Open Innovation propagates sharing and collaboration with external parties. The architect of the term Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough, describes the following principles as being at the foundation of Open Innovation

• Not all smart people work in-house – need to tap into external knowledge
• External R&D can generate significant value to us
• Research does not need to originate from our internal work to be profitable for us
• A strong business model is more important than first to market
• Internal as well as external ideas are essential to win
• We can capitalise on our own Intellectual Property (IP) and we should buy others’ IP when needed

While the term was initially very much related to IP, it has evolved; A recent valuable resource of literature on open innovation has been composed by VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems. It has been made available on openinnovation.nl

In practice, there are many shapes in which Open Innovation can be manifested. So how about some examples?

• Co-branding, such as the smart car which started as a joint-venture of Daimler-Benz and Swatch, Nike+iPod by Nike and Apple, the Beertender by Heineken and Krupps, and the Senseo coffee maker by Douwe Egberts and Philips. Ironically, the latter example indicates that co-branding does not necessarily mean joint development.
• Working together with customers, suppliers, and other companies. Being located near one another, such as on the High tech Campus in Eindhoven, certainly helps
• Knowledge exchange with government, research institutions, universities, etc. A good example is autoindetoekomst.nl.
• (Lead) user innovation such as Philips’ initiative Leadusers.nl.
• Crowdsourcing such as the Goldcorp Challenge, t-shirt company Threadless, and the search for Steve Fossett, where 50,000 people scrutinised more than 300,000 squares of high resolution digital imagery trying to find his crashed plane. GMails M-Velope video is not only viral, but also made by actual GMail users. Many (online) communities depend mainly on User Generated Content.
• Mass customisation such as Brewtopia, My M&M’s, Edelwiser Ski Designer, and Lego Factory can also be seen as a form of open innovation.
• Another variation of open innovation is conducting ‘Idea Challenges’ such as “500 Wants you” by Fiat, Dell IdeaStorm, My Starbucks Idea, and the Cisco i-Prize. Essentially an Idea Challenge asks different sorts of contributors (clients, suppliers, end users) for their ideas.

There are many more initiatives. Do you have any good examples?