Collaborative Innovation: The Route to Open Strategy

Historically many products, business ideas, or internal initiatives have been launched based on gut feelings. “This is a great idea”, “We will change the world with this” … However, more and more, the benefits of Open Strategy are shifting dynamics and developing an environment to roll out solutions more efficiently.

Struggling as a result of silo thinking, isomorphism, and bureaucracy... If this resonates with you, this blog can be of interest. 

What are the barriers?

The inherited legacy of many companies is the main stumbling block. According to Greiner’s model, large companies with high maturity, tend to have two types of crises:

• Crisis of Red Tape – A dangerous growth in organisational bureaucracy

• Crisis of Growth - Growth slowing as business runs out of ideas

• 
  

Working in silos is also a key factor when it comes to inefficient delivery of innovation processes. This does not allow us to get the bigger picture in the process of ideation, it reduces the diligence in the execution and slows down the go-to-market stage. In many cases, it does not even go live because we understand, at some point, that it was not technically feasible, commercially viable or even desired by the user.

Finally, isomorphism is when the source of the idea is a simple “me too”. I do this because my competitor is doing it as well. Although it might be a laudable strategy, when efficiently executed, it might be a problem when the execution is poor, or slow. When we are in digital environments the negative consequences are even more severe.

The solution is collaboration

The solutions to Greiner’s model scenarios are collaboration and alliances (In some way a form of collaboration). In order to solve the rest of the barriers, collaboration and link between the different stages of an innovation process is key.

In this regard, Rothwell presented several generation models to take advantage of the collaboration, and interaction between technology push and market pull. 

4th generation model, based on (Rothwell, 1994)

In the implementation of an initiative, idea or strategy is key to aligning the different steps of innovation, the innovation value chain, recognises three main steps, idea generation, conversion/execution and diffusion. Other relevant processes of innovation, such as Design Thinking, or Nine state innovation journey, show similar stages.

In many cases, the focus in the Idea generation is to solve a problem. For that purpose, understanding the user’s pains and the viability of the execution is crucial. Engagement from different stakeholders is paramount to coming up with a WOW moment, but especially, a feasible idea. 

Regarding conversion, Geng, (2017) described that innovation equals creativity times execution. That says that if you have creativity, but the execution is bad or faulty, innovation fails. 

In the stage of diffusion, rather than simply being consumer-oriented, it should be collaborating with and learning from customers and being adaptive to their individual and dynamic needs.

Revolution

In conclusion, whether it is a simple initiative, a strategy, or a continuous improvement project, collaboration is key. Engaging the key stakeholders that either are going to use the product, execute the idea, or sell the solution, is crucial to be successful. 

Open strategy aims to involve a larger group of individuals, both externals and internals, in the strategy design and the decision-making process. We need the right communication, we need to embrace diversity, we need to create partnerships, and above all, to highlight the benefits of that collaboration. The outcome of that is the revolution of Open Strategy.

Original blog: Collaborative Innovation: The Route to Open Strategy | Multiverse Community Hub