Open innovation says that companies can and should use ideas from internal sources, as well as, external sources to advance in innovation. You may be wondering what external sources mean or who they are. They range from partners, clients, universities, experts, research centers, start-ups, and more. Collaborating inside and outside of your company can really improve results while avoiding risks. Here’s why… 

• More innovative ideas are produced.
• Clients’ and market needs are shared. 
• When discussing new technologies and experiences, new solutions are created. 
• It improves your company’s quality innovation, which speeds up the development process. 
• Risks are reduced because there’s input from experts. 

As it happens with any other process in the digital world, companies have to be prepared to exchange innovation. Some ways in which you can adopt open innovation are: 

Crowdsourcing 

A company establishes its own platform and then extends the invitation to others who can bring ideas to the table. 

Open innovation platforms

There are many kinds of open innovation platforms. Here at Tripple Up, our open innovation platform is permanent. Our challenges come from SMEs, companies, government agencies, and innovation productivity centers. Our solvers are higher education institutions, technology-based companies, start-ups, researches, groups of people and collaborators. The challenges are then viralized to expand the space for value creation to unlock hidden potential in lasting relationships along with support tools and functionalities that allows us to follow structured innovation processes from the problem definition stage to the ideation and implementation stage.

Some of the benefits companies reap from open innovation include: 

• Exploring and implementing internal ideas that may otherwise be untouched. 
• Access to external ideas. 
• Demonstrating the potential for growth that motivates users. 

And more… 

New technologies help companies keep their own open innovation projects. Collaborative platforms create a sense of community of interest for clients, partners and providers. If you’re looking for your next big idea, visit our website and dive into the open innovation world in the best ecosystem possible! Remember, collaboration is the next big thing. 

Recruitment and a solid selection method is key when it comes to creating an innovative team. We’ll be sharing five key points that you can incorporate into your strategy to start building the team of your dreams! 

Finding the right members to build an innovative team is not only up to your HR representatives, pretty much all your top executives and leaders have to be involved in the process. 

“Innovation is a process than any organization can use to find solutions and stay ahead of competition” – Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership 

Let’s get right into it… 

• Promote a growth mindset 

Innovation won’t happen if your managers’ time is taken up by small details and tasks. Encourage your leaders to do what they’re there to do – lead. An innovative team leader doesn’t lead by controlling every aspect of the task at hand, instead, they are goal driven and promote empowerment, honesty, and community; when things don’t go as planned, they need to provide the tools, resources, and abilities to guide the team to be a leader in ambiguous times. Teach your team how to act quickly so they are prepared to disregard bad ideas or work on the good ones! Remember, leading by example will also show that growth is possible for each member of your innovative team. They’ll bring more ideas to the table and become more creative when doing so! All they need is the right mindset. 

• Identify essential skills 

Innovation comes from creative spaces and action. You’ll need to recruit employees who have good communication and collaboration skills. You’ll need creative team members who are also proactive when it comes to execution. Critical thinking, curiosity and hard skills! 

• Build a team that shares your company values 

This falls under the category of building community, it is essential for an innovative team to share similar beliefs and motivations.  A sense of community stimulates people to work on different levels, which at the same time, increases employee learning curves by sharing successes and failures and bringing many minds together to grow and perfect new and old ideas. Employees look to their leaders to know how to behave. Start from the top and encourage your leaders to innovate and work on different levels and ideas. This will build a strong sense of community… so strong that it will even reach your consumer. 

• Set goals that are demanding 

If you’re looking for big innovation, you can’t expect that to happen when goals are easily accessible. By setting clear goals that demand more from your team members, they’ll have to step out of their comfort zone and aspire to reach those goals. It’s a lot like when an athlete has to push themselves out of that comfort zone in order to reach the goal in mind. Once your team discovers how great innovation feels, they’ll want to get there with more excitement! 

