Will Open Innovation Make Companies Obsolete?
As a response to my blog post on “Is Open Innovation the Future for All Companies?”, Antti Pikkusaari commented this in a LinkedIn group:
“Or could it be that it’s not about adopting OI? But rather about corporations as we know them becoming gradually obsolete? Open or Networked Innovation being a very important factor causing that happen in business environments demanding increasing levels of strategic agility.
In other words, should innovation be treated simply as yet another item to be outsourced? Need to own or “control” your innovation capability is becoming less relevant since good ideas spread very quickly anyway and the winner is increasingly the one who can be the best in commercializing the products and solutions?”
This is my response: @Antti – I see your logic, but I still think we need companies to execute and commercialize the ideas. They will be more open organizations, but they will not be too different that what we have today. At least not for the next 20 years.
What do you think?
Stefan – I agree with your comment. This is because I don't know of a company who is good at OI who isn't good at innovation. Innovation adds to a company's products and services, you still need all the "Go to Market" infrastructure. Unless you have a totally virtual model where you make royalties on the sales of other companies, companies as we know them (although they will change and evolve) are here to stay.
We're going towards platform businesses and value networks, where each org/entity is part of value networks. Companies will transform from inward to outward. A platform business offers resources (in terms of core competences, people, and other uniquenesses) where others can co-innovate/create value.