Being a recent scholar of open innovation I have been really fascinated by the depth and the amazing research opportunities it brings upfront. There are many different windows to be opened both in academia and the professional field.
I have been very keen in learning about open innovation both under a theoretical and practical perspective so I have been following many relevant websites from around the globe.
The phrase Open Innovation is about: Daring telling what you do not know which is the title of a small article on Bluenove's website (Bluenove is the leader of French open services innovation. More than 120 of their projects completed in 2008 with a creation of more than 50 clients) captured my mind and gave me the initiative of some reflection which goes beyond managerial studies and approaches more the behavioral, psychological and cognitive side.
Indeed, it is very difficult to claim not only what you do not know but also that you do not know. It is a defense mechanism which stems of the linearity of the schooling and educational system and the structure of our contemporary planned economy.
It takes a lot of courage to admit unawareness. However, it is important to underline that lack of knowledge does not mean incompetence. It simply means that not everybody is humanly possible to know everything. And it is better to admit lack of knowledge than believing to non-existent awareness.
So I believe that the applicability of open innovation not only as a business model but as an organizational mindset is vital in terms of appreciating and sharing knowledge, collaboration and creation of all the necessary mechanisms which drive change and are aligned to the organizational culture on an ad-hoc basis. And another highly important element into this collaborative spirit is the building of trust and sustainable professional and personal relationships both on B2B, C2B, B2C and C2C perspective.
Last but not least the mindset of open innovation must be integrated since it is highly relevant to the ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship, training and employment as it creates the incentive and the motivation to create the basis of an open platform of collaboration, sharing and interacting.
Creating a mindset for open innovation is certainly critical and requires attention from education professionals, business leaders and policy makers alike. Framework conditions should also be implemented so as to foster openess, cross-fertilization, and knowledge sharing and should land on top of the agenda of policymakers.
ReplyDeleteA shift of values and focus is needed to overcome the traditional limitations hampering inbound and outbound open innovation. Firms also need to put in place the ad hoc mechanisms in order to reward openness practices rather than concentrating on individual (or even individualistic) performance metrics.
And for sure, the more you learn, the more you realize that you know nothing , or let's be positive, that you know little :=)