The different forms of open innovation: Cases from GE Capital, Coca-Cola, Hyundai and LG

by Stefan Lindegaard

In previous blog posts, I have stated that open innovation is a process in which your company works with external entities during the innovation process. It goes deeper than just involving others in the idea generation phases; the contribution from outside your company must be significant. It is also more than just a partnership where you pay for specific services.

Everyone involved in an open innovation process focuses on problems, needs and issues and work them out together. Open innovation is also tied to the 10 types of innovation as developed by Doblin instead of just being limited to products and services.

When you – as I do – apply such a broad definition of open innovation, which can be summed up as the opposite...

Executives are failing; innovation is bleeding – what can be done?

by Stefan Lindegaard

In this current economic crisis, many innovation projects are being cut and good innovation leaders are losing their jobs. This is to a large extent understandable as all business functions and units must contribute in times like this.

Unfortunately, the situation is changing from understandable to dangerous. Executives have begun to cut so deep that entire innovation units are being slashed. One of the latest examples I have experienced is Arla Foods, which is one of the largest dairy companies in Europe.

Arla Foods is a Danish company so I have had the pleasure of following Arla Foods quite closely for several years. They have done great things on their journey to create an innovative culture, including a much-publicized partnership with NASA that brought dairy...

Your personal strategy for change at work

by Stefan Lindegaard

I believe everyone needs a personal strategy for change. Here are five steps to help you develop your change strategy based on my work with innovation leaders and intrapreneurs:

1. Realize and acknowledge your issues – and choose to change.
It is quite simple. You need to realize and acknowledge your issues before you can commit to changes. Only you can make changes in your life, and it starts with opening your eyes to the differences between your current situation and the values and picture of success that you’ve developed for yourself.

Here’s something I hear a lot: “I am too old for change” or  “Change is too difficult.” You only need to look at any of the famous examples of people who achieved success...

Making change happen

by Stefan Lindegaard

Our current business climate brings a lot of change at the corporate as well as the personal level. They also bring out career development issues that often evolve around what you might call the “professional midlife crisis”. Besides the financial turmoil we currently have, such a crisis can also be caused by situations such as these:

•  Your company is not focused enough on innovation to offer you the types of exciting innovation leadership or intrapreneurial opportunities you desire.
•  You have plateaued in your company with no obvious next step available to you that will move you forward on the career path you desire.
•  Having defined your personal values, you realize they do not match those of your employer.
•  ...

Open innovation: What are the big issues?

by Stefan Lindegaard

The open innovation movement is growing fast and I really enjoy my many interactions with innovation leaders on this topic. Recently, I have begun thinking much on what the big issues really are and here I give you my take on this. Hopefully, we can work together to compile a list of key issues and later provide some answers to these issues.

Just to set the scene, I am becoming more and more convinced that open innovation is much more about mindset than processes. Of course, you need processes, but if you – as I do – apply the very broad definition of open innovation  being  the opposite of doing everything yourself, then you understand that almost every company already applies some kind of open...

The traits you need to be successful within innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

In my last post, I give my five cents on how a career looks like for innovation leaders and intrapreneurs. But what does it take to get a successful career within innovation? It starts with traits and through my many interactions with innovation leaders and intrapreneurs, I have identified the below 8 characteristics that set these great people apart from others:

•  Holistic Point of View: Since their role involves assuring that innovation becomes part of the DNA of your organization, innovation leaders need to be capable of analyzing the big picture both in and outside the company. This includes the ability to decipher the internal political landscape that will impact their ability to move innovation forward as well as having a thorough understanding...

The careers of innovation leaders and intrapreneurs

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have previously argued that companies need two kinds of people to make innovation initiatives successful. They need innovation leaders who focus on building the internal platform required to develop organizational innovation capabilities. This is work on the strategic and tactical level.

Innovation leaders are often also involved as coaches, facilitators and sponsors for the second group required for innovation; the intrapreneurs who turn ideas and research into real products and services that move the business forward.

For your information, intrapreneurship is defined as the practice of using entrepreneurial skills without taking on the risks or accountability associated with entrepreneurial activities i.e. starting your own business. Intrapreneurs are employees who behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources and capabilities of the larger firm...

Innovate or Die …uh sorry it should be … Sell or Die

by Stefan Lindegaard

The innovation community has been hit hard by the current business climate. Many companies have stopped innovation activities and innovation leaders are being fired everywhere. I recently got an e-mail that gives a pretty good picture of how grim the situation is. It went like this: 

——-
The company I work for is severely hit by this economic crises. And if that is not enough, our management has been pulling back into the cost saving trenches (Pavlov reaction in manufacturing).

My work in innovation has come to a complete stop and my efforts are now redirected to sales activities. The motto is now “Sell or die”, the earlier motto “innovate or die” has been put into a deep freezer.

So with no money to spend...

Defeating the corporate antibodies

by Stefan Lindegaard

Change is frightening to many elements inside the typical organization. Change threatens people’s power, their status, their egos, and, in some situations, even their jobs. Change can make someone’s expertise obsolete and thereby make them obsolete as well. Because people are afraid of change, innovation efforts often cause the eruption of corporate antibodies that fight to kill innovation and maintain the status quo.

The factors that cause angst within a closed system of innovation may prove to be even more threatening when a company shifts toward open innovation. Executives and managers may feel they can control the degree of change and shape it to their own needs as long as everything is happening within the organization. But start to bring outside forces in and it’s...

P&G: How open innovation is done

by Stefan Lindegaard

The world’s largest consumer packaged goods giant, Procter & Gamble, operated one of the most widely admired and successful research and development operation in corporate history. But their closed innovation model was not up to the task of driving the corporate growth needed to sustain an enterprise of P&G’s size. So in 2000, under the leadership of then newly-appointed CEO A. G. Lafley, they began looking for a better global innovation model. Lafley’s stated objective was the radical idea that half of the company’s new products would be acquired from outside the company.

What set them off toward an open innovation model was the discovery that there were 200 researchers and scientists just as good or even better outside P&G for each of their own...