Prof. Daniele Binci (Univ. Macerata) and Prof. Corrado Cerruti (Univ. Tor Vergata) make the point on this fundamental methodology of introduction and management of innovation processes within large organizations.
The idea that a company, in terms of products and services, can increase its value through a strategic opening to the competitive environment, is the basis of the paradigm of Open Innovation. Organizations should, according to this paradigm, reconfigure your business model in a completely different way from the creation and acquisition of value to be found not only in the traditional skills and functions within the company, even, and especially, outside organizational boundaries (see figure). US origin, the Open Innovation has established itself globally, at least in theory, for nearly a decade, from the combined effect of environmental factors, such as globalization and the spread of new communication technologies (eg the Internet) , and organizational factors, in particular the increase in the cost of development of the technology (which is estimated to be doubled in ten years), and the shortening of the product development cycle times.
Major benefits
Searching for innovation to the outside is justified by the increased speed with which organizations, opening, intercept the assets needed to innovate and / or find opportunities to place them in context and in different market segments, thereby increasing both the profit margins that chance of survival.
New ideas, patents and expertise, to name just a few of the key resources of an organization, thus become an asset to build value through a process of opening (between different actors individual and organizational, professional and amateurs) of different phases of the innovation process (design, development and marketing). From this point of view, Wikipedia, as a model completely open to the creation and dissemination of-knowledge, is a significant example of the po-tential of Open Innovation.
Open innovation then acts contemplates neously on two business drivers: on the one hand increases the profit margin because the organi-sations can enter different markets than their core business, for example by licensing its technologies and patents or can enter new markets through, for example, the creation of spin-off. The other decreases the costs of research and development, especially in terms of time, promoting their activities, since the process of opening speeds favorable opportunities of exchange (as technological solutions) existing outside.
Key processes
To be competitive, organizations should therefore be open, and the paradigm of Open Innovation suggests to do so through two basic processes.
The first, called outbounding, leading mainly companies to shorten the “time to market” commercializing not only the final outputs, but also the input (for example patents) and the intermediate output (for example prototypes that can be developed outside from start-up), creating value directly from their exploitation and expanding strategic options, through the entry into new markets and maintain the technological leadership.
The second, called inbounding, focuses on what companies can acquire from the outside such as interacting with customers, suppliers, competitors, but also, to accelerate the development of the innovation process. Look for such a solution to a problem of technological leveraging internal expertise, in this logic, it might be less convenient than trying an existing solution (adaptable) outside, turning to those who potentially has already encountered a similar problem or similar.
Resistances
These two processes clearly describe what are the benefits of Open Innovation, valid particularly in those sectors technology-intensive and heavily affected by the process of globalization. These benefits are achievable as long as there are the conditions to overcome a cultural model fairly widespread, especially in Italy, called the not invented here syndrome, which produces a lot of resistance.
It is, in particular, the difficulty of absorbing, efficiently and synergistically, products or services that are born out by the company.
A way of Open Innovation – Crowdsourcing
A method of open innovation is represented by crowdsourcing, a process that takes advantage, compared the traditional process of internal research and development, technological intermediation (eg through Internet technologies) for collecting and using resources, mainly intangible, like knowledge, ideas and know-how, outside the organization, in a quick, cheap and effective. In this way the market of ideas, places where they are born and they exchange ideas, problems, solutions and proposals become, thanks to the multitude of persons who may be called upon to contribute (enabled by ICT), much more efficient than traditional forms of brokerage.
Open Innovation in Italy
In Italy, the experiences of open innovation are gradually spreading both in the largest (public and private) in the small and medium enterprises. Among the first, important experience has been recently introduced by Enel.
Enel is creating a culture of innovation using structured pathways crowdsourcing combined with new participatory technologies to foster cooperation and thus creativity and pro-activity of its employees. The path, typically bottom-up, aims to bring out synergistically ideas and solutions from the staff in direct contact with the operational issues that confront directly, through a logic works-tive. New ideas are, according to this dynamic, rac-picked and selected through an open path both inside and outside of Enel. The cultural impact is radically innova-tive. But the Open Innova-tion is a valuable sup-port for most of the companies in the Italian industrial fabric, typically made up of small and medium enterprises, especially for those sectors that characterize Made in Italy intensive intangible assets as fashion and furniture. In these areas, the search for ideas, solutions or knowledge, rather than the customer involvement in the production process, are elements easily inserted into a path of open innovation. The resources affected by these processes (for example, design in the fashion industry, or furniture) can indeed be successfully managed through the channels of Open Innovation. To successfully implement this paradigm in SMEs, as in the case of large companies, it is difficult to overcome even before investing in technologies, paths that lead to a change in the culture of those organizations who see a threat yet in the Open Innovation before an opportunity.
Bibliographical References
– Chesbrough, H., 2011 (a cura di Di Minin A.). Open Services Innovation: competere in una nuova era. Springer Verlag
– Chesbrough, H. W., & Garman, A. R. (2009). How Open Innovation Can Help You Cope in Lean Times. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 87(12), 68-76.
– Chesbrough, H.W., 2008 (a cura di Di Minin A.). Open. Modelli di business per l’innovazione. Egea
– Chesbrough, H.W., 2003. “The era of open innovation”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 35-41.
– Frey M., Cerruti, C., & Binci, D. 2012. Management dell’innovazione. Flessibilità, interazione, integrazione e tecnologia nei processi innovativi. Padova: Cedam.
