Innovation in the 21st century is increasingly open, collaborative, multi-disciplinary and global. There are erosion factors which are providing increasing challenges for traditional R&D functions to retain knowledge. Of these mobility of people, loss of technological hegemony, increasing sophistication of university research schemes, knowledge leak, pervasive communities of users practicing their own innovation and availability of venture capital are key factors.
Closed Innovation is being challenged; Joy’s law states:
No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.
Tapping into the knowledge that sits outside of the enterprise and having a process to cross-fertilise internal innovation strategy is therefore important and increasingly prevalent.
