Open Innovation

by Henry Chesbrough

On May, we hosted a webinar with Dr. William Schulz of Walden University and Dr. Henry Chesbrough of the Program for Open Innovation at Berkeley Haas. The topic of the webinar was “Open Innovation: Bringing the Outside In, and Taking the Inside Out”. Here are our top 10 takeaways from the webinar:

1. Innovation is becoming open innovation.

2. This means it is about taking down the fences around your research and development facilities.

3. Start breaking down internal silos preventing open sharing of ideas.

4. Rethink the relationship between your intellectual property and the “commons.” Understand that open innovation creates new growth opportunities.

5. The legal and creative teams should try new approaches between Intellectual Property (IP) and Open Innovation.

6. Ask if you or your company has an internal strategy for Open Innovation.

7. Recognize that the old model of knowledge hoarding is giving way to knowledge sharing.

8. Use judgment in applying your ideas about IP when venturing abroad, while recognizing that no one company or research and development department can go it alone.

9. Follow @openinno on Twitter to stay current or share comments and ideas.

10. Preparing for the open innovation journey requires the following four steps: experimentation, commitment, expansion, and being part of the DNA.