Sometimes you can’t make it on your own

01/04/13

A classic image of innovation is of the inventor toiling away in secrecy in a shed or laboratory to perfect a new device to be launched fully formed on unsuspecting world.

In contrast open innovation advocates seeking outside expertise and opinions to increase the likelihood of a product or service meeting the customer needs. There are a range of different models but ‘crowdsourcing’ is probably the most widely used.

Examples of larger businesses accessing a wider range of innovative ideas and solutions are:

Procter & Gamble, a multinational consumer goods company, invite others often small businesses to solve problems or ‘challenges’ that are linked to perceived gaps in a market with a view to building a partnership which will take the product to market.

Lego seek new product ideas from a user community, using that same community to filter ideas through a voting process and offering a share in profits for anyone coming up with an idea, which is taken to market.

New software products are jointly developed by bringing together a collection of potential customers, industry experts and software developers through jams or hack days.

However, there are many benefits for smaller businesses such as the ability to get products to market more quickly and to benefit from working with partners to access complementary skills and expertise.

Whilst there are many benefits to this collaborative approach, there are a number of obstacles. Although, intellectual property protection is built into many open innovation models, there are actual and perceived risks of ideas being less secure in a more open environment.

The key thing for any business is to apply open innovation models and approaches in a way which is best suited to the nature of their business and with which they feel most comfortable.

The British Library is a partner in ‘The Open Innovation Project’. This project delivers a range of activities across North West Europe and is funded by the Interreg IVB NEW funding stream. We plan to run an increasing number of events in the Business & IP Centre with an open innovation theme. If you are interested in finding out more about open innovation, these websites are worth looking at:

Open Innovation Project Website: contains details on project activities as well as useful links.
15inno: a resource centre on open innovation with articles and links.
InnoCentive: a platform for posting and finding open innovation challenges.