L’Oréal has been collaborating with carmaker Renault to develop an electric spa concept car. Similarly, Delphi and Mobileye are jointly working on an autonomous driving design. Unfortunately, such cases of open innovation are quite rare in the business world. Even when such collaborations succeed in developing the intended product, the adoption rates for the final are palpably low. A study conducted by Accenture confirmed this view, with half the respondents claiming that such partnerships are not yielding the desired results. Political and cultural factors are usually the reason with a lot of gatekeepers preventing such adoption. Even external design firms are facing this inability to break such deadlocks. Those that have succeeded have adopted certain tactics such as creating a multi-layered network involve a dense network of contacts. More levels of contact usually improve chances of winning contracts. A sense of equal ownership need to be fostered between the various players. In this manner, the external agency is considered a provider of business consulting but is not completely overhauling the set processes. Collaborative partnerships need to be marked with relevant milestones aided with project management terminologies such as scrum and kaban. It also builds transparency between the two sides. The external inputs provided need to be open enough in nature so that there is room for periodic improvisations. Finally, a pilot study must be launched at the outset so that a prototype may be developed around which the final modelling can be done. This will also shorten innovation development cycles.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/12/open-innovation-generates-great-ideas-so-why-arent-companies-adopting-them

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018