WSFEquipe15 [Open innovation]

Luckily, the Internet — combined with a fine-tuned system for capturing, sorting, and evaluating ideas — has made collective brainstorming more feasible than ever before. For example, by partnering with medical device incubator Edison Nation Medical, prominent medical manufacturer Hill-Rom was able to sponsor a web-based “open innovation search” as a means by which to gather innovative solutions for reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.

1. Offer proactive attention – Instead of waiting for suggestions, the company should initiate the conversation with an internally developed suggestion to stimulate debate.

2. Offer reactive attention - All companies should actively respond to suggestions from external contributors to signal that their thoughts are being heard. The study found that this was especially important for newcomers to the discussion.

3. Catalyse - Organisations should focus their efforts on new users and the early stages of their open innovation effort. In particular, organisations need to be aware of the time, the effort and commitment required to nurture a fledgling forum into a thriving discussion. This includes establishing a process for retrieving, reviewing and responding to suggestions.

General Electric (GE) is a prominent open innovation cheerleader and one of its OI tools is competitions.

They can lead to more diverse research and development as participants take multiple routes to create their innovations • They provide a platform for innovators • They can lead to faster and better innovations at a lower cost than traditional R & D processes

Connecting with the Outside General Mills connects with external partners via a number of ways. The first step is usually to try to leverage existing partnerships which also helps to grow those relationships.

Innovation Ecosystems General Mills is making open innovation work by creating innovation ecosystems with smaller partner companies. In his book "Making Open Innovation Work", OI thought leader Stefan Lindegaard extols the virtues of small and big companies doing open innovation together. He says they are at their best when all participants benefit from the relationships not just the big companies. And the more this happens, the more companies are going to want to co-innovate with larger entities.

Customers will spend between 10 and 30 minutes trying to solve a problem or answer a question using self-service tools before they’ll call a person for help.

10% of Twitter queries are answered within an hour.