Social Media Tools and Open Innovation: An Overview

by Stefan Lindegaard

According to Wikipedia, a common thread running through all definitions of social media is the blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value. This fits well into what I see as the underlying concept of the intersection between social media tools and open innovation; it is about how we can involve various stakeholders in creating better innovation outcomes.

Kaplan and Haenlein, two researchers, state that there are six different types of social media: collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual communities.

Within these categories, I find the below tools to be the most relevant for open innovation efforts:

LinkedIn: Knowledge is the key element to innovation and LinkedIn is a great tool...

The People Perspective in Open Innovation: The 15inno Open Innovation Roadmap

by Stefan Lindegaard

People are the most important element in making innovation happen. Yes, you do need good ideas and strong processes, but nothing happens if you do not have the right people.

You need a broad mindset and many skills in order to become a successful open innovator, but three things are essential; holistic approach, networking and communication.

The good thing is that people can really improve on these things. I often argue that this is one of the low-hanging fruits when it comes to getting open innovation success.

On networking skills, this is very much about setting a strategic direction for the corporate networking efforts and then giving employees training on how to become better networkers in both the virtual and real world. Having done this,...

Money and Resource Allocation in Open Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

The “standard” scenario is that companies start small with open innovation. It is often just one guy charged to create some quick, small wins. If this works, more resources are added and a team with several people will be formed.

Projects like this are common to companies so there is no reason to worry in the short-term. It is actually a good thing in some ways as it forces people to work hard and smart to earn their resources.

On the other hand, it can also make the efforts more short sighted with the potential of damaging the long-term potential. To counter this, an open innovation leader must fairly quickly be able to convince the senior executives about the long-term potential in open innovation and...

Why Big Companies Need Small Companies in their Open Innovation Ecosystem

by Stefan Lindegaard

Corporations that are taking the lead in open innovation are hoping to gain an advantage over their competitors as they will get access to a more diverse inflow of opportunities, which can lead to faster and better innovation. Specifically, as they look toward smaller companies to bring within the orbit of their open innovation program, corporations understand that small companies bring these advantages to the table:

• Small companies often are at the leading edge of breakthrough or disruptive innovation. Breakthrough innovation – that is, innovation with potential to be a real game changer – can be exceedingly hard to achieve in a large, bureaucratic organization where people work in silos, have their own turf to protect and are wedded to the status quo. In...

How to Approach Open Innovation: The 15inno Open Innovation Roadmap

by Stefan Lindegaard

As we can define open innovation in many ways, there are also many different approaches to open innovation.

How do you get started? OVO Innovation has developed a topology that builds on two defining attributes. It is a good inspirational starter.

Participative or Invitational: Should the sponsors invite specific people to submit ideas or should the innovation effort be open to all interested partners?

Suggestive or Directed: Should the ideas be influenced or directed by topics or needs specified by the sponsor, or should the participants be allowed to submit ideas with no asserted boundaries or conditions?

In a graphic form, it looks like this.

This model has been used in different variations at many companies.

The types of open...

How to Gain Management Support for Open Innovation

This is a guest post by Bart van As, Business Developer for the Document Services Valley, an open innovation initiative on document services founded by Océ, an international leader in digital document management. Bart’s blog on the Document Services Valley website is about open innovation in document services.

When companies start with Open Innovation, it is often said that it is of crucial importance for success to gain management support. Still, the somewhat obvious question remains: “How?”

It is not easy to gain your management’s support for something new, and especially for something that for your company might be radically new. There might be some sort of support present, otherwise you would not be allowed to start...

Twitter Chat: Open Innovation and Corporate Strategy with Jeff Bellairs – March 14

by Stefan Lindegaard

Monday, March 14 at 10am – 11am (New York time)

Guest: Jeff Bellairs, Sr. Director of Open Innovation at General Mills. Jeff has been responsible for the creation of the General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network (G-WIN), a successful global program to accelerate the pace of innovation at General Mills by leveraging externally sourced technologies, ingredients and products.

I really look forward to hearing his perspectives on the below questions and I hope you will join the session where you can also ask your own questions to Jeff.

What role does open innovation hold today in your overall innovation strategy?

How is this linked to your corporate strategy?

What have been the key obstacles in tying open innovation to the overall...

Open Innovation – Why, What, Who, Where and How!

by Stefan Lindegaard

Open innovation agency, 100% Open, has just held an Open Innovation Accelerator program in the UK. Their presentation slides are online and they have lots of interesting content worth looking into.

In particular, I liked the below questions that you can ask yourself when you start an open innovation program. They make you think about some of the key issues that you need to consider.

Why?

What is the strategic case for an open innovation approach? (e.g. drive revenues, build brand, solve problems, etc.)

What?

What are our unmet needs or thematic opportunity areas that are best suited to an open innovation approach?

Who?

Who are our most promising/likely/complementary partners? (e.g. clients, peers, universities etc.)

Where?

Where will value be created...

Defining Open Innovation: The 15inno Open Innovation Roadmap

by Stefan Lindegaard

What is open innovation? What is crowd-sourcing? What is user-driven innovation? The definitions depend on whom you ask. Companies need to align their understanding of open innovation and a key outcome of this should be a clear corporate definition of open innovation that can be used internally as well as externally.

Why is this important?

Well, there is no point in starting open innovation initiatives when you are not even aligned on what it means. Just imagine the amount of confusion this can bring. Basically, you need to speak the same language if you want to get internal and external stakeholders onboard. This starts with a clear definition of open innovation and it should be one that fits the specific situation of your company.

Resources:...

Twitter Chat: Open Innovation Services and Beyond with Henry Chesbrough – March 7

by Stefan Lindegaard

Monday, March 7 at 11am – 12pm (New York time)

Guest: Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director at the Center for Open Innovation and Adjunct Professor at the Haas School of Business – University of California, Berkeley. The “father” of open innovation has just published his latest book, Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era.

I really look forward to hearing his perspectives on the below questions and I hope you will join the session where you can also ask your own questions to Henry.

What advice would you give to a company that is about to start with open innovation?

What should companies do in order to make open innovation relevant for their entire organization (across...