Open Innovation at Fujitsu

Open innovation at Fujitsu

Fujitsu is making a paradigm shift from closed innovation to open innovation. But this takes a lot of barriers with it. The firm has come up with some solutions to tackle these barriers and has some decisions to make. Making a case out of this situation there has been made a problem statement:

How can Fujitsu implement an open innovation structure?

The problem is divided into subparts:

Activating innovative practices faster across Fujitsu.

Scaling projects throughout the company and the way of managing

Best location for Fujitsu’s shared space

Activating innovative practices faster across Fujitsu.

Matsumoto, Kiname and Ahmed are trying to introduce a whole new innovation culture at Fujitsu. Implementing such a change in the firm takes a lot of barriers with it. The aspect that need to be covered for creating a platform for open innovation is the technology transfer. A big barrier is the not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome. This is defined as the tendency of a project group of stable composition to believe that it possesses the monopoly of knowledge in its field, leading it to reject new ideas from outsiders to the likely detriment of its performance(Katz and Allen, 1988). This is one of the issues at Fujitsu for opening up.

There are several models for integrating technology transfer. Matsumoto, Kiname and Ahmed already figured some out. The science park model suggests to develop an industrial area or district close to an established center of excellence. The struggle is choosing the best location for Fujitsu.

Creating awareness of knowledge acquisition in an organization is essential for inward technology transfer. Individual learning is different from organizational learning. The vertical technology transfer goes from individual learning to group learning and gets eventually to organizational learning. Knowledge must be integrated into the fundamental routines of the organization. Therefore, there need to be acceptance within the organization. Integrating open innovation within the firm needs a platform where the organization gets into a learning cycle.

Scaling projects throughout the company and the way of managing

According to Barringer and Ireland (2016) those who are launch or found an entrepreneurial venture they have an important role to play in shaping the firm’s business model. The ideas of a venture cannot be executed correctly when there are no leaders and personnel to carry it out (Barringer & Ireland, 2016). It is very important to find a correct way to build a team within a company, because