• Be honest when things fail

Empowering your team doesn’t mean you need to allow for bad ideas and projects to continue. We call these “zombie projects”, they tend to be projects that never die simply because. It happens when no one makes the decision to end it there and accept that it failed. 

Pro tip: every 30 to 90 days, take the time to examine all projects closely and determine which ones aren’t working. Be honest when it comes to failure despite where the idea came from. This opens up the space for new projects and ideas to come in.  

Most leaders constantly wonder how to unlock all the potential for innovation in their teams, but finding the right answer isn’t always easy. Mixing up strategy, leadership approaches, resources and practices is the way to go. It’s also true that sometimes we need to look for answers in a new and innovative place. 

The good news is that there’s a place to do that! 

At TrippleUp we offer a place for open innovation, where you can share and receive ideas, solutions, feedback and so much more. Untap the potential of open innovation, visit our website and learn more about what this can do for you. It’s time to let go of old habits and think outside the box!

Before diving into an open innovation process, it’s imperative to fully comprehend if this is the best option for you and your business and for the problems it’s facing. The first thing you have to determine is the direct consequence of your problem and why it’s relevant to seek a solution.   

An open innovation process tends to have the most relevance when we’re unsure of why this problem has surfaced, and at the same time, the best solution is unknown. 

Here’s a checklist of the things you’ll need to find success within an open innovation process: 

• Make sure you’re aligned with the objectives and strategies in your organization. 
• Have a plan with technical, human, and financial resources. 
• Ensure key subjects are committed to your cause. 
• Define clear conditions for participation. Consider intellectual property, timeframes, evaluation criteria for the ideas you’ll receive, incentives, and/or prizes for those who participate and win.
• Have the proper technological tools that allow for quick and efficient processing. 

Once you’ve checked off the checklist, remember that to keep the ideas within the organization, it’s recommended to answer these questions during the recruitment stages.

Strategic Objectives

1. What would you like to achieve through an open innovation process? 
2. Who and how do you define your challenge?
3. How will you decide which ideas to bring to fruition? 
4. What would the criteria be when selecting the best ideas? 
5. What will you do with all the other ideas that are good but can’t be implemented just yet? 

Resources & Responsibilities 

1. What resources do you have available to carry out the process and the ideas that you’ll be using? 
2. Who will coordinate the open innovation process? 
3. Who will select the best ideas?
4. Who will implement the ideas?

Target Audience 

1. What is your solution finder’s profile?
2. How will you communicate the challenge? 
3. What prizes or incentives will you be offering participants? 

Ideation process

1. What open innovation platform will I use to manage the proposals I receive? 
2. How will it favor participant interaction and the co-creation process? 
3. For how long will you be receiving ideas? 
4. Who will the intellectual property from the ideas belong to? 

Answering all these questions on time will favor the following phases that come with an open innovation process. It’s fundamental to remember that the most important information and its terms and conditions for participation are openly communicated, i.e. how and for what the ideas will be used. 

All of this so that the participants, whether fellow samaritans, scientists, product users, providers, collaborators or organizations know everything they need to know in order to be interested in participating. It’s essential to keep in mind that a successful open innovation process benefits both parties, and should be fair for all.  

That brings us to the next step; capturing your target audience. To do this, you must have the right communication plan. Here are some things to consider: 

Press release 

Write something that will get the attention of your target audience to announce the call to co-create, including its allies, objectives, prizes, and incentives for winners. Make sure to include the website where it’s possible, or wherever it’s easy to find more details and information. 

Social Media

Create some graphic pieces that you’ll be using throughout the entire time (launching, ideas, reminders of closing, winner announcement, etc.), include your logos and your ally’s logos and share the pieces with them as well, along with posting dates with their copies, hashtags and everything they’ll  need to unify communication and have a bigger impact. Tag all your allies and target resources for an ad campaign on social media and reach an audience outside your social media. 

