Innovation Management - The online learning center for Managing Innovation.

Open Innovation relies on collaboration to achieve success. To determine which firm is the best suited to be an innovation partner, small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) should consider using an approach modeled on the “Want, Find, Get, Manage” methodology developed by Alliance Management Group (AMG). Because of their unique characteristics, broadly summarized as limited resources,SMEs should substitute “want, find and get” with “need, know and negotiate.” Capable and stable management remains a constant.

Many organizations are recognizing the power of involving much larger and diverse groups in enterprise innovation. Some company cultures react well to the initiative, others are much more cautious. Building a sustainable culture where everyone’s happy to share ideas and contribute to company challenges can be tough for innovation professionals. Join us on June 11 to learn more and to hear the expert panel share their experiences, tips and tactics for getting everyone ‘on-board’ and engaged in their enterprise innovation programs.

HYPE Innovation is producing a series of five articles to help innovation practitioners and those new to collaborative enterprise innovation, understand how to build a successful and sustainable program. This article shares key activities you can undertake in order to boost engagement with your program.

Althoughplagued with mixed opinions that are influenced by mythology surrounding the investment industry, corporate venturing isfinally resurfacing as an important component of the corporate innovation toolbox. As companies reassess the contribution that corporate venturing can make to their innovation objectives, it is critical that the fundamentals of corporate venturing are understood. Thisarticle addresses a number of important points to consider when applying corporate venturing in a global innovation strategy.

The new corporate venturing adapts open innovation tools to ensure that the created future options can be realized. Proven open innovation practices, such as challenge diffusion or RFPs, stealth scouting and ecosystem landscaping, are very amenable to successful corporate venture portfolio building. In this IM Channel One Expert Roundtable Discussion on April 11th we heard from corporate venturing leaders how they view the future of corporate venturing and how they see the way open innovation can and will contribute to their corporate venturing activities and global innovation strategy.

To succeed in a fast-paced competitive global economy, small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) are increasingly adopting Open Innovation (OI) management strategies. A lack of resources, however, frequently requires SMEs to implement OI strategies on their own without the assistance of a management strategy professional. This article offers clear, do-it-yourself steps to initiate an OI program successfully within an SME.

When people in online user communities start collaboratively developing open-source innovations that have the potential to change an industry, how should the existing companies in the industry respond?

With pressure to improve competitiveness and profitability on the increase, these tough economic times are highly demanding on any innovation strategy. There is a renaissance of corporate venturing as it is seen that it can be a very effective and alternative route to identify, test drive and acquire technologies. The first corporate venturing wave was primarily managed from a financial point of view. The new corporate venturing adapts open innovation tools to ensure that the created future options can be realized. Proven open innovation practices, such as challenge diffusion or RFPs, stealth scouting and ecosystem landscaping, are very amenable to successful corporate venture portfolio building. In this IM Channel One Expert Roundtable Discussion on April 11th you have the opportunity to learn more about this and exchange with seasoned experts how they use open innovation practices in corporate venturing.

One of the challenges leaders face in times of uncertainty and rapid change is helping senior managers to engage in bigger-picture thinking. To enable this process, a growing number of companies are creating “decision rooms” – dedicated areas that help them visualize challenges and opportunities from a number of perspectives and make better decisions.

The business world is very rational. Operational excellence, financial mastery and technology savviness have become pre-requisite not to stand out as a winner but to be allowed to compete. While a hard-nosed business mind is essential to cope with the increased pressure of globalized competition, it is creativity, in the form of innovation and the ability to implement it rapidly that is fast becoming the most treasured competitive asset. Companies need to innovate in a fast yet relevant manner in order to remain competitive today and develop the game changers that will allow them to remain competitive in the future.

Procter & Gamble launched a new open innovation website as part of their Connect+Develop program to spur its open innovation efforts. The company focusses on strengthening areas to deliver more discontinuous, breakthrough innovations. The new website links directly to external innovators to P&G’s top company needs, accelerating innovation cycles.

In this in-depth article we present how Open innovation meshes with crowd sourcing, drawing on ideation, market needs and opportunities, to fuel a balanced portfolio with actionable innovation challenges, or « the right things to do », and converges these with a need driven approach to source the ways of « doing things right ». We will illustrate this innovation continuity with a number of examples and a focus onto the food and drink industry.

While the previous two methods – Netnography and Social Media Solution Scouting – outline the potential of passive methods in using the power of social media for innovation, the next two approaches enable companies to interact with consumers. Configuration Tools as well as Innovation Contests invite users outside the company’s four walls to become an active part of new product development. In part two of this article you will learn how Audi and Henkel empowered the crowd and turned them into co-producers.

Rather than trickling new innovations from the edge to the core, is it possible, rather, for the edge to dominate? The creative thinking of John Seely Brown, Deloitte Center for the Edge Independent Co-Chairman and former Chief Scientist of Xerox PARC, seeks to bring this flavor of creative thinking to the corporate world. He cites, as example, conservative business software solutions company SAP, and its internal transformation through a thriving social development network.

Last year I came in contact with the co-founder and advisor of the Biorrefiniria Brasil open innovation community, José Augusto T. R. Tomé. He started an interesting venture within the chemical sector, a venture focused on biorefinery. Read further to learn more about his vibrant innovation community and open innovation in general.