Open Innovation: The new strategy for firms to get talent

Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 15:29 IST   |    4 Comments
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Open Innovation: The new strategy for firms to get talent
Bangalore: Companies are experimenting with the concept of open innovation, which let them reach out to talent beyond the firm. It is an innovative concept and companies are using this new strategy. But are companies, with all their good intentions, getting the most from open innovation? The initial successes represent only the beginning but companies should take it one step forward. If you look at most of the widely cited examples of successful open innovation, the model in use poses a question to a group of "solvers" who then provide an answer. You might call this the transactional model of open innovation - involving only narrowly defined, short-term transactions. Problem posted, solution offered, payment made, transaction completed, all parties move on explores John Hagel III and John Seely Brown in their blog post on Harvard Business review. This approach has two limitations. First, it misses the opportunity to build long-term trust-based relationships among participants. Second, it does not encourage participants to build cumulatively upon the contributions of others. This evolution is beginning to occur spontaneously. One of the most prominent open innovation platforms discovered to its surprise that many of its most prolific Solvers were in fact supported by teams that had come together offline. These teams had been organized to bring together a more diverse set of skills and tacit knowledge that would be helpful in solving problems posted on the site. The company running this platform is now hard at work developing mechanisms to encourage teams to organize and creating collaborative workspaces that can help these teams to work together more effectively.