The world famous French chemist and microbiologist, Louis Pasteur, once said that “Chance favors the prepared mind.”  So what does this have to do with open innovation (OI)?  Most people think of OI as a quick way to find a new technology, partnership or concept, and it certainly serves as a great vehicle for such tactical needs.  However, what many do not realize is that OI can (and really should) be considered a strategic tool to help companies manage risk, provide important intelligence, and to make overall better decisions.  Another flawed view of OI is when a company considers an OI initiative a failure, just because it did not lead to a closed deal with a solution provider.  So let’s see how Pasteur’s wisdom can be applied here.

Typically, when a company launches an OI project, they are looking for something specific to quickly move them along in their innovation pipeline.  Ultimately, this should lead to faster cycle times for new product development, and even early-to-market advantages.  Again, this type of thinking can provide many tactical advantages over the alternative approaches seen in closed innovation.  If innovation leaders could just take a step back, and realize that there are many more important knowledge points to be harvested from an OI project, they would begin to experience the strategic nature of the art. 

For example, a leading consumer products company engaged NineSigma to look for a very specific enabling technology for one of their commodity products.  The search yielded very few results, and those results were very general, with no intellectual property to back them up.  Expecting disappointment, NineSigma approached the company to tell them the bad news.  But to our surprise, they were delighted with the outcome.  This project just validated for them the opportunity to become the first to develop this new technology, and they subsequently went out and filed for 22 new patents. 

Building innovation capacity and environmental knowledge is a major strategic benefit of OI, and should be considered in the design and selection of every company’s OI initiative.  So we can safely rephrase Louis Pasteur’s famous quote for the OI community by saying, “Preparing the company’s mind with a broader range of strategic knowledge and innovation capacity can significantly increase the chance of success.”

Contact us today to find out how our open innovation experts can help you.