You can be sure the discoverers of new drugs, such as cures for widespread diseases such as TB, cancer and the recently-reported biohazard associated with vegetable ingredients in Europe, will not be freely forthcoming with solutions, though they revel in the knowledge of the problem.
Drug empires are built on solving these problems.
What many people fail to realise is that it’s the identification of a problem worth solving that is the real “gold”.
Problems are the reciprocal of opportunities
When we see a problem worth solving, keep it in-house and only if you do not have the internal skills, then look outside. But do it carefully and systematically.
Further, if you find a potential solution provider, develop a contracted relationship to work the solution with you in the box seat and you owning any resulting IP.
Where to now for open innovation?
The best chance for “open innovation” is when a business possesses “platform technology”, or a gateway for millions to develop applications that make use of the platform, with the creator of the platform being locked into the value chain.
Smartphones are a good example, with applications coming on stream at an amazing rate and the phone providers “clipping the ticket” at every turn.
This is a wonderful business model, but is this a new approach? Is this a new Idea? Platform technologies are not new, but they perhaps were not developed with the platform concept in mind.
The wheel is a platform or foundation technology with an endless variety of uses stemming from its creation. So too were the inventions of the ratchet, the gearbox, the internal combustion engine and even the electric motor.
Unlike smartphones, which have intrinsic value in themselves, these old stand-alone technologies have none. Standing alone, the wheel, the ratchet, the internal combustion engine and the electric motor have no purpose but are simply building blocks for others to employ in their innovations.
Can I have one?
Many businesses are in possession of “platform technologies”, but many fail to realise it and thus have not embraced appropriate opportunity search and capture methodologies to leverage their position.
The starting point is to identify your platform then develop an opportunity search model. The rest will quickly fall in to place.
In short, if you wish to embrace the so-called open innovation model, do so with great care. But better still, identify a “platform innovation”, own the IP, tell the world and let the market do the rest.
