What exactly is Open Innovation?

Open innovation is a way of sourcing ideas from external sources as well as internal ones. This can take different forms, such as co-creation competitions, crowdsourcing portals, and established partnerships. The advantages of open innovation include expanding the pool of ideas, lowering innovation costs, going to market faster, boosting product visibility, and attracting potential investors. However, businesses also face challenges, such as managing the process, handling intellectual property, overcoming a culture shift within the company, and setting clear rules. Different models of open innovation include challenges, startup-corporate partnerships, incubators/accelerators, hackathons, intrapreneurship, co-creation labs, and more. Companies like Lego, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever have used open innovation to generate valuable ideas and solutions.