 Selected Excerpts from In the beginning… “Innovation used to be something companies did within their four walls. Thousands of researchers and scientists toiled deep within the bowels of large corporations to create the next big thing. Corporations viewed their innovation initiatives as proprietary and secret. And they attempted to hire the best and the brightest researchers and managers to drive basic research and new product development. Then the Internet happened.” The essence of network-centric innovation… “To enjoy the benefits of a rapidly expanding horizon of innovation opportunities, companies need to make gradual shifts from firm-centric innovation to network-centric innovation. The emphasis on the network as the focal point and the associated opportunity to extend, optimize, and enhance the value of a stand-alone entity by making it more intelligent, adaptive, and personalized is the essence of network-centricity.” Looking beyond your company’s four walls… “The multiple dimensions of the innovation crisis – cost, time to market, quality, creativity – combine to create a multiplier effect that can jeopardize your company’s future. To secure its future, you need to look outside your firm for ideas, technologies, and products. You need to harness the power the Global Brain to improve the reach, increase the speed, and reduce the cost of your innovation process. You need to choose and implement network-centric innovation models and roles that are most appropriate for your company.” Understanding your company’s innovation context… “Naturally, the question is, how should a company go about deciding what is the most appropriate network-centric innovation opportunity? To answer this question, firms need to go beyond simply trying out different approaches and seeing what works, or copying what works for other companies. Instead, we recommend a more systematic approach that starts with a good understanding of the broad structure of network-centric innovation opportunities. With this knowledge in hand, managers can then narrow their focus to select a place in the landscape that is most relevant for their firm’s innovation context.” The four models of network-centric innovation: The Orchestra model… “The Orchestra model for network-centric innovation closely resembles the organization and structure of a typical symphony orchestra. The structure of the innovation space is fairly well-defined and the network leadership is centralized with a single dominant firm. And just as the musical instruments in an orchestra need to resonate with each other, the innovative contributions of network members in the Orchestra model also complement one another.” The four models of network-centric innovation: The Creative Bazaar model… “The Creative Bazaar model describes a context wherein a dominant firm shops for innovation in a global bazaar of new ideas, products, and technologies and uses its proprietary commercialization infrastructure to build on the ideas and make them market-ready. In much the same way as a music studio sources new musical compositions from a wide variety of artists, companies that implement the Creative Bazaar model to source new products or services can use a variety of mechanisms to source new ideas and technologies from inventors.” The four models of network-centric innovation: The Jam Central model… “The Jam Central model involves individual contributors coming together to collaborate in envisioning and developing an innovation. The innovation space is typically not well structured and the objectives and direction of the innovation tends to emerge organically from the collaboration. Like a musical jam session, there are no dominant members and the responsibility for leading and coordinating the activity is diffused among network members.” The four models of network-centric innovation: The Mod Station model… “The Mod Station model is focused on exploiting an existing innovation or knowledge to address market/technological issues by a community of innovators (innovation users, customers, scientists, experts, and so on). The activities occur within the boundaries of a predefined innovation space, and aim to add, enhance, or adapt existing products or services. The norms and values that govern the innovation activities are established by the community and not by any one dominant firm.” Accessing the Innovation Capitalist… “An innovation capitalist (IC) is an organization that seeks out and evaluates innovative technology and product concepts from the inventor community and other external sources; develops and refines these ideas to stage where their market potential is validated; and then markets these technology and product concepts to large client firms. In other words, an IC firm transforms the ideas to a stage where a large firm can make a much better judgment of their market potential.” Letting go and learning to trust… “As companies collaborate with external entities in innovation initiatives, they have to become comfortable with the notion of losing control over the innovation process. And they have to become comfortable with the idea that they have to contribute some or all of their propriety knowledge to enhance the innovation effort.” The role of the CEO… “The CEO’s role goes beyond setting goals related to how much innovation should be sourced from outside or how much new revenue should be generated from network-centric innovation initiatives. CEO’s need to champion a new set of beliefs that might initially be perceived as heretical and generate stiff internal resistance.” Getting your processes ready … “When most companies decide to look outside for innovative ideas, more than likely such initiatives would start out in an ad-hoc fashion. However, as more and more resources get committed to such initiatives, the need for clearly defined processes soon becomes apparent. Unless basic processes are established to guide and manage the company’s participation in external innovation initiatives, the organization’s ability to derive returns from such activities can be seriously hampered.” Looking beyond the borders… “The Global Brain transcends the boundaries of geography. Companies in the emerging economies have the potential to play important roles in such global network-centric innovation initiatives. What types of partners can firms tap into as they seek to globalize their innovation efforts? What are the opportunities for companies in countries such as India and China to participate in the various forms of global network-centric innovation? How should companies prepare for such global innovation opportunities?” Come Monday, think big but start small… “After you have developed a broad perspective for your company to view network-centric innovation opportunities, it is equally important to start with an initiative that has manageable scope and whose returns will be clearly evident. Such an approach can also help you earn a quick win that can then be used to propel other initiatives.” |
