Open Innovation - BQF Innovation Unit Meeting
We had a fascinating meeting on April 20th on the subject of Open Innovation. To paraphrase Henry Chesbrough, Open Innovation is a systematic business model for combining internal and external ideas to make innovation happen. Andrew Gaule explained how the model works and quoted case studies including Tate and Lyle and Proctor and Gamble.
Kevin McFarthing, Global Director of Strategic Alliances at Reckitt Benckiser, explained how his company was directly encouraging external contributors to collaborate on inventions and innovations for their product range.
RB Idealink is their initiative to publicise their intent and to invite alliances for innovation. They are looking for partners with technologies, products and brand licensing opportuntities. They specifiy a list of areas in which they are interested in ideas - e.g. bleaching, dyes, fragrances, non-wovens etc. Once an idea is submitted they guarantee to respond in less than three months.
For more details see the Idealink website.
If you want to see copies of Andrew or Kevin’s presentations please ask me or Pat Myles.
The meeting concluded with a lively discussion on what is stopping more companies from investing in open innovation. A lack of leadership commitment to the open approach was identified as one of the key barriers.
Paul Sloane
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