Open Innovation

Open Innovation is the concept of both “not all the best people work for us” and “some of ideas may be worth more to other people”.

The classic model offered by Dr Henry Chesbrough for describing the difference between conventional R&D and Open Innovation is that conventional R&D involves a narrowing funnel of ideas towards a targeted end-market:

Whereas Open Innovation involves a porous funnel to allow exploitation of more markets:





Most of the major Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies have taken Open Innovation to heart, so it’s worth checking out their websites to see if your company can offer solutions or opportunities for joint benefit:

P&G: www.pgconnectdevelop.com
Unilever: www.ideas4unilever.com
Reckitt Benkiser: www.rb-idealink.com

We also have a number of independent organisations operating in this region, helping to link technology and knowledge “gots” to “needs”:

InnoCentive: www.innocentive.com (includes Eli Lilly, P&G and Solvay)
InnovationXchange: http://ixc-uk.com/home.html
Yet2: www.yet2.com