this is part of my on going PhD research on open innovation.

I think a critical question is:

What are the chances for SMEs and small start-ups to grow up and become large companies as more and more of them are engaged in OI, particularly when good enough for small companies and individuals is to provide innovative solutions to large firms' requests?

I would be indebtful if you can point me to case studies that are on favor to one or the other direction.

(please excuse my not-native english!)

Interesting read with some examples: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100201/rounding-up-…

We at InnoCentive couldn't agree more with your point of view.

In fact we launched a new program at InnoCentive in Q4, 2009 called "InnoCentive for Startups" targeted not just at venture backed startups but SMEs with annual revenues below US$50 million:

http://www.innocentive.com/crowd-sourcing-news/20…

I'd be happy to talk to you about the program and our early experience with it if that's of interest.

best regards

Steve

Precisely because they're different and they need each other, they often come into conflict early in a relationship. Us big company guys still have plenty to learn about how to work with SMEs without killing the very things that make them valuable (e.g. creativity, flexibility). Meanwhile, SMEs also need to learn to have realistic expectations of what they have and what they still need if they want to make their ideas real – much of which can often be found in the hands of the corporate types (e.g. financial resources, complementary skills, practical context).

My experience is that most often there's more enough value at the intersection for both to be happy with the gains of a relationship, as long as they don't kill each other in the process of creating it.

At the end of the day it comes down to the definition of ‘innovation’ (a topic you addressed in What is Innovation). Word content analysis could make an argument when a term, buzzword starts to get media play or CEOs speaking it, the time has come for a new semantic.

When 10 people state it cannot be done, you know you are on the innovational road. Through open innovation (exquisitely defined by Henry Chesbrough in ‘Open Innovation’) we are in agreement with you having seen the innovation S-curve at work ranging from ticketing to workforce management open innovation processes breakthroughs to have organizations and industries sail out of the red oceans to enjoy the winds of blue ocean strategy. The key to open innovation is not to get the people, processes, technology sequence out of sync.

Continue to get the word out on how to provide a great equalizer to small businesses and rebuild the world economy….easy no….if it was easy it would not be disruptive open innovation. Convert a skeptic and day or do like Cortes and burn a boat a week…our approach is a product at a time, a merchant at a time, and a city at a time helping rebuild America with open innovation and providing a slice of the revenue pie to all as part of the business revenue model….pizzazz, the silos of internal and external innovation forming into silos of collaboration for trust, transparency, and shared goals.

When the tough CEO question arrives, “How can you save us money (or add new revenues) without sacrificing quality?” you need a prolific answer to gain a standing ovation at Open Innovation stadium. We can learn to survive in the innovation game by catching the value of perseverance, much like Carl Ripken, Jr. – http://bit.ly/cuKij8 a key differentiator for small businesses!

"move faster" than their big brothers. One of the reasons for success at P&G is because they collaborate with smaller

companies. As Michael points out above, experimentation (trial & error) learning from failure is alsmost

a must; but – fail quickly and fail cheaply!

Christian, to some extent, I do agree to your concerns on organizational readiness, legal aspects ect. BUT (I think i wrote this before somewhere else), to quote Gary Hamel; "While we are in here bullshitting about strategies – things are happening out there!"

Not to say that you should cut every corner, but the adoption of some trial&error should be present – otherwise you will find yourself with an over managed solution – ready to launch in 2027…!

- There is a natural distrust for the larger companies, whereby SMEs which often have poorly protected IP are afraid of exposing themselves.

- There is most often a very different perception on the value of the IP, and there is also often a misunderstanding (by the SME) of the efforts required to scale up.

- The Open Innovation platforms are typically controlled by the larger companies (Innocentive, P&G come to mind), to the benefit of the… larger companies!

Current innovation marketplaces, crowdsourcing environments, partnering databases that focus solely on the SMEs seem to have little success compared to the corporate initiatives. As part of a study we are conducting later this spring, we will try to find out the barriers to (open) innovation between SMEs and with large companies. Thereby we need to cover all aspects of the equation: organizational readiness, process maturity, legal aspects, competency issues, financials, and technology of course!

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