OpenUp2Innovate OMIND consulting

This podcast combines research and practice of open innovation. Sometimes we have researchers as guests sharing scientific insights, other times we have practitioners sharing best practices on open innovation. Today, we combine both in one person: Dr. Oana-Maria Pop, head of open innovation at HYPE Innovation! Oana did her Ph.D. in economic ecosystems and collaboration. Oana has always been back and forth periodically between research and practice. Now she is applying her research into practice and supporting companies in integrating open innovation into their innovation strategy.

Oana & Aurelia got to know each other in June 2021 at a panel discussion organized by United Europe. Oana came from the service industry and Aurelia from psychology but what unites both was the intersection of open innovation. They hosted a challenge session at the World Open Innovation Conference together and it clicked so well that there was not much preparation needed as they both shared the same values and beliefs which was an important foundation for a successful collaboration without using many words.



A quote that influenced Oana on her way of doing research and business:

"You cannot really trust someone who is not willing to change their mind"The understanding that social science is not static has a big impact on Oana's line of work. There is interesting research on why people want to collaborate and why people do not want to collaborate. Her favorite book is "This Idea Must Die" by John Brockmann which is a collection of essays by different authors. You have to progress through things - nothing stays forever. Some people are not comfortable with pivoting and changing their way of doing things.



Oana & Aurelia collaborate very well with each other as they both share the same values and beliefs. Oana emphasizes the following values that decide whether she would like to collaborate with a person or not:

- Authenticity: Don't pretend to be someone you are not

- Humour: Take yourself less serious

- Curiosity: Be interested in new things

- Trustworthiness: Being able to trust

- Track records: Such as how that person interacts with the waiter

- Shared goals: Are we going in the same direction?

- Inspiration: Does this person inspire me?



Oana is not looking for a "one-hit wonder" but for a long-term collaboration! It is about the journey and what you pick up along the journey... Aurelia & Oana agree that there is no need for more unicorns but rather sustainably growing companies that learn and improve steadily along the way!



Reasons why companies stop investing in innovation:According to Oana:

1) Companies don't really know that investment in innovation increases their profit in the long run.

2) Companies are scared and hesitant at the moment.

3) Companies stop innovation programs because they don't see the success. The reason for this: They don't measure the results.



Companies want to see quick wins and underestimate the sustainable success of innovation. This is contradictory to building a sustainable innovation culture.Everything is at our fingertips at the moment. Everything comes up simultaneously. There is not sufficient patience anymore. If we do a better job of documenting how we work, would already increase our sense of success to make people believe in the progress. But changing behavior and habits take a while and people lose their patience too early.

Dr. Schlegel lives in Melbourne and travels regularly to Germany so he knows both cultures very well. The main difference he sees between the two cultures that relate to innovative activity is that Australians are very open to experiments. That is something that companies in Germany are reluctant to. German companies are rather very protective of their own IP. If something goes wrong, Australian companies are very open to seeing it as a lesson learned, to take something out of it and understand how to fix this. This is more cultivated in Australia than it is in Germany.

Practical advice of Dr. Schlegel for our community:



- Companies are recommended to enter the market early, develop their product in close collaboration with their customers and learn from the Australian culture by increasing failure tolerance & willingness to experiment.- Use the structural process by Gene Slowinski Want, Find, Get, Manage

as a best practice for open innovation, especially to structure and communicating your open innovation process or R&D strategy.



Key takeaways of the talk between Dr. Martin Schlegel who is the executive chair and board member of ASTN - the Australien Sports Technologies Network.Australian companies accept the premise that the current problems are way bigger than only one company can solve.



An open innovation mindset is the prerequisite for sharing and collaboration beyond the supply chain



Australia is a very multicultural society there are different viewpoints and lived experiences to find that add to being able to come up with solutions that otherwise would not be accessible.



There are structural differences between Start-Ups and SMEs. The definition of a start-up is "a temporal organization in search of scalable and profitable business modules where it is all about learning."



Successful collaboration between Start-Ups and SMEs needs a facilitator to overcome the psychological barriers of SMEs to share and source knowledge with start-ups.



Open innovation is in part reflecting the behavior of start-ups in the corporate world: The most important attitude in open innovation is to understand the problem your partner is facing. This actually draws from the normal approach of testing business models that start-ups do: First understand thoroughly what the customers are facing, understand the real need and driver. Why are not more companies developing their product with the customers instead of chasing investors?



There are attitudinal differences between Australia and Germany on how to approach sports - more to learn about in this episode. Tune in!

According to Henry Chesbrough, a lot of the challenges relate to the people inside the organization.Henry Chesbrough coined the term Open Innovation in 2003. What has changed since then?

In 2003 the focus was primarily on one organization and the innovation happening within the boundaries of a company. In the last 20 years, things have moved in a couple of ways:



1. Inside the organization: We have now a much richer sense of opportunities and challenges that OI can bring. A lot of the challenges of OI relate to the people.



2. Outside the organization: Nowadays, it is about bringing together many organizations. Collectively, we need to find out how to collaborate and orchestrate better solutions by building ecosystems!





Open Innovation appears to get confused with "revealing all knowledge and IP". These misconceptions are rooted in fears. Any advice on how to reduce these fears?

You don't share everything!



There is a learning curve: If you gain more experience, it becomes more natural and easier to train and manage the process.



Working with larger companies: Create a public shareable version of your service so that people can say see the value. You don't share the specifics of how you do things, or what specific compounds you use.



How do we motivate and not demoralize the people?

Reframe the purpose of the organization: For example, instead of being the people who are solving the hardest problems, NASA now sees itself as the seeker of the answers to these hard problems (inside or outside the organization). This reframing helped NASA to align the goals of their organizations with the mechanism of OI.



