Most of us would rather forget about the economic hardships of 2009. This must be particularly true for the Research and Development Community in the US which saw spending cuts of 3.8% according to a recent report by Battelle.  You would think that this must inevitably lead to a drop in Innovation Output, and that may be true for quite a few companies. However, there are a good many leading Innovators out there that have been able to buck this trend by collaborating more with external partners, using the principles of Open Innovation. In fact, Business Week in an article on 16 December wrote that (in 2009) “Open innovation spread far and wide as companies sought to offset cuts in their own R&D budgets by soliciting help from outsiders, including customers, suppliers, and freelance experts”.

Over the years, we have seen many companies achieve great results through collaborating with external partners, by “exnovating” if you will. This led NineSigma to invest in new services that allow companies not just to get access to the global Solution Provider community and the pertinent breakthrough solutions, but also to embed processes in their businesses by which they could set up and maintain their own Innovation Ecosystems.

We have gained many insights and learnings through our work with more than 100 leading, innovation-driven companies and want to share and discuss those insights with all of you. That’s why we have set up this Blog, and that’s why we are excited about this new way to communicate with you. We invite you to contribute, to critique, and to enjoy our “BLOINC”.

So here’s the first challenge for you as we start off this new year….we believe that “R&D Spending Down, Innovation Output Up” is a going practice AND here to stay. What’s more, we believe that Open Innovation is NOT just for incremental innovation, but also for breakthrough and disruptive innovation.