‘Open innovation’ (OI) was coined by Professor Henry Chesbrough in his book of the same name. He says that OI “assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to advance their technology.”

OI is a different paradigm to traditional internal corporate innovation such as crowdsourcing ideas or redirecting resources. It’s about creating inflows of knowledge from the external environment and outflows of knowledge to the ecosystem through collaboration. A Deloitte report about open R&D models found that organisations pursuing OI were three times more likely to achieve late-stage success. Here are four ways that your organisation can leverage OI to boost your success rate.

1. Expert Alliances

Given the amount of information in circulation, companies should open their doors to alternate ways of thinking and testing new ideas. ‘Collaboration’ is the name of the game and large companies can benefit from inviting external experts to discuss and actively solve R&D challenges. Google excels at corporate innovation through its partnership with the scientific community. Through funding over 250 academic research projects each year, Google can identify and access breakthrough opportunities. Their publications can be accessed via arXiv and its own research site. Google also keeps places for 30 scholars to spend sabbaticals at Google each year. This type of OI has led to projects such as Google Brain, Google’s deep learning artificial intelligence research project. Microsoft has also joined forces with IBM, Intel, the European commission and other major organisations to work on a new breed of “Cognitive Home.”

2. Corporate Accelerators

Corporate accelerator programs bring together industry corporations and early-stage startups. Usually, the corporate partner provides capital, mentorship and office space, while the startups offer innovative products and services, new technology and nimble ways of working. Some of the many benefits to corporates include faster time to market for new innovations, exposure to emerging tech and talent, positive PR and more engaged employees. Startups benefit through access to funding, tapping into a larger customer base and domain expertise as well as distribution channels that give them a better chance at scaling. For example,mid-tier law firms Mills Oakley worked with Collective Campus to propel legaltech synergies. Collective Campus is also partnering with Microsoft to accelerate opportunities in the mixed reality space.

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