Open innovation has never been more popular or more necessary. There are so many new ideas, new technologies, and new ways of thinking that companies and organizations can harness for their benefit. Open innovation allows this by opening up a pathway for innovative partners to connect with a company and help them grow, develop, and be more successful. There are several ways that a company can take advantage of open innovation, and the best at it find themselves at the top of their respective industries. Here are some tips to help your organization succeed with open innovation.
Why Open Innovation?
When done right, open innovation opens up the company to a new world of possibilities. It does this by expanding their possible knowledge base to partners outside of the company structure. This can include researchers, suppliers, start-ups, or even clients. A company can draw knowledge from anyone to improve any aspect of their business. They are no longer limited to whoever happens to be on staff, and they can get ideas from a broad range of demographics and experience. This can help with anything from fewer risks, faster development, more funding, improved processes, and better customer experiences. Open innovation can help to improve virtually any aspect of a business.
Best Practices
Some of the biggest companies in the world have embraced open innovation and thrived in large part because of it. Here are some of examples of the best practices they have employed that have led to great success.
Open Innovation Platforms
Open innovation platforms are what bring innovators and companies together. Platforms like ideXlab provide a forum for companies seeking help from outside partners. Information is shared, questions are answered, and researchers and scientists can share their knowledge with those who would benefit most. Companies can access millions of pages of documentation and information, and they can also engage in crowd sourcing efforts to drill down to their absolute best options. A great open innovation platform is a marketplace of ideas and collaboration. It is the place where open innovation starts, and where new concepts can start to flourish.
Commitment
If an enterprise has decided to use open innovation, it cannot commit half-way. It must be fully invested in exploring the new concepts, ideas, and opinions it engenders. This means that upper management must be fully on board and open to potential change and development. They must have a strategy in place for change management, and be prepared to pivot on the fly if need be. Middle management and staff must be equally committed to implementing these changes and also be open to what could become an evolving workplace with evolving work functions.
Crowdsourcing
With the rise of the internet age, crowdsourcing has never been easier. Companies can connect with anyone, from experts to clients and everyone in between, to be a part of the process of innovation. They can ask for new ideas and innovations, or for opinions on current developmental projects. While there is less involvement from the individual respondents than with other types of open innovation, the goal is that with a wide range of opinions the best solutions can be found and developed by the company. Traditional crowdsourcing is generally used to ask a question and get an answer to a specific problem. However, some companies have embraced it as a regular part of their business. They have portals where anyone, from experts to the general public, can submit patents, product ideas, and process-related innovations so that everyone is involved at all times.
Customer Innovation
There may be no better resource for finding new ways of improving a business than the very clients who pay for their products and services. They have already proven to be invested in the company by spending their hard-earned money, and they can be an incredibly valuable resource for ideas. Good open innovation will connect customers and users with experts in the industry to test concepts, aid in development, and provide valuable insight into what’s important to customers. This not only leads to great innovation, but the more invested clients are, the more likely they are to buy your products and champion your business to others.
Working With Start-Ups
This is a growing trend that will undoubtedly continue to blossom. When companies are looking for new ideas and ways to transform their businesses, they used to tap an internal department or outsource a company to find ways to change. However, nowadays there is a good chance that someone is already doing the work. Larger companies can partner with start-ups to access their concepts and ideas to help with primarily digital transformation, and other innovations. This allows the start-ups to grow and develop their business, while also giving the companies new solutions and access to some of the best minds in their industry.
Celebrate and Learn
With so many partners and so many changes, there are bound to be some mistakes mixed in with the successes. It’s important for companies that are using open innovation to celebrate those successes. Make sure that every interested party realizes how they have been a part of that success to get them further invested. Not only that, but companies need for their mistakes to be as valuable as possible. There are lessons in failure, and if you don’t learn them, you will be stunting the growth of your business. This means that it is absolutely crucial to have the capacity to critically analyze your open innovation efforts. Use testing and analytics to evaluate what works and what doesn’t so that your future innovation development strategies will only get better and more robust.
Any business should want to expand their horizons and seek new ways to be effective with their procedures, products, customer experiences, and any other aspect of their organization. Using open innovation effectively means having access to the best minds possible, as well as implementing the new innovations and ideas to find success. Change and evolution are vital to growing a business and reaching new heights.
