Philips: An Open Innovation Company
Many companies have learnt that the key element of open innovation is not a fancy portal or destination site, but the infrastructure within the company. The real work happens behind the scene and my interactions with Philips tell me that they are doing a good job here.
They seem to understand that open innovation is very much about preparing the organization to embrace external contributions to the innovation process. This is a long, tough journey and it is more about creating the right mindset than ”just” getting the right processes in place.
At Philips, signs of this mindset go back to the creation of the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven in 2003. This has been followed with the drive towards external input in the innovation process in Philips’ three business divisions and their research division.
Now, their Consumer Lifestyle division has launched a more public element of their open innovation efforts. It is called Simply Innovate.
I like this initiative for being a simple, straightforward process with an engaging layout. True, it lacks the social media features that I urge companies to incorporate for what I call “next generation destination sites”, but I am confident Philips has plans for this in near future improvements.
Simply Innovate is up and running as yet another element in their open innovation strategy and I am sure they will move it as well as their other initiatives forward in a way that will inspire other companies. I definitely look forward to following their work.
Interesing news. Philips is a company that has integrated Open Innovation at the strategic level very well. However, it is certainly not a good example of a company that has integrated (open) innovation into their people and culture. Most of the company (>95%) is NOT working for Philips Research and feels no connection with the strategy at this point.
Through this kind of decentralized developments, let's hope they'll make things better
Hi Jan, Philips is on a long and tough journey just as many other companies. However, I do sense good understanding and progress with the Philips people I have met and most of those have been outside the Research division. Let's see what happens. It will be interesting to follow Philips.