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Chesbrough talks about innovation models in his book Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (HBS Press, 2006.) The idea is that black box innovation in today’s world is more costly, redundant, and exclusive than open innovation, which embraces available information and uses it in new ways to create a value-added output. An example of a closed innovation system would be Xerox PARC. Brilliant minds, but working within a walled garden (as JP Rangaswami would say.)
Intel is an example of open innovation. Both magnificent models, where one fits into today’s world better in order to capitalize on its efforts. Obviously entirely new ways of thinking must be embraced for open innovation models – so how did the open firms succeed? They figured it out, because they had the vision of what they could accomplish, and also trusted themselves to venture into uncertain terrain. The fundamental question is what your organizational values are. Do you expect your teams to take on the challenge to adjust and accommodate innovative technology, or are they rewarded for keeping your walled gardens up, protected?
A word about change: we all know it is one of the biggest challenges you'll face as an organizational leader. A typical roadblock you’ll see is the "not invented here syndrome." Mashups get around that problem, because you are using your existing organizational data – just in a new and innovative way. An example: take Brand data that your executives review daily, and combine it with external news feeds and ratings data in a Mashup for Brand analytics. To see some statistics on how media and corporate brands are related, see Dowling and Weeks’ article "What the Media is Really Telling You About Your Brand" in the Spring 2008 MIT Sloan Management Review.
Leaders must consider other factors such as the aging workforce and the entrance of Millennials, a group of workers who grew up using MySpace and feel as comfortable with JavaScript and HTML as they do with a cell phone. This is not as much about unleashing the power of collaboration as it is providing a minimum standard to these skilled workers. There is a generation gap, and you will want to cope with your new workforce demographic to attract and retain top talent, as well as keep your senior talent ensconced in an environment which enables them to use their best skills. Most Web 2.0 technology, including Mashups, align with what I can “human brain ergonomics,” where your output is not constrained by the limits of technology, but technology keeps up with what the mind is able to produce.
It is kind of obvious how I feel. What is your enterprise philosophy, and how do you choose to meet your business goals through technology?
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