Reconsideration of reward systems: Organizations need to establish a reward system that appreciates internal achievements but at the same time considers recognition for externally sourced know-how.





What can managers do to establish an OI mindset?



1. Achieve an early win: To create a small project that does not take a lot of money and time but achieves something positive that creates a positive flywheel effect.



2. Acknowledge all contributors: If you achieve this small win you should not only celebrate this win but all the people who have contributed to it - especially those outside the innovation team.



3. Align KPIs and reward systems: They have to be adjusted to stimulate the behavior we really want so that we can broaden this success to the entire organization.





Henry summarized all his experiences in books written especially for managers:

How to move from technology development to the business model side: Chesbrough, H. (2006). Open business models: How to thrive in the new innovation landscape. Harvard Business Press.



How to move from the world of products to the world of services:

Chesbrough, H. (2011). Open services innovation: Rethinking your business to grow and compete in a new era. John Wiley & Sons.



How to get positive business results from open innovation:

Chesbrough, H. (2019). Open innovation results: Going beyond the hype and getting down to business. Oxford University Press.

Open Innovation als KreativitätsboosterWer ist Dr. Gerrit Jochims?



Gerrit ist Mitgründer und Geschäftsführer von IdeaChamp. Der Innovationsenthusiast promovierte über Kreativität in Organisationen und berät seit 2014 Unternehmen in Bezug auf Innovationsprozesse. 2021 gründete er mit seinem Team die IdeaChamp Innovation GmbH, die eine digitale Kollaborationssoftware für Innovationsideen entwickelt.



Sophie spricht mit Gerrit darüber wie MitarbeiterInnen zündende Ideen entwickeln können:



Beide sind sich einig: Kreativität kann durch die Kollaboration mit diversen Menschen außerhalb des Unternehmens gefördert werden.



Gerrit verrät, wie er zu seinen innovativsten Ideen gekommen ist:



Sein Kreativprozess involviert Schreiben, Malen, Zeichen und startet zunächst mit der Frage "Warum ist das ein Problem?". Im nächsten Schritt besorgt er sich Know-How das ihm helfen könnte. Er spricht meistens mit Leuten die in dem selben Bereich schon mal ein ähnliches Problem hatten und dann arbeitet das erstmal eine Weile.



Tipps von Gerrit & Sophie, um Probleme kreativer und effizienter zu lösen:

Gewohnheiten entwickeln: Es darf nichts Besonderes sein, dass spannende Ideen von außen kommen. Externe Wissenseinflüsse sollen der Normalzustand werden. Wenn die Mitarbeiter:innen sich mehr mit externen Partnern austauschen, dann wird es zur Gewohnheit und das so genannte "Not-Invented-Here Syndrom" dadurch reduziert.



Aktiver Austausch: Andere Sichtweisen sehen und das Problem aus verschiedenen Perspektiven zu beleuchten hilft, um auf neue kreative Ideen kommen. Die eindeutige Aufforderung: Geht auf Leute aktiv zu, auch - und vor allem - wenn sie fachfremd sind!



Offenes Mindset: Offenheit hilft aus ausgetauschten Informationen wertvolle Ideen zu entwickeln und diese umzusetzen. Um kreativ sein zu können, muss man sich öffnen - innerhalb und außerhalb des Unternehmens.



Eigenes Verhalten ändern: Wenn Leute mit neuen Ideen auf dich ankommen, dann nimm die Idee zunächst an und gehe konstruktiv damit um, bevor du sie direkt ablehnst oder Kritik äußerst. Frage dich zunächst einmal "Wie kann uns das helfen und unter welchen Umständen?"





Open Innovation und Kreativität - beides bedingt sich

Ein offenes Mindset ist die Grundlage, um Open Innovation betreiben zu können. Laut Forschung ist Kreativitität eine Dimension des Open Innovation Mindsets (Engelsberger et al. 2022). Um kreativ sein zu können, muss man sich öffnen und über den eigenen Tellerrand hinausschauen. Daher benötigt man, um Kreativität zielbewusst einsetzen zu können, Open Innovation. Kreativität und Open Innovation sind daher ein sich gegenseitig befruchtender Kreislauf....

Gerrit fasst dies sehr gut in den folgenden Worten zusammen:

"Kreativität würde verhungern, wenn man nicht intern oder extern offen ist. Kreativität brauch Open Innovation und Open Innovation brauch Kreativität!"



Das klingt alles super - aber wie umsetzen?

Wenn ich ernsthaft im Unternehmen Kreativität fördern möchte und mit Open Innovation befeuern möchte, damit wir effizienter werden, Kosten sparen und somit die Energiewende meistern, brauchen wir Tools um das alles in die Praxis umsetzen zu können! Die Mitarbeiter:innen benötigen Handwerkszeug, um zielgerichtet Wissensflüsse ermöglichen zu können und diese Instrumente sollen auch attraktiv gestaltet sein. Es müssen zielgerichtet Wissenshäppchen bereitgestellt werden, die nicht in Hierarchien untergehen. Das Ziel: Mitarbeiter:innen dabei zu unterstützen besser und effektiver Ideen zu entwickeln.



Wie sieht euer Kreativprozess aus? Und zu wie viel % involviert ihr andere Menschen dabei? Teilt eure Erfahrungen mit uns und sendet uns eine Email an info@omindconsulting.com.

Dr. Aurelia Engelsberger, CEO and founder of OMIND consulting and OMIND platform GmbH provides some insights on her research and how she translated the results into easy-to-use and accessible tools for practictioners.

Our podcast host Sophie talks about the findings of her thesis on Open Innovation at German public broadcasters.