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Open Innovation is a recent focus for
researchers, although there is historical evidence this approach to
innovation has been around for years. In simple terms Open Innovation
involves extending the enterprise's innovation effort beyond company
boundaries to collaborate with others to achieve innovative outcomes.
Initially this involved extending up and down
the value chain. Involving and listening to customers more has in
recent time become known as Customer Driven Innovation. Toyota and
other leading Japanese companies brought their suppliers into the
process - some might say too close.
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The Keiretsu or association of related companies proved a very powerful adversary for independence minded Western firms. This involvement of both the customer and supplier was central to Deming's (1982) continuous improvement philosophy and TQM, but generally didn't involve the sharing of intellectual property. This is changing.
There is increasing demand for organisations to move beyond creating an Innovation Culture, to engaging a complete Innovation Ecosystem that focuses not on only on R&D but on C&D – Collaboration & Development.
Organisations, such as Proctor and Gamble, are developing ways to have challenges worked on globally by innovator networks, where ideas are submitted, tracked and shared until an innovation results. It is too early to be sure how far this approach will develop, but it is likely to become an important area of interest for many enterprises.
Since 1998 Mindwerx International has had an international focus, building alliances, associations and networks with people throughout the world. The links page shows many of these, and we encourage you to explore them regularly.
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