Open collaboration can lead to successful product innovations especially in the case of SMEs when companies are able to share knowledge and create value together in an open way. But as a mindset, open innovation can be defined in many ways and in fact, companies must find their own. The ability to meet right partners, integrate external input and have a very well defined challenge is crucial. Here are a couple of videos of interesting talks by two major experts in the field of open innovation: Stefan Lindegaard, a very well-known speaker and author of some interesting books about the issue, and Luis Solis, North American President of Imaginatik, one of the largest innovation intermediaries.
As Luis Solis highlights in the first video (link here), the whole change driven by open innovation is about asking other people for help and collaboration and foregrounds the consolidation of an environment for create value as one of the keys for open innovation . He also states that open innovation has moved from a push base model to pull model through the internet and technics such as campaigns, challenges or open innovation intermediaries which help companies to get input.
In the vision of Stefan Lindegaard, a holistic view, the networking and communication skills and the capacity to integrate external resources are also the main drivers for companies get access to knowledge through open innovation. He also reminds us that, as in innovation in general, experimentation is essential. You will find also examples of open innovation practitioners, like Lego or Procter and Gamble in his talk.