Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Two open innovation events in Cambridge in April

The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is organising two workshops on 20th and 21st April 2010 focused on the challenges and opportunities of implementing Open Innovation (OI) from two perspectives:

  • "Open innovation for small firms: how to set up and manage collaborations with large firms" will look at the challenges for small and start-up companies in forming productive collaborations with large companies.
  • "Implementing open innovation" is focused at large and multinational companies wanting to understand how to develop the skills, processes, culture and motivation for OI.

Both workshops will draw upon research findings at the IfM's Centre for Technology Management (CTM), revealing ways in which companies collaborate and configure themselves to succeed in OI. They will be illustrated with case studies by experienced practitioners from technology-driven companies that have embraced the OI approach. Facilitated mini-workshops will focus on identifying the key challenges faced by participating companies, sharing best practice and learning from research understandings identified by CTM.

The workshops will be an ideal opportunity for companies to build momentum for the next step along the OI journey, whatever their current stage of development. The evening between the two workshops will also provide an excellent opportunity for participants to share experiences with colleagues who share similar challenges and to identify collaborative opportunities between large and small companies.

For more information, see http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/service/events/info/openinnovation.html

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

We know open innovation is not new ..

There's an interesting paper recently published comparing open and closed approaches to innovation in the US steel industry in the 1920s. This contrasts with a comment made in the first post on this blog pointing out that open innovation does seem to have some of the characteristics of a recent management fad. So, I'm interested in finding further documented examples of open innovation going back through industrial history. If you know of any, please add a comment. I'll then collate the responses and attempt to produce a historical timeline of open innovation examples.

Open innovation in Japan: A noticeable change?

For the past 7 years, I have been visiting Japan each year to work with colleagues in Kyoto on various projects relating to the management ...