Open innovation: Structuring businesses

With the business world becoming more competitive than ever, you’ve most likely started researching ways to drive business growth and outperform your competitors. We’d like to share a method that we believe will help your business succeed – open innovation. If you’re hearing this term for the first time, you are probably as confused as we were when we first heard it. Innovation, customer innovation, user-driven innovation, and now, open innovation? What does this mean?

Open innovation vs. traditional innovation

Traditional innovation occurs when a company tries to predict the future of a market or customer need. This involves bringing internal members together to solve problems and develop new products.

With open innovation, doors are opened to external members. Instead of having to try to predict what customers want, the customers themselves are invited to be part of the research and development process and directly tell companies what they want. According to a blog post on Leaderlab.com, “most companies spend huge amounts of money trying to predict and control which innovation projects should continue and which should be killed. Imagine if customers or partners could help and act open stage-gate on your innovation pipeline.”

Open innovation through modern technology

The post goes on to explain that “in a world of increasing complexity and connectivity it is harder than ever to predict future market and consumer needs. Consumers’ tastes change faster than ever, new technologies emerge at an increasing pace rendering much of our R&D efforts obsolete.”

Companies like Procter & Gamble and Starbucks are depending on the Internet to gather new ideas. Twenty-five per cent of all new products from Proctor & Gamble come from InnoCentive, a website where companies post challenges and anyone can submit solutions. Starbucks has received 100,000 ideas so far from their customers on MyStarbucksIdea.com, a site they developed in order to be able to co-create the future of the company with customers. “Imagine the number of workshops and focus groups Starbucks would need to host to generate 100,000 ideas,” explains the blog. “Open Innovation is about bringing a group of people with a common goal together to collaborate.”

Experience open innovation with OneDesk

OneDesk is designed to connect companies with customers and business partners, and promotes open innovation by:

• Allowing companies to include all stakeholders into the development process.
• Enabling businesses to start conversations, engage with customers and pinpoint their exact needs.
• Facilitating teamwork, especially with large and diffused groups.
• Eliminating roadblocks and structuring the organization by providing interactive tools that help manage requirements and tasks and forecast revenues.
• Much more. Try OneDesk for free today and help make your customers’ experiences an innovative one.