companies swear by it, and have reached a point where OI is completely embedded in their internal organizations and processes, while others are afraid to play?  I have a theory about this, which boils down to two key points:  market leadership culture and reward systems. 

Companies with a culture of market leadership have traditionally relied on strong internal innovation competencies in order to develop and maintain market share for their products.  These leaders have recently realized (sometimes the hard way) that achieving and holding on to market share is no longer reliant upon the old first-to-patent or ownership philosophy held by a company’s innovators.  It now has more to do with who is in control of the IP.  With today’s ever-increasing speed of information flow, coupled with the vast availability of global OI resources, companies no longer have to own their IP.  In fact, such a belief can actually hold a company back.   If a company focuses more on control vs. ownership of the new technologies that they need to stay ahead of their competitors, they can continue to maintain their leading edge, drive demand, and create new product generations, but at a much faster rate. 

Understanding the evolution of market leadership principles is one thing, but putting them into practice is quite another.  Changing the ways that R&D organizations have been working for decades can be a real challenge.  So how can we suddenly align our first-to-market business objectives with those who are deeply rooted in the traditions of first-to-patent or first-to-invent?  Are we talking about a complete cultural change?  Well, changing a company’s culture doesn’t happen overnight.  We can, however, guide the behaviors of people with a few basic business fundamentals.  A clearly communicated reward system based on first-to-market drivers, guided by a clearly articulated set of metrics can quickly align a company’s overarching objectives with those of its innovators.  When the entire company is aligned under first-to-market vs. first-to-patent objectives, OI efforts will begin to take hold, allowing a company to realize success through sustainable market leadership. I am interested to hear how R&D leaders are instituting change in their organizations and the metrics they have defined to measure success.

Contact us today to launch your open innovation program with NineSigma.

It may seem that seven years after Chesbrough’s book “Open Innovation” that posting an entry on getting started with open innovation would not be necessary. Even though there has been significant success and press regarding open innovation we still see companies that are just launching their open innovation efforts. Given this, we wanted to discuss some of the best practices in launching a successful open innovation program.

A quick disclaimer – for those of you who have been involved in large change programs, some of the following comments may be considered as “motherhood and apple pie” because they are common to any successful transformation program.

First, launching a successful open innovation program is not hard – but it does take commitment to see it through. Most all firms have practiced open innovation. They have worked with universities, suppliers or consultants on previous innovation projects. The major difference in an open innovation program is the scope of the outreach effort. In open innovation, rather that going back to the normal suspects, the firm will look broadly both globally and across industries for potential collaboration partners.

The major cultural challenge I see many times is "openness." Openness has two dimensions. The first is the firm sharing what they are trying to accomplish with the global innovation community. The second is being open to seriously evaluating what is returned from the global innovation community. We will talk about this in a future posting.

We see four key elements to a successful open innovation program. They are:

•       Leadership support

•       Scope

•       Selecting the right Needs

•       Resources

As in all change initiatives leadership is critical to success. Leadership must be behind the program answering the “why are we doing this” and providing the resources to ensure success. Leadership must be active in all facets of the program and visible to the participants. Finally, leadership must evaluate the results of the program and determine the next steps in moving forward with open innovation.

I will talk about the scope in the next post.

Contact us today to launch your open innovation program with NineSigma.

Here at NineSigma, the epicenter of techno-geekness, we never tire of sharing with each other the coolest new technology, the craziest proposal, and the hottest fashion trend (well, maybe not that last one).  Even the MBAs can't help but get caught up in the excitement (or at least respond by groaning and rolling their eyes at the scientists and engineers).  So with the dawn of a new decade (and in celebration of NineSigma's 10th year in operation), it seems appropriate to highlight some of the best innovations of the decade (aside from the launch of the Open Innovation movement, of course).  I tried to keep it to my top 5, but couldn't resist adding a 6th.  So, in no particular order... 

Sensors and digital imaging:  While the 1990's saw widespread use of digital cameras, and micro sensors hit prime time in automotive airbag accelerometers, it was in the last decade that digital imaging and micro sensors (or MEMS, my technical specialty from a previous life) became ubiquitous in products and consumer electronic devices.  These offered huge leaps in new functionality from digital cameras with motion sensing and fuzzy logic for image stabilization (and then uploading the pictures to Facebook), to accelerometers in iPhones and Wii gaming offering new functionality, to instant digital imaging of x-rays and mammograms, to backup cameras on minivans.  These "enabling technologies" will continue to impact more facets of our lives.  

