I recently spoke at a number of conferences throughout South Africa on the topic of open innovation.  Knowing that open innovation was practiced primarily by large enterprises in the US, Asia and Europe, I was curious to see how a region populated mainly with small and medium sized enterprises would react to my talks.  Not only was I surprised by their warm reception to open innovation, but also by their deep knowledge and decisive action they were taking in this area.  In order to remain competitive in this dynamic world of rapid innovation, industry and science parks are picking up momentum in South Africa, and other parts of the world where small and medium sized enterprises are grouping together, both physically and collaboratively, to share costs, resources and ideas.   

The concept of the science park is a worldwide phenomenon, mainly seen in developing regions. The concept is based on cooperation between academia, industry and government operating in close proximity to strengthen the region’s innovation output.  In South Africa, which has a developing economy, the science park concept offers a means of becoming competitive with those fully developed regions that host major companies, universities and other key sources of innovation and knowledge.  Knowing the power wielded by large enterprises through their vast pool of resources and far-reaching supplier networks, these science parks are finding new ways to mimic this capability through collaboration and co-location.  Open innovation is an integral part of the science park concept.  What a company does not have in terms of innovation resources, may be found within one of the partnering companies.  And if still not found, members of the park will soon begin to share open innovation resources, for example, the NineSigma office that is being established at the South African Innovation Hub in Pretoria, which will be managed by our local partner in the region, RIIS.

It’s fascinating to see open innovation take root in areas like Sub-Saharan Africa.  The innovation efforts taking place today in such regions will soon begin to offer great insights and ideas for small and medium sized enterprises throughout the rest of the world.  We see such companies in Asia, North America and Europe struggle because of their limited resources – especially in today’s tough economy.  So perhaps the emerging science park model could offer a next chapter in open innovation and provide a means to accelerate innovation in this underserved market sector.

I was intrigued last month when I saw the Yale University admissions informational video - "That's Why I Chose Yale" - sort of a new way to share the Yale experience and stand out among all the college guidebooks (especially among the "High School Musical Generation").  Now this week, I was amazed to learn that Tufts University allows applicants to submit short YouTube videos to supplement their application (about 1,000 out of 15,000 applicants did this).

Now that the College "Application Video" has emerged, how soon before we see the "Professional" Application Video.  Finding and vetting new partners used to be limited by corporate travel budgets (where conferences and trade shows thrived to offer opportunities for face-to-face introduction and interaction) to finding new partners on the internet and making introductions through written electronic communication (such as emailing or uploading expertise/proposal submissions to corporate needs project postings).  With virtual conferences becoming all the rage, it will be interesting to see how video begins to emerge beyond a social media enterprise and become a more prevalent professional media platform.  In fact, for NineSigma projects, we are starting to see occasional video submissions from solution providers to supplement proposals (often a custom demo specific to the project showcasing a capability or using video to demonstrate unique equipment in action).  As the current 20-somethings who grew up on social media continue to express themselves and communicate beyond email/texting/tweeting, it will be interesting to see how they expand their use of video communication platforms to initiate and secure professional partnerships.  Who knows, a video "resume" may not be too far behind!

Open innovation is one of those “feel good” initiatives that makes a lot of sense.  Leverage technology to build new capabilities, create openness that results in breakthrough growth, speed up the innovation process…why is everyone in the room smiling except the lawyers?

In most organizations, the legal team is given the responsibility of being the “protector” of the company’s intellectual assets.   There is no greater threat to protecting a company’s intellectual assets than opening the floodgates to a free flow of information, both in and out of the company.  Whereas the dreamy idealists envision an environment of sharing, lawyers envision lawsuits and liabilities.  Clearly, companies that successfully balance these two competing tendencies are the ones that can be most successful leveraging the power of open innovation. 

Here is my mantra for successfully managing IP risk in open innovation:  Put yourself in your partner’s shoes.  I don’t care if you are having a first conversation with a collaborator or trying to define the legal agreement. If you take your partner’s perspective first, you will always create a better collaboration.  An open innovation collaboration is a long term relationship, not a real estate deal.  If there is water in the basement, you will both be knee-deep in water.  If the terms of the collaboration respect both parties’ vital interests, and share both the risk and the reward, you have the fundamentals of a real partnership.

In my next entry, I will discuss a key IP event that can either block or smooth the path to a successful open innovation collaboration.