(141a) Open Innovation: Existing Models and Analysis | AIChE

(141a) Open Innovation: Existing Models and Analysis

Authors 

Karanjikar, M. - Presenter, Chevron Energy Technology Co


Chemical Industry has long relied upon ?Closed Innovation' paradigm. Under this paradigm, innovation processes are handled within a company. A very few individuals engage in such an activity. Due to increasing competition and historically slow moving nature of a lot of organizations innovation has become very important. Due to advent of World Wide Web information can now flow instantaneously and cheaply. Thus open innovation has emerged as a concept.

Open innovation is a process under which an organization can access talent from outside to get the first mover advantage. Open innovation can be considered as an augmentation to existing innovation processes. The various reasons why open innovation needs to be applied are: access to widely dispersed talent, ideas may not necessarily originate in conventional R&D structures, not all smart people work for you, duplication of problem solution can be avoided as someone may already have solved the problem among others. There has been an increased awareness about open innovation in recent years. For example, Proctor and Gamble intend to source half of its innovations from outside of the organization.

This paper discusses three different models being practiced world-wide; viz. Innocentive® (Eli Lilly Venture), Ninesigma® (Major clients: P&G, Kraft, Dupont etc) and TwoDI® (Active in Indian sub-continent). The analysis will focus on state-of-the-art, merits and disadvantages of each model. Few recommendations are made by combining knowledge from, Chemical Engineering, project management, World Wide Web and Organizational Behavior.