How can open innovation boost the speed of invention?

In my role as a pediatrician, I encourage young doctors to step outside the clinic and form partnerships with other professionals to improve patient outcomes. By setting aside our professional egos and embracing a more collaborative approach, we gain access to a diverse array of perspectives and insights. This ultimately leads to better, more individualized care?for?each?child.

Direction is more important than speed so innovation is based on invention. Innovative approach is based on new inventions in the form of new ideas. Reflections of ideas are in the shape of innovation strategies in the existing situation.

In today's rapidly evolving and interconnected world, the importance of diversity and ethics cannot be overstated. Embracing a diverse range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences leads to a more ethical and innovative approach to decision-making and problem-solving. When organizations prioritize diversity, they are not only doing the right thing morally, but they are also positioning themselves for success in the long run.

Research is not only a dynamic and diverse in giving feedback to meet the end result beautifully for a subject or more but it is also something which we use in searching for something from the root cause of the problem. Mastering the skill in collating all from the raw data as a starter and fulfilling it by solving the problem by digesting it well.

Open innovation is a collaborative approach to innovation that goes beyond a company's internal resources. It involves actively seeking and incorporating external ideas, technologies, and expertise into an organization's innovation processes. Instead of relying solely on in-house efforts, companies engage with external partners, startups, customers, and the broader ecosystem to co-create new products, services, or solutions. Open innovation fosters creativity, accelerates development, and often leads to more market-relevant and cost-effective outcomes, making it a key strategy for organizations in today's dynamic business landscape.

When it comes to open innovation, it's incredible how we can increase impact and accelerate development. It might seem contradictory because the more people involved in development, the more complex the management becomes. However, when working together, the journey becomes much more effective and goes much further. While you can go faster alone, the chances of creating a solution that sits on the shelf or an invention that's merely a resume-booster (look at the number of patents I have) but never gets used or licensed are quite high. Innovation is about creating solutions for the real world, which is why having a maximum number of skilled decision-makers and contributors with you on this journey is crucial.

A vital aspect of open innovation is trust - both in terms of the product that is being developed as well as by larger public if it’s a more population at scale tech solution. When we talk about trustworthy tech a serious concern is always the opaqueness and lack of transparency starting from design and development and seeping into deployment. Open innovation is the antithesis to such a closed approach and as a corollary tends to generate user confidence, thus, improving the commercial and socio-technical aspects of high risk technologies.

Open innovation is crucial because it helps overcome the 'Not-Invented-Here Syndrome', an attitude-based bias against external knowledge. By embracing external ideas and collaboration, organizations can enhance learning, spur innovation, and achieve success in their projects. This approach broadens perspectives, integrates diverse insights, and facilitates the effective implementation of innovative solutions. Ultimately, driving growth and competitiveness.

Using open innovation really jumpstarts the discovery and customer validation phases. You can see where other efforts came up short. It also has a big impact on the team performance - as info is collected and quickly sheds light on the proposed invention, team members learn to pivot and integrate what they learned is already out there to elevate their idea and breakthrough to new paradigms and ideas.

I believe open innovation is valuable for my inventions because it allows me to tap into a wider pool of knowledge and expertise, facilitating the exchange of ideas and resources. By collaborating with others, I can accelerate my scientific exploration and potentially discover groundbreaking solutions more quickly.

I have found it very important to work with people with required skill sets. Those with complimentary skills and interest would ensure the team succeeds.

This should be considered at all stakeholders level, so making sure that every participants is not overloaded by requests of informations. Each stakeholder and participant should be well informed and educated about why, for what, and how each piece of collected information will contribute to the research and project objectives! This way you also ensure not collecting redundant data that won't be used effectively!

Openness and trust are the key ingredients. Team members have to have high competence in their own abilities so that when they share an idea or a concept with others, they will be valued for it and by sharing it, it can be better. The truth is, if you don't share it and collaborate and use what is already out there, will your idea, ever really get out there?

Open innovation in research projects requires clear and constant communication regardless of position. Sharing ideas is an underutilized aspect of research, especially in the world of competitive startups, limited funding, and first-to-market strategies. Encouraging lines of communication between both subject matter experts and new additions to the team(s) can foster an environment of collaboration, shared passion, and stronger focus on project goals/outcomes. Hoarding knowledge and keeping others in the dark will only slow the progress and adaptability of your project in its target validation and market fit.

