Advantages of Open Innovation

Advantages of Open Innovation

Spend more time thinking about different ways to reinvent your business model. Your business model is more important than your technology alone or source of innovation. If you have ever been involved with technology, life sciences, pharma, or the semiconductor fables industry, you are probably familiar with the role of intellectual property (IP) and patents. Chances are your IP management strategy was governed by a protectionist not invented here (NIH) and not sold here (NSH) policy. Despite the status quo, an increasing number of innovative companies have managed to abstract the process and source of innovation from their value chain. Meebo is the latest company to join the list of open innovators.

Earlier this year, I looked at technology start-ups who were implementing open business models as part of their core strategy. A number of these initiatives involved the Internet, open source software, and open business models. Zimbra and Meboo are just two recent examples. You might be saying to yourself - so what's new? What is new is the commercial intent of these initiatives with investor backing. Cleary some of these new initiatives reflect the commercial viability of open innovation and business models. In the early days, most open source projects had no commercial intent. Interestingly enough, a handful of companies like Google, Amazon, and Salesforce.com found it strategically advantageous to use free open source software (FOSS) for their own infrastructure.

Some of the companies who are embracing the open innovation framework:

• Apple

• Google

• Amazon

• Zimbra

• Meebo

• Skype

• Salesforce.com

• Eli Lilly

• P&G (Procter & Gamble)

• BASF