With this, you’ll have everything you need to successfully go through an open innovation process. At TrippleUp we offer so many of the services you’ll need, with amazing communities ready to lend a hand! Join us to get started or to learn more about the benefits that come from open innovation. 

If you’re looking for examples of successful open innovation cases, you’ve come to the right place. Open innovation is effective when an organization adapts it as a way to operate. Making open innovation a strong part of your company culture and strategy is the quickest route to finding success.

It’s time to talk about open innovation success cases from organizations you definitely know.  It’s time to talk about open innovation success cases from organizations you know. We’ll do it in detail so you can properly grasp how much this strategy can (and will) contribute to your organization.

LEGO

This well-known and highly recognized company has spaces that motivate its users to stay active; Create and Share and Lego Ideas. Create and Share allows members of the Lego community to share their Lego images and designs, whilst Lego Ideas focuses on new product launches.

As an example, the Lego Mini-Big Bang Theory set is a community product that was innovated in Lego Ideas. When they reach 10k followers, Lego then evaluates the design and that same design can be put in stores under Lego’s name. The Mini-Big Bang Theory set was proposed over 2 years ago and then took more than 10 months to get from Lego Ideas to production.

When the idea generated in Lego Ideas is approved for production, original members within the community who came up with the idea also receive payment for their ideas. As we previously mentioned, the Mini-Big Bang Theory set is simply an example. More recent products created in Lego Ideas, that are yet to be released to the public, include an Adventure Time set and the Yellow Submarine – The Beatles set.

The community provides thousands of ideas to Lego annually, which means that Lego has constant traffic of free ideas that people are already waiting to buy. It is said that the focus and success of open innovation during the design phase are integral to Lego’s success.

NIVEA

This personal care brand is highly competitive and evolves quickly, and their product’s lifespan runs for about 4 years. With shorter product lifespans, companies can no longer give themselves the luxury of depending solely on internal ideas to achieve innovation.

To increase commercialization timeframes and maintain costs at a reasonable and affordable price, NIVEA has turned to open innovation as a resource that continually generates ideas, as well as, for product development.

The Black & White deodorant is a clear example of how to activate users during new product development, from the idea standpoint up to implementation. The company opted to find new ideas and identify the weaknesses found by consumers by using open innovation. Thanks to this process, NIVEA was able to draw conclusions and realize that many consumers were worried about sweat stains getting on their clothes. The company responded by designing products and testing them out with real consumers to receive feedback. This is when NIVEA created an association with Evonik, a company that focuses on products with chemicals, in order to create an anti-stain technology as a team. The result? The most successfully sold deodorant in the history of the company.

By working in collaboration with the end consumer, NIVEA was able to create a disruptive product, improve commercialization speed times, and reduce internal costs.

“When it comes to creativity, we recognize the great ideas that can come from anywhere. This is why we’re going above and beyond our regular focus when it comes to creative development and we’re including the same communities that are actually using our products to tell us what we should be doing.” – Matt Marlow

CLOROX

Clorox’s open innovation strategy has adapted through the years and it involves users, providers, and collaborators. When it comes to successful open innovation, they use it within their own company in the program Innovent, since 2011. It’s a contest that allows Clorox employees in each job and location to send commercialization ideas for products.

This initiative is used as a way to potentialize employees by offering a space where creativity can flow in a sustainable and responsible environment. Although initially, Innovent wanted innovative proposals from employees, it didn’t meet the requirements for commercial strategies already in place. This is when Clorox then decided that successful open innovation was the way to go, and they’ve been able to receive ideas with knowledge that’s more in depth and provided by qualified personnel with the needed resources.

By using an online collaboration platform, all employees are welcome to propose ideas and resolve company’s issues. The best ideas are evaluated in three stages and the team has more and more resources to bring their ideas to fruition through each stage.

Remember, know your goals whenever you embark on a new project to use open successful open innovation effectively! At Tripple Up we’re always ready to start. Solve any obstacles you may be facing or generate the next big idea with our community!