The Open Innovation Revolution: Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills

The Open Innovation Revolution: Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills

The paradigm of ‘closed innovation’ says that successful innovation requires control. This school of thought believes companies should control the generation of their own ideas, as well as their production, marketing, distribution, servicing, financing, and support. When implemented, companies became relatively self-sufficient ‘castles’, with little communication directed outwards to other companies or organizations.  However, today, companies are looking toward "open innovation", understanding knowledge is not anymore proprietary to the company. Instead, they believe it resides in employees, suppliers, customers, competitors, and universities, and if companies do not use the knowledge they have inside, someone else will. Author and innovation thought leader Stefan Lindegaard has written THE OPEN INNOVATION REVOLUTION: Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills (John Wiley & Sons; June 2010; $34.95) to help leaders and intrapreneurs decide if open innovation is right for their own organizations and then shows them how to prepare the organization to make the quantum leap to open innovation as the new normal.

Several factors paved the way for open innovation paradigms including the availability and mobility of skilled workers, the growth of the venture capital market, external options for ideas sitting on the shelf, and the increasing capability of external suppliers.  Companies embracing open innovation include Procter & Gamble, IBM, Boeing, Cisco Systems, and more. Younger companies such as Netflix are also onboard the open innovation train developing code for their Web site through a Netflix Prize competition in which outsiders are invited to help improve an important algorithm for Netflix's movie recommendation system. With the Foreword and a resounding endorsement from Guy Kawasaki, THE OPEN INNOVATION REVOLUTION offers companies the tools they need to understand, embrace, and pursue open innovation.  Coverage includes:

• Open innovation — the visionary model that more and more companies are adopting
• Innovation leaders and intrapreneurs — and the essential elements that must be put in place for these people to thrive
• The people-related roadblocks that can impede innovation and some ways these can be overcome
• The personal leadership skills you will need to develop as an innovation leader or intrapreneur 

The innovation role is changing rapidly as companies embrace the open innovation movement, seeking external partners to co-create future products and services. This changes the way companies organize for innovation and it requires a new mindset and new skills; it is no longer enough to just be a good project manager, researcher, engineer, or leader.  Filled with real-world case studies and interviews, THE OPEN INNOVATION REVOLUTION provides a thoughtful, practical guide to how corporate innovation leaders can take on this new challenge and achieve measurable success.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

STEFAN LINDEGAARD (Copenhagen, Denmark) is a speaker, network facilitator, and strategic advisor who helps companies on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship, and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation. He has served as a strategic advisor and facilitator for innovation leaders and intrapreneurs from such global companies as Bang & Olufsen, Danfoss, Grundfos, Lego, Novo Nordisk, and Novozymes. With open innovation, he delivers talks and sessions that help companies understand this new innovation discipline. With intrapreneurship, he helps companies design programs that identify and develop intrapreneurs as well as new ideas. His work in this field includes a pioneering business plan competition at the industrial giant, Danfoss. The program succeeded so well that it inspired other world-class companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Novozymes to undertake similar programs. Visit his blog at www.15inno.com   

THE OPEN INNOVATION REVOLUTION

Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Publication date: June 2010 $34.95; Hardcover; 226 pages; ISBN: 978-0-470-60439-7