25 Key Questions on Open Innovation Implementation

What are the key questions that corporate innovation leaders must consider as they prepare to make important decisions related to the implementation of open innovation at their companies?

I have compiled a list of questions that I would consider if I were in their shoes. It is not complete, but perhaps it can work as a discussion starter.

The Big Picture:

Why are we doing this? What is the purpose?

How does open innovation fit into our overall corporate strategy and how does it relate to our innovation strategy?

Are the top executives really ready for this journey?

What are our strenghts and weaknesses for making this happen? What is the best way of mapping this?

Who should be the leader of this initiative? What type of person is needed and which skill-set and mindset is needed?

What kind of budget should we allocate in the short, mid and long-term perspective?

The Organization:

How can we measure our internal readiness and which parameters should we use for this assessment?

How can we prepare our organization for this paradigm shift for innovation?

What kind of people resources should we allocate? What role should the organizing team have?

How should we organize in the short, mid and long-term perspective?

What is the best way to train our organization – from executives over middle managers to file and rank employees?

What is the best way to involve the business units and get their long-term commitment?

The External Stakeholders:

How will current and potential partners perceive our open innovation initiative? How can we adjust as we get feedback on what we say and more importantly how we act?

What should our future innovation eco-system look like? Which partners do we plan to attract for this?

Can we develop systems and processes that enable us to deal with external input and handle this in a proper way and in reasonable time?

How can we work with external consultants, service providers and innovation intermediaries such as NineSigma and InnoCentive?

Other Considerations:

What kind of IT infrastructure do we need to make this happen? Should we build our own or buy it as an external service?

How can we protect intellectual property and still keep an open mindset on this topic?

Tomado del blog:15inno.com/2012/03/26/25keyquestions/

By Stefan Lindegaard