A post by David Simoes-Brown about Open Innovation guru Henry Chesbrough’s visit to NESTA. NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts with a vision to transform the UK's capacity for innovation. Chesbrough has been described by the Economist as “the godfather of open innovation”. Click here for a short video of him in action.
Henry Chesbrough opened the corporate lab with a presentation on the theory of open innovation, and lead the discussion on the implications for practice. You could tell this subject is hot by looking at the quality and seniority of the audience from organisations as diverse as ARUP, AstraZeneca, BBC, BT, GSK, IDEO, RBS, Oracle Kodak, Capgemini, McLaren F1, Microsoft, Oracle, Unilever, P&G and Cancer Research UK. Henry explained why open innovation was on the rise citing factors such as the explosion in venture capital, private funding of universities and increasing workforce mobility amongst others. He then outlined four themes of the 'logic of open innovation':
· Good ideas are widely distributed and no-one has a monopoly;
· Not all the smart people work for us;
· Companies must employ poker players as well as chess players;
· You must manage IP in order to manage research.
Center for Open Innovation
NESTA Research Reports
The following links take you to a list of all NESTA's Policy and Research Unit's research reports.
Of particular interest is the Leading Innovation report on how to build effective regional coalitions for innovation. For regions without the extraordinary assets of Silicon Valley (what is termed here ‘ordinary’ regions), making the leap from an old-economy paradigm to one based on innovation in services and high-tech industries can seem impossible. But it isn’t. As shown in the report, it is made up of a series of smaller, more achievable steps. Two things stand out, however: this isn’t a fast process; and it requires deep regional knowledge and strong regional leadership.
The case studies presented in this report showcase seven European regions that have successfully made the transition from ordinary to innovative region; and four UK regions that are somewhere along that journey. It concludes by presenting a guide to the ‘regional innovation journey’ and an analysis of the types of leadership that may be required along the way.
With all due respect, I think the NESTA report misses one important and necessary element to the innovation equation. That's TOLERANCE!
While Silicon Valley, often refered to as the "gold standard" of innovative regions, is endowed with many important assets that allowed innovation to spring forth, what made (and I hope continues to make) Silicon Valley a well-spring for innovation is its tolerant additudes.
This is not something that is legislated or orchestrated by "regional planning commissions". At least here in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area it's been a part of the area's fabric since the Gold Rush of the mid-19th Century.
Richard Florida of George Mason University in Virginia (http://creativeclass.com/) stumbled onto "tolerance" as a key differentiator in his research on regional urban and economic development. His two books on the "Creative Class" are well worth reading for any serious study of regional and innovation development.
I think there's little doubt that Europe will find its own formula for "innovation success", but if it's going to study existing models, it should understand all the important elements -- including the "secret sauce".
Posted by: Account Deleted | December 16, 2007 at 11:42 AM