Interactive and On-Demand Media: In the last month, I have done all of the following: watched video on an iPod, read the New York Times online (and on an e-book and on my cell phone), watched a blu-ray DVD movie, viewed a video-on-demand, used DVR and Tivo to time-shift programs (pause, rewind to see the replay, etc.), downloaded a show via iTunes onto an iPod and watched through the TV, looked at crazy YouTube videos, watched a show on Hulu, listened to a Podcast in my car...  (Does anyone simply watch live TV anymore?).  Suddenly PowerPoint animation seems boring. 

Social Network Enabled [political campaigning, microlending, fundraising, product development, t-shirt designing, whatever]:  Read about how the ThinkGeek Tauntaun Sleeping Bag was developed, and you'll believe anything is possible.  

High Tech Materials: Whether it was carbon fiber in bicycles, polymer shock absorbers for next generation football helmets, nanomaterials used for antimicrobial coatings, or self-adhering bandages, new high tech fibers and materials continue to "weave" their way into existing and new products.  The coolest example in the last decade? Fabric enhancements to the swimming racing suit to reduce resistance and allow greater speed under water. 

Wi-Fi – here, there, and (almost) everywhere...  Checking stocks from the living room?  Check.  Reading the news online at a conference when there's a boring speaker?  Check.  Video Skype Mom on her birthday from the kitchen?  Check.  Doing work on my laptop in a coffee shop while my son downloads new games for his iTouch?  Check, and check.  It’s not everywhere (or free) all the time yet, but even Wi-Fi in the car is just around the corner.     

And finally...the curved shower curtain rod.  Seriously.  I don't remember any innovation so simple that improved the business travel and hotel experience by changing the dynamics of space.  And it seemed that these were retrofitted to every US hotel overnight.  My taller colleages swear how it has been a god-send to give them more room to shower - for me, eliminating the headache of trying to get clean when a shower curtain is stuck to my body is brilliant enough.

What other innovations do you think I left off?  Wikipedia, mapping of the human genome, cloud computing, superconductors, GPS, mass production hybrid cars, "convenience" packaging for food products (like the resealing Oreo package),...?  Add your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Have you noticed the major shift over the past two years, where companies are now shuffling to meet new public demands for sustainability?  We sure have.  In fact, we see nearly eight out of every ten companies that we deal with now identifying Sustainability as a major component of their overall corporate strategy.  I salute these companies for making a difference (or at least, budgeting to make a difference).  Now that the honeymoon period and excitement of planning for a new green strategy is over, the real work begins.  As the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.”

Most innovative companies have a track record of responding to consumer demand, and finding creative new ways to meet them.  However, we are now seeing something unprecedented – nearly at the magnitude that the Internet revolution caused back in the 90’s.  We see a vast majority of companies struggling with the same issue of reinventing their products, processes, facilities and manufacturing practices in order to reduce energy, waste, toxic materials and overall carbon footprint, while increasing efficiency.  For most companies, this means tapping into a whole new area of expertise that previously did not exist.  While this presents great new market opportunities for some, it also carries with it a great deal of risk for those not prepared to completely restructure their core competencies. 

What most companies struggling with their new green strategies may not realize is that they do not have to reinvent the wheel in order to meet this new demand.  In fact, for nearly every new innovation challenge they face, there is likely already an existing technology that will allow them to quickly bridge their innovation gaps.  Literally hundreds-of-thousands of green entrepreneurs have anticipated this trend, and have been developing new technologies in hopes of fulfilling a new sustainability need.  Open Innovation (i.e., the management practice of going outside of your company’s four walls to find breakthrough innovations) has given these revolutionary shifts in both the supply and demand sides of green technologies new hope.  Companies are realizing that they can make a difference faster, by getting their new green products and processes in place at an accelerated rate.  Feel free to share your insights and experiences.

If you’re interested in open innovation and sustainability, contact us today to find out how our open innovation experts can help you.