A Brand Spanking New OI Program - What are the first three things you must do?

There are many companies who are jumping on the OI bandwagon. Trouble is, they're jumping on the back of the train, looking backwards and letting others lead the way. What do they get for this follow-the-leader mentality? A simple program such as Campbell Soups where a website was launched asking people to submit their ideas and Campbell;s would 'get back to them if they wanted to pursue the idea'. Talk about a demotivator! What I want to know from all the smart OI people out there is; if you were tasked to start an OI Program in one of those companies, what would be the first thing you would do? Heck, why not list the top 3 things you would do to jump start the program.

Skies the limit. Budget is not an issue. The only issue is success. So, let's go! What are your top 3? We'll build on the best ones to take the program to the next step.

Cheers,

Kurt

The Open Innovation No One Discusses

Open Innovation has been the rage, the buzz, in industry for the past 3 years, ever since Dr. Henry Chesbrough coined the phrase back in 2006. Today, we see many companies who have their Open Innovation programs in place, and are happily reaping the benefits of 'early wins'. What seems surprising to me are two incongruities; first, 'early wins' have been established as the criteria for many of these companies to ensure their OI programs continue to be funded. By definition, however, OI is disruptive innovation, a program that changes the practices of an organization to take advantage of a new way the customer lives, works and learns. Second, these organizations are suffering from what I call the lack of Outovation. Where Innovation is a company reaching out to help find answers to their technical challenges (ie General Mills, Kraft, Cadbury Adams), Outovation is the practice of utilizing a company's unused IP to create value. Unused IP can be in the form of old patents that have never been used to create a product; trade secrets and even ideas trapped in the minds of those brilliant people in the bowels of the company. How does a company access that mountain of unused IP? What are your thoughts on the real definition of Open Innovation?