VOIS - Area 1 - Module 2

  1. MODULE TITLE

Module 2: Main pillars of open innovation strategy
  1. AUTHORS

Ewa Kopczynska
  1. SHORT DESCRIPTION

To benefit from Open Innovation, your company will need an effective strategy accounting for your organisational vision and resource limitations. In this module, you will learn about the key elements of an Open Innovation strategy, such as creating a clear vision of Open Innovation strategy and activities and how to identify needs for external resources in the scope of innovation process. Going through the module, always keep your specific SME in mind to relate the contents to your specific context.
  1. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    Upon completing this module, you should be able to:

  • Better understand the innovation process and the application of Open Innovation for overcoming shortages in your internal resources and capabilities,
  • Consider different types of innovation for possible application in the scope of your strategy,
  • Design a strategy accounting for a specific vision of your company,
  • Understand the initial steps of your Open Innovation strategy development and what other aspects should be considered afterwards.
  1. Training Content
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What is innovation, types of innovation and innovation process – including an example of SMEs innovation process in agrifood,

Before you start developing your Open Innovation strategy and reach the partners with your innovation ideas or needs, it is critical that you do understand well what innovation is and how the process of developing innovation looks like.

For sure innovation is not a new concept to you.

Thinking question

When you think about innovation, what comes to your mind?

Write down your first associations ……….

Thinking question

How would you explain your employees what innovation is?

Write it down….

Innovation is often associated directly with technology. In reality, innovation is however a very broad concept related with a much larger scope of opportunities.

Despite multiple definitions of innovation, it may be understood as a process of translating an idea or invention into a new or improved good or service that offers additional value to customers.

Hence, innovation is not about discovering a new technology or a novel invention. It is about how to translate any novelty into a value for customers and how to capitalize on it. It is about how to make something valuable for your target customer or audience and achieve an economic benefit out of it.

Example: Technology vs. innovation

Development of sensor technology allowed acquisition of information by detecting the physical, chemical, or biological property quantities and converting them into a readable signal. But sensors as an invention detached from specific application content and user value is not an innovation. Only application of the sensor and marketing it to specific customers, as for example introducing sensors to analyze moisture content and soil conditions into agricultural market to allow farmers more precise farming, is an actual innovation.

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

It is highly relevance for your SME success to understand that innovation is not just a process of discovery, but it is a multistage and often nonlinear process starting from the opportunity or need definition to successful commercialization that allows you to put your novelty into hands of the customer that recognizes the value in what you are offering and allows you to capitalize on it.

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