Who are open innovation managers and what do they do?

In this month’s newsletter, we decided to focus on a job title that is gaining more and more recognition in every industry. Novable works closely with innovation professionals and, more specifically, innovation managers, to help them identify the right partners to collaborate with. By doing so, gained insights into who these people are and what their daily activities encompass.?

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Who are innovation managers?

Innovation managers are typically researchers, strategists, evangelists, or innovators who go on to become leaders, organisational designers, and coaches, and eventually occupy the positions of process owners, decision-makers, and project managers. Their responsibilities focus on the development of new products, services, or processes.

But that’s not it. In a recent research study, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Jim Cheng, and Henry Chesbrough investigated the subject further and issued a report on the characteristics of open innovation managers at global corporations using information from a LinkedIn dataset.?

The importance of the study

Open innovation is utilised frequently in both large and small enterprises, Plenty of studies have been conducted about managing the process. However, the person or group in charge is surprisingly little known.?

• Who manages the teams or units engaged in open innovation??
• How long have they been employed by the company??
• What kind of activities do they usually do??

These are all unresolved issues. It's crucial to determine the answers to these questions and, from that point on, to allocate the appropriate individual to the position, especially as more and more businesses invest in open innovation departments and teams.

For their investigation, the research team examined a sizable sample of LinkedIn data. In 2016, 1049 managers globally had "open innovation" in their job description, according to the initial comprehensive search.?

Consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, chemicals, computer software, food and beverage, consumer electronics, banking, biotechnology, financial services, and automotive were the sectors most open to open innovation jobs.?

The team then looked for open innovation opportunities between 2010 and 2012 at one of the 32 significant corporations they had chosen for their research. It was crucial to limit the search to a certain reference time since it allowed the team to carefully examine these managers' career paths before, during, and after their employment. Finally, 158 managers were included in the sample.

The research team also considered:?

• The duration of each manager's employment;?
• The department in which each innovation manager from the sample worked;?
• A description of the effort done before assuming an open innovation role;?
• Their length of employment with the organisation, their age
• Their new job or title as managers (if relevant)?

Who qualifies as an open innovation manager??

According to the results the sample's open innovation managers had an average age of 43. It's interesting to note how few managers of open innovation were under 35. The multinational that hired them had a 15-year average tenure. This conclusion was not unexpected: managers who work with innovation should be intimately familiar with their organisation to comprehend its business requirements. In order for their subordinates to take them seriously, managers should also have a solid reputation and level of seniority.?

Moreover, the fact that the surveyed open innovation managers covered the role for an average of 84 months (7 years) shows that the position is a long-term commitment rather than a temporary one.

Even though 40% of managers of open innovation had backgrounds in research and development (figure 1), the majority came from marketing (14%), operations (9%), engineering (6%), and project management (6%). This result demonstrates that innovation necessitates the fusion of technological and scientific understanding.

What duties do open innovation managers perform??

Just to name a few (figure 2):

1. Mentorship and training. Giving other managers in the organisation coaching and training in the necessary open innovation capabilities.?
2. Establishing key connections with the company's legal and IP expertise. Building up areas where scientists can speak with other professionals freely and safely.?
3. Technology scouting. Creating tools and procedures necessary for other managers to collaborate effectively and fluidly with external partners. For instance, open innovation managers assist with the creation of corporate venturing initiatives or the formation of cross-functional teams that are given complete autonomy as long as they meet their objectives. Novable plays a key role in this aspect.
4. Internal communication and culture. Open innovation managers are frequently tasked with producing measurements in addition to encouraging internal openness and creating a common language.?
5. Gaining the approval of senior management. Offering a welcoming point of contact and a clear path inside the business.

Takeaways

This exploratory study has a number of constraints. Not all innovation managers are on LinkedIn and the research team had to manually choose open innovation procedures because LinkedIn is not intended for career studies on open innovation. Additionally, they did not compare open innovation managers to other managers in the same organisations. Despite that, the study provides important insights into one of the most prized assets that businesses have: their open innovation workforce.?

Undoubtedly one of the most significant determinants of innovation success, and one that is well worth the effort, is a deeper understanding of this workforce and making sure it has the required resources (including freedom to experiment).?

It is quite valuable to have a solid open innovation team in place. Try posing the following questions to assess how strong this talent is:?

• Have our innovation leaders assisted employees get on board??
• Have they made the team aware that open innovation is a permanent trend??
• Have they contributed to changing the company's overall notion of success and supported the development of internal capabilities?

Thank you for reading our monthly newsletter!?

Source:?

Vanhaverbeke, W., Chesbrough, H., & Cheng, J. (2017). A Profile of Open Innovation Managers in Multinational Companies. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35033.31846?