In the video below (from TEDx Brainport), Harmke De Groot, Program Director at Holst Centre, highlights the value of Open Innovation to speed up innovation. Innovation is hard work and Open Innovation systems can help deal with some of the difficulties of the innovation processes. Thus, De Groot states five of these difficulties:
- Slowness. The adoption of innovation (especially for a general audience) is normally a lengthy process.
- Failure. An important number of technological and great value products fail from an economic perspective.
- Uncertainty. Nobody really knows the consequences and reach of an innovation.
- Complexity. The systems are becoming more complex and more diverse expertise is needed to innovate.
- Costs. The cost of research and development in high technology is increasing faster than revenue.
On the other hand, Open Innovation is based on collaboration with different partners and that means more ideas, less risks and costs, or even a better acceptance of products by consumer input thanks to practices such as crowdsourcing.
The combination of three elements
For innovation to succeed three elements must be combined, according to De Groot:
- Physical ecosystem: A field or industry, in which innovate, and a space for real collaboration, including universities, SMEs and large companies, innovation centers, etc.
- Trusted orchestrated: A way to make competitors work together as colleagues and with confidence.
- Talent: The joint efforts of talented people.