I really believe that emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and digital socio-technological models of production based on democratic Peer-2-Peer (P2P) interactions can represent an alternative transformative solution by going beyond the current global communication and technical limitations in the research and our communities. I recommend an article based on open innovation applied for invention and in my research projects: Otero J., (2021) Heritage Conservation Future: Where We Stand, Challenges Ahead, and a Paradigm Shift, Global Challenges, 2100084.

Techstars weekends, where one person pitches an idea, others agree to work on it and the one who pitched it, is not the leader, it is the entire team's role to grow, nurture and create the idea. Very often, given the amount of customer validation and research done, the initial idea is just an impetus and the final product looks quite different than what was originally pitched. The final product is usually more relevant, flexible, and creative than the original idea proposed.

Drawing inspiration from MIT's renowned Building 20, a beacon of open innovation with some of our greatest inventions, we learn a few best practices. First, be meticulous in selecting collaboration partners, fostering trust, and nurturing relationships. Building 20's success was rooted in dynamic, interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers. Second, it's paramount to be adaptable, as innovation requires continual transformations before the final breakthrough. Third, embrace a culture of knowledge-sharing and idea exchange, recognizing the value each contributor brings. Finally, in honor of Building 20's legacy, view failures as learning opportunities and celebrate successes, fostering a culture of improvement for open innovation.

Corporate accelerators are a great example of corporate-startup collaborations that leverage open innovation, provided that the corporation utilizes the products/services of such startups in their daily work pipeline.

Open innovation is prevalent in various domains: LEGO invites fan ideas for new sets through LEGO Ideas. NASA collaborates with external entities to advance space exploration. P&G's "Connect + Develop" program seeks external input for product innovation. Innocentive connects organizations with global problem solvers. Google sponsors student developers for open-source projects via Google Summer of Code. GE's Ecomagination Challenge fosters clean energy solutions through collaboration. Open-source projects like Linux and Mozilla thrive on global developer contributions. LEGO Mindstorms encourages customization and innovation in robotics. Pharmaceutical companies collaborate for drug discovery.

Best practices for successful open innovation include defining clear objectives, securing top-down support, fostering a collaborative culture, managing intellectual property, promoting open communication, engaging diverse stakeholders, utilizing technology, offering rewards and recognition, adhering to legal and ethical standards, incorporating feedback, embracing an iterative approach, sharing knowledge openly, sourcing ideas from diverse channels, managing risks, customizing strategies, measuring impact, staying flexible, maintaining a long-term perspective, and documenting collaborations. These practices enable organizations to effectively leverage external expertise and drive innovation while mitigating associated risks.

In open innovation, first we need to build a strong communication with partners for knowledge sharing, once each partner is well aware about the capabilities of one another , it is great to develop design landscape for execution with trust and targeted timelines !! Design landscape is a critical concept for assigning responsibilities with mutual respect!! IP and business development partners should be in loop at every stage of proof of concept so translational aspects can be realised for successful commercialisation!!

Don't just look at what succeed, by looking at what failed, either in product design or business model, you can learn even more.

I believe the best practices for open innovation would be: - foster a culture of collaboration among participants - define clear goals and scope of the action - utilize an inclusive and transparent network where all participants feel their value is appreacited (otherwise they won't continue) Additionally, other ones such as establishing clear intellectual property rights, data management policies, and clear organization and agenda.

In my experience, open innovation is a step towards promoting participatory design and development which theoretically (at least) should augment the overall quality of the product and ensure better buy-in when the same is deployed. For instance, ChatGPT has progressed rapidly in almost astonishing speed in terms of improving its flaws from GPT 3 to subsequent models precisely because of its open design and usability. It also garnered it absurdly high visibility which has been a commercial success in subsequent models with a subscription model of enrolment of users.

Back in the 80's I was encouraged to Patent my inventions, it would have cost thousands per invention, then I had to tell the World my secrets, and prove in their Country, in their Language, in their Courts how they stole my ideas,,,, I researched the origin of Patents to find a story about Mercury and Artisans going out of their minds making Silver and Gold jewellery. By the time they were experts they lost their minds so the powers to be wanted them to tell them their secrets to the Patent' Office,,, to help them later so to speak, sorry, I don't buy that, I have lost all faith in Patents protecting skilled artisans and inventors, cheers, Dr.Les.

Remember OpenAI in which Elon Mush was an investor/donator: it was originally an open-innovation (i.e. not-for-profit) project before turning into a successful for-profit company with a huge valuation given when Microsoft invested for its capital increase. So always check the by-laws, protect yourself as an investor/donator by watching closely who owns the IP and evaluating all scenarios beforehand!