Open Innovation Is The Path To True Innovation

By James O'Brien

Collaboration is increasingly critical for innovation, especially as markets become more dynamic and expansive, and product systems and customers’ needs become more complex. Open innovation can help businesses adapt to rapidly changing demands and landscapes. This means sharing knowledge and information regarding problems and looking to people both inside and outside the business for suggestions and solutions. Open innovation is critical for accelerating and even facilitating innovation, but there have been and still are hurdles. Despite the formation of partnerships, they do not always generate the innovation required. This is often due to a lack of openness arising from issues regarding trust, intellectual property, return on investment, ability to reveal vulnerabilities, and a reluctance to focus on problems critical to the business involved. As a result, great ideas that spring from partnerships often flounder before they reach implementation.