Innovation Networks

Interesting article (coincidentally, I was just briefed by Brightidea on the topic of innovation management - this dovetails on that thread nicely. You need a process but you also need a network aspect (read the article below) and you also need to address the "fuzzy front end" of innovation (perhaps leveraging tools such as blogs, wikis, tagging, etc). And, you need to have a sensory network while the concept moves through the more structures innovation management process.

I really enjoyed this point from Larry Huston, managing partner of consulting firm 4INNO:

"So, the very first step is to get very clear about why you're doing it, and what your strategic intent is. And then begin to really design the network around the strategic intent. Do you need just incremental problem solving? Do I need to build idea nets? Do I need to build solution nets? Do I need cost innovation networks? Am I looking for disruptive innovation? Do I need to reach from one domain into another domain of knowledge outside of my industry where I might find more disruptive innovation?"

Not all networks are the same, or used in the same manner. The same is true when we think of social networks BTW. I also thought this point was great:

"The other way to go with networks is to think about a relationship based model -- [that is,] to identify small, medium, large companies that have strategic technologies where I would develop relationships -- top-to-top relationships between my firm and those firms. We basically co-invent, or collaborate together to create the inventions.

The reality is, you can't support a lot of those because those are time intensive. It takes a couple of years to get them off and going. They need to understand you. You need to build trust in them back and forth.
So what you're really doing is, you're building a portfolio of relationships with the outside world. Some of them will be transactions where you just send things out and look for things to come back. Others will be a portfolio of relationships that you very carefully have thought about and you leverage your networks in that way."

There are organizational networks (think entities, companies) not just social networks as they pertain to people (although they are intertwined).

Other key points brought up include: the downside of networks re: loss of intellectual property, and absorption capacity re: being inundated with requests.

Full article:

According to Larry Huston, managing partner of consulting firm 4INNO, future competitive advantage will depend on "innovation networks" -- individuals and organizations outside a company that can help it solve problems and find new ideas for creating growth. A senior fellow at Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation, Huston was vice president of knowledge and innovation for many years at Procter & Gamble, where he was the architect of its Connect + Develop program, an approach that helped extend the company's innovation process to include 1.5 million people outside of P&G. Huston spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about how innovation networks function, the ways they can be nurtured, their potential downsides and the impact they will have on how firms bring products to market. (In a previous podcast, Huston spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about innovation and its role in the global economy.) An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Innovation Networks: Looking for Ideas Outside the Company - Knowledge@Wharton

Comments

[pinkHammer]

Yeah, putting your objective into perspective paves the way for effective innovation,, Nice article you got there!!