The “Great Ideation” amid the “Great Restructuring”: How can you bring open innovation to the future of work? [Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
Happy Friday, everyone!
Today, we’ll discuss one of the events we conducted regarding the future of work.
In February 2021, we held a webinar to talk about bringing open innovation to the world of work. Here, I spoke with two industry leaders from consulting companies Open Assembly and Deloitte Pixel.
You may listen to the recording and view the transcript of our discussion here.
We also encourage you to keep reading below. We’re sharing a few key points to help you experience the positive impacts of open innovation as you experience various changes in the business industry.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Mindfulness by Miles
Have you heard about Open Innovation?
This is a term used to promote an information age mindset that contradicts the secrecy and silo mentality of traditional corporate research labs.
Basically, open innovation is an alternative to the conventional method of doing innovation, where information has to stay within preset parameters. From the name itself, this means being open to sharing and receiving new kinds of information.
Let’s dive deeper into this topic…
Photo from Viima
On February 11, 2021, MBO Partners conducted a webinar titled, “Bringing Open Innovation to the Future Work.” Here, the firm’s CEO, Miles Everson, spoke with two industry leaders, namely:
- John Winsor, CEO of Open Assembly
- Balaji Bondili, Head of Deloitte Pixel
According to Everson, Winsor, and Bondili, open innovation is the new trend that companies from all over the world should be adopting.
With several pressing issues facing many corporations nowadays, they believe businesses must use crowdsourcing and open innovation technologies to access top talents, solve challenges, gain new insights, and build a culture of innovation in their organizations.
Why NOW is the Time for Open Innovation
Amid the gloom and doom of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the uplifting things that happened was companies coming together to work openly at unprecedented levels.
As Everson, Winsor, and Bondili say, the world is currently undergoing the “Great Restructuring,” and because of this, firms must be open to address and understand the fragility of traditional systems and apply systems thinking.
These business leaders also believe it’s important for corporations nowadays to connect with the best talents in a frictionless way.
For them, this strategy enables firms to ensure that when they delegate tasks, they understand what work needs to get done and also tap into the skills and expertise of some of the best talents in the field.
Photo from MIT Sloan Management Review
According to an article from the Harvard Business Review, collaboration not only saves human lives but also produces HUGE benefits for companies.
… and with the recent burst of open innovation, Everson, Winsor, and Bondili say business leaders should take note of the MASSIVE potential that comes with this type of innovation: That it allows thousands of executives and students to innovate in a more distributed, decentralized, and participatory way.
However, moving towards open innovation also has challenges. With concerns over intellectual property (IP), return on investment (ROI), and other unforeseen consequences, some businesses think twice before adapting to this trend.
That’s why Everson, Winsor, and Bondili shared their insights on how companies can overcome challenges to open innovation:
- Forget about IP for the meantime.
Some businesses worry about “leaked” information due to collaborations with outsiders. As a result, they only work with others on a few peripheral tasks but not on important business issues.
Example:
Several companies in Europe made it practically impossible for their open innovation partners to provide help and advice. Why?
These firms wouldn’t reveal what their most critical problems entailed, as it could endanger future patenting. So, what was supposed to be an innovative partnership turned into an irrelevant activity.
According to Everson, Winsor, and Bondili, IP is important but it shouldn’t block any open innovation initiative from gaining momentum. They say in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be wiser to focus more on creating value rather than capturing value.
- Make the most out of open innovation-related motivation.
Everson, Winsor, and Bondili believe companies must rely on voluntary and active participation of employees and partners to succeed in a particular task/project.
They say instead of relying on a combination of hard and soft incentives to motivate internal and external collaborators, businesses must identify AND respond to their partners’ true motivators.
Example: Some professionals are motivated by a strong desire to enhance their skill sets, while businesses are motivated by an effective means to access complementary skills and assets.
By taking advantage of these motivators, firms can proceed with their open innovation initiatives more effectively and efficiently.
- Be open to new and potential partners.
Everson, Winsor, and Bondili say one of the common challenges to open innovation is welcoming new partners. Why?
New collaborations always entail costs in terms of search, validation, compliance, and forming new relationships between people. However, in today’s workforce landscape, partners are important to gain complementary skills and perspectives.
The saying, “No man is an island” also applies to businesses. To continue to thrive in an ever-changing world, companies must learn to explore and work with other firms or outsourced individuals.
This will help them preserve an open-minded attitude towards new and potential partners, and stay on top of their innovation strategies.
According to Everson, Winsor, and Bondili, companies should turn to open innovation as the “Great Ideation” in the midst of the “Great Restructuring.” Adapting to this new trend will enable them to bring diversity of thought and capability in their workforce.
What else?
Businesses and professionals must have the passion and purpose to openly innovate TOGETHER. For Everson, Winsor, and Bondili, doing things together is a way to see MASSIVE potential for individual professionals and the firm as a whole.
Keep these tips and insights in mind and apply them in how you run a business or manage a team!
By bringing open innovation to your workforce, you, your colleagues, and your firm will operate with a much bigger purpose than just getting the next best idea.
Stay tuned for next week’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles”
High-performance businesses are run by people who think and act differently.
In other words, these are people who are high-performing individuals.
Companies and individuals of this kind have found ways to escape the grind of commoditization and competition by focusing on the RIGHT goals.
High-performing businesses and individuals are also “return driven” businesses and “career driven” individuals. They conscientiously develop unique capabilities and resources that allow them to deliver offerings in ways no other firm or individual can.
Every Friday, we’ll publish tips and insights from MBO Partners and The I Institute’s “The Business Builder Daily” newsletter.
These will help you gain knowledge on the things that Miles Everson, the CEO of MBO Partners, often talks about regarding the future of the workforce.
We’ll also highlight other mindfulness advice on how you can be a high-performing individual both in your career and personal life.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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