The Quest of the Open Innovation Networks
Those are some of the essential questions about how to manage the Open Innovation Networks that continue to be asked both by researchers (or problem solvers) and by companies. Those questions have become particularly interesting in face of the rise of pro-collaborative approaches and within the boom of collective intelligence, as a strategic factor of competitive advantages.
Today nobody thinks internal R&D is enough to develop really disruptive product or to work out new processes. Without any external input-impossible! Open innovation paradigm works on the notion that organisations can innovate more quickly, cost-effectively and profitably by combining external capabilities with internal innovation resources.
It’s true that social media makes faster than ever the sharing of information and easier than ever to reconnect with hundreds, if not thousands, of people who could contribute to improving your success rate. So, the Open Innovation can provide organisations with many advantages including:
- Accelerating time-to-market
- Reducing risk in the innovation process
- Lowering innovation, R&D and even operating costs
- Supplementing internal R&D capabilities with external experts
Open innovation is thus a logical step to take for many small firms. The SMEs in low and medium tech industries indicate clearly that firms who know how to manage a network of innovation partners can seize new business opportunities, become key players in growth industries and turn themselves in highly profitable companies.
When Open Innovation leads to Collective Intelligence
As far as we consider the Open Innovation and Collective Intelligence correlation, there is a common supposition that Collective Intelligence assumption culminates into Open Innovation initiatives, under certain conditions, of course.
But what if we reverse the equation? Does an Open Innovation (in general or a concrete initiative) lead to Collective Intelligence sprouting within the organisation ? When, if so? If we scrutinise the Open Innovation approaches, they seem all to conclude with placing the new product on the market, I think there is “life” beyond that.
In a recent article “The Achilles Heel of the Internet” we read:
“The “wisdom” of the network depends on the number of nodes that exchange information, the number of connections between nodes and the strength of these connections. Collective intelligence is a phenomenon that arises from the aggregation of these factors.
The increase of the potential of collective intelligence is exponential. This means that in a hypothetical initial situation with few nodes and few connections, the increase is very slow and almost flat. At the time it reaches a critical mass of nodes and links, the increase of potential is triggered and the value of combining the pieces of information is much greater than the sum of these.”
Competitive Intelligence to drive Open Innovation Strategy
I’m fully immersed in my Ph.D. dissertation on Open Innovation Networks , but during the research on Open Innovation (OI) concepts and its emergent approaches, I’ve found there are clearly some key issues that remain quite “out of the sight”. One of them is the correlation between the adequate Competitive Intelligence performance and the potential of Open Innovation approach of the organization.
Smart organizations do not wait for change to happen but actively monitor and take advantage of changing environments and new innovations. The assumption underlying this statement is that “companies that don’t innovate, die” and that the “pursuit of Competitive Advantage, reached by Competitive Intelligence, means Innovation”, if it´s Open, than better.
I believe that Competitive Intelligence provides a critical enabler of Open Innovation at any organization. It´s almost impossible to select R&D partners, come up with big disruptive ideas or establish OI collaboration without previous tech and market mining.
Video: Open Innovation: The Challenges and Solutions
Nice lecture on how collaborative working can dramatically increase the ability of an organization to develop and commercialize innovative new ideas. However, with these new opportunities come challenges and obstacles.
Reseña: Crowdsourcing
Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business. RH Business Books 2008
El libro profundiza en la tendencia actual que describe el comportamiento de una “multitud anónima, voluntaria y espontánea” que realiza funciones que habitualmente son desarrolladas por personal técnico de la empresa.
Autor: Jeff Howe
En el dinámico entorno actual, y sobre todo gracias al llamado fenómeno del Ascenso del Amateur, los aficionados profesionales (Pro-am) toman cada vez mayor partido en proyectos relacionados con la ciencia, la cultura o la innovación empresarial.
Jeff Howe acuñó el término crowdsourcing en 2006, y que consiste en convertir un trabajo de cualquier tipo que habitualmente realizan pequeños grupos de profesionales empleados, en un reto abierto a todo el que quiera participar, para que se solucione de forma colaborativa.
El autor del libro cita dos definiciones diferentes de crowdsourcing: a) “La acción de externalizar un trabajo tradicionalmente realizado por recursos internos a grupos externos muy amplios”, b) “La aplicación de los principios del software abierto a otros campos.”
Metodología SCRUM aplicada a la Vigilancia e Inteligencia Competitiva.
En diversos círculos empresariales y en los foros de innovación se habla bastante de las metodologías SCRUM como una tendencia, aunuqe no tan nueva, en auge y cada vez de mayor aplicación. Así bien, leyendo varios articulos sobre la gestión de proyectos con metodologías ágiles, y de uso y desuso de SCRUM, me he dado cuenta que poco se ha dicho del potencial que pueda tener la aplicación, o quien prefiera, la extrapolación de SCRUM a los procesos de Vigilancia e Inteligencia Competitiva.
Si nos acordamos de las definiciones, “SCRUM es un proceso en el que se aplican de manera regular un conjunto de buenas prácticas para trabajar colaborativamente, en equipo, y obtener el mejor resultado posible de un proyecto.” y “VigilanciaTecnológica o Inteligencia Competitiva es un proceso organizado, selectivo y permanente, de captar información del exterior y de la propia organización sobre ciencia y tecnología, seleccionarla, analizarla, difundirla y comunicarla, para convertirla en conocimiento para tomar decisiones con menor riesgo y poder anticiparse a los cambios.” (según la norma UNE 166006:2011)
Como vemos, aunque no del todo evidente y requiere desprenderse del estereotipo “SCRUM =desarrollo software”, las definiciones pueden tener sinergias si pensamos en proceso de Vigilancia o Inteligencia Competitiva (más la segunda que la primera) como un conjunto de tareas acometidas por un equipo, de modo distribuído entre varios y que implique debidamente a toda la organización.
