Don’t Do This Lesson on (Open) Innovation Challenges

by Stefan Lindegaard

There are some tweets flying around on the Management Education for Tomorrow (MET) Fund and their Ideas to Innovation Challenge.

One came from the MET Fund itself and it went like this: “We may not have $200 million in prize money as GE does but we’re still cool. http://bit.ly/dhJ4NS”

This is actually a nice way of framing their competition against grand-scale activities such as the GE Ecomagination Challenge. Unfortunately, the MET Fund Challenge just falls flat when they start off by making such a grave mistake such as the MET Fund does.

Try to click the official link for their challenge. (NOTE: There is a bit more text on the challenge on this link. This...

Top 5 Innovation Trends and Issues

by Stefan Lindegaard

What is happening in the innovation community right now? In this post, I give a quick overview of the top trends and issues that I see based on the interactions I have had over the last month or so.

1. Intrapreneurship

How can we establish – or improve – programs that makes us better at identifying and developing ideas and let our own people (intrapreneurs) – turn them into revenue and profits?

I have had two requests on this within a few weeks after a long time with almost no focus on this. A new trend? Perhaps. It also comes with a new twist as some companies finally try to combine this with their open innovation efforts. Very interesting…

Check this article to get an...

Good Reads on Innovation #21

by Stefan Lindegaard

Here comes a list of blog posts and articles on innovation that I have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks. I hope you will enjoy this as well. You can follow me on Twitter: @lindegaard

Open Innovation Myth #5 – You will upset your own people by Kevin McFarthing http://bit.ly/b4ipWh

Targeted vs. Open WebStorms by James Pasmantier http://bit.ly/ck2jO6 – insights on crowdsourcing approaches

Cultivating open innovation: Seeding, feeding and weeding by Hagel, Seely Brown, Davison http://bit.ly/adewZZ

Open Innovation and the Management of Intra-firm Conflict, By Pitelis & Panagopoulos (PDF) – http://bit.ly/cBHVKX

Doing Nothing to Enhance Creativity by Steve Shapiro http://bit.ly/aDxzgI

Boost Innovation Without the Boss by Paul Sloane http://bit.ly/9SdK8h

Breaking the Rules...

Open Innovation in Brazil: Meet General Mills and P&G

by Stefan Lindegaard

Open Innovation World Tour

Sao Paulo, Monday, September 20, 9.30 – 16.00

Venue to be announced to participants

Would you like to know more about open innovation and discuss business opportunities with General Mills and Procter & Gamble?

Then you should apply for the Open Innovation World Tour in Sao Paulo. The purpose of the event is for General Mills and P&G to connect with key partners (large companies, SME’s and institutions) in the region that address their innovation needs.

During the event, General Mills, P&G and Stefan Lindegaard will share their insights on open innovation. Then, after a networking lunch, General Mills and P&G will conduct one-to-one meetings with selected participants in the afternoon.

REGISTRATION:

The event is by...

Apple’s Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy

by Stefan Lindegaard

@Steveruble pointed me to Apple’s Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy which is kind of what I had come to expect from Apple.

In short, it is a very hard turn down and this small snippet gives you an idea:

—–

TERMS OF IDEA SUBMISSION

You agree that: (1) your submissions and their contents will automatically become the property of Apple, without any compensation to you; (2) Apple may use or redistribute the submissions and their contents for any purpose and in any way; (3) there is no obligation for Apple to review the submission; and (4) there is no obligation to keep any submissions confidential.

——

There is an on-going discussion on the openness of Apple. Their idea submission policy definitely provides more fodder...

The Influence Project by Fast Company – Are You Influential?

by Stefan Lindegaard

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Top 10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure

by Stefan Lindegaard

A recent 15inno Twitter Chat made me ponder on the worst and most common mistakes that companies do on open innovation. Here comes a list of my thoughts – still work in progress.

1. Companies do not identify proper business reasons for engaging with open innovation.

2. Companies copy competitor’s initiatives rather than creating their own unique initiatives that match their business reasons for doing open innovation.

3. Companies fail to make their employees, partners and customers understand what open innovation means to the company and they fail to explain the impact of such a new direction to the internal and external stakeholders.

4. The various organizational units – and in particular the operational ones – are not fully aligned with the innovation...

The Future of Innovation: GE’s Ecomagination Challenge

by Stefan Lindegaard

GE got their share of the headlines in the innovation community last week. I think it is well deserved as they gave us a very good example on how innovation is shaping up in the corporate world with their Ecomagination Challenge.

The short story of what GE does is to connect internal and external resources and set-up a solid process that allows them to executive on the opportunities that arise from this combination.

This is exactly what we should expect to see in the future. A couple of years from now, this will not be something special or unique. It will simply be an integrated part of how companies innovate and it will work because it builds on three key elements for the...

Top 5 Open Innovation Companies – July

by Stefan Lindegaard

Here comes a list of my current favorite open innovation companies.

The list is by no means based on in-depth research. It is based on actions, initiatives or shared insights of these companies over the last month or so – and thus what I believe should inspire other companies.

1. GE – for leading the way with a $200 million challenge

GE shows us the future of innovation by assembling a great team of partners as well as the rest of us as they work to solve some critical issues. Their challenge is a great initiative that I will write more about in a separate post.

2. P&G – for addressing language barriers on their Connect+Develop platform

The more time I spent in...

The End of Open Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

I had an interesting session in Sao Paulo, Brazil yesterday when a group of about 40 people listened to my talk based on my book, The Open Innovation Revolution.

Brazil is definitely an interesting place and I appreciate getting the opportunity to develop new perspectives on my global understanding of innovation.

A question got us into a discussion on how companies should engage with open innovation activities. On this, I really try to emphasize that companies should not engage with open innovation until their internal innovation processes work well. Make order in your own house before you bring in the guests.

I have given this advice for almost two years now. I still think it holds true. However, the discussion got me to...