Pushing the Boundaries – Part 2: Making Open Innovation Relevant to More Economic Players

Pushing the Boundaries – Part 2: Making Open Innovation Relevant to More Economic Players

Open innovation is not just applicable to new product development - it can be valuable to other business activities. One should examine which strategic drivers of a (focal) firm’s business can be leveraged to gain competitive advantage. For example, assume you run a crude oil business. The product sold is a commodity, so new product development is not an option. Instead, competitiveness comes from early detection of large oil wells and effective drilling. Therefore, to gain a competitive advantage in this industry, companies have to find the richest oil wells before their competitors do and drill more effectively through new technologies that extract oil more productively at greater depths. By partnering with oil services companies such as Schlumberger, companies can develop new technologies for oil exploration and extraction, and thereby gain a competitive advantage.

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More Innovation Resources:

10 Ways Businesses Can Promote Idea Sharing at Work

Promoting idea sharing is crucial for innovation. Here are ten ways to encourage it at work.

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Can Prediction Markets Forecast Successful Innovations?

Prediction markets are more effective than voting for selecting successful innovation ideas, as they engage employees through gamification and quantify the opportunity.

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Jobs to be Done Framework Training — Innovation Training | Design Thinking Workshops

JTBD is a customer-focused innovation framework that focuses on understanding the underlying job-to-be-done rather than just the product or service. Resources for training and implementing this theory are available in various formats, such as books, videos, templates, and podcasts.

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