Open innovation and artificial intelligence

Open Innovation in the Age of AI paper by Marcus Holgersson, Linus Dahlander, Henry Chesbrough, and Marcel L. A. M. Bogers is a great summary of how artificial intelligence can impact open innovation. I will add two important points to the paper:

Open innovation is a relationship

In different cultures open innovation is understood differently. For example, Wikipedia page for open innovation in English and French are different – English is very technical, while French uses words like principles, ethics, and solidarity. In some industries and cultures open innovation is understood as a new way to relate to clients, customers, end-users. It is an ultimate human-to-human collaborative relationship. Process and participants are more important than the resulting innovation. While AI can liberate open innovation from boring repetitive tasks, I would like that collaborative relationship of open innovation – openness – is more emphasized. If the openness part is not protected, open innovation will be diminished.

Open innovation for artificial intelligence

Also, an important aspect of open innovation and AI is not how AI changes open innovation, but how open innovation changes AI. AI is a form of centralization – it is an expensive and complex technology which is extremely hard to edit by users. While it will solve many problems, it also requires a counterpart – something that destresses its extreme centralization, a more open approach. If every company in the world uses the same AI then we will reduce innovation and uniqueness. Also, AI greatly depends on third party data, which is a form of open innovation, and AI makers will not always be able to simply buy it. AI will need to adopt open innovation in order to become a truly liberating and universal technology.

If we forget that open innovation is not only about innovation but also about being open, we are limiting its capacity. If we assume AI is something that changes us, instead of something that we change, again we are limiting its capacity. Both open innovation and AI are amazing tools with which we can build our future, but they need to be used at full capacity – open innovation and AI must be truly open.

We partnered with Strategic Management Society Conference, Belgrade, 16 - 17 Oct 2024

We partnered with Strategic Management Society Conference Extension, Belgrade, 16 – 17 Oct 2024

Strategic Management Society Conference Extension (SMS Conference) is organized by and will be held at Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, in collaboration with University of Southern California and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

We partnered with the SMS Conference because it explores connections between platforms and strategic management. Our platform software OPEN OS and our platforms like openinnovation.me are great examples of how platforms play a transformative role in business strategy.

Platforms as strategic tools and boosters not only are a great way to digitalize a business, but also the easiest and cost-effective. Some of our upcoming case studies will also show how open innovation platforms can act as a core business element, same as e-commerce platforms for online retailers.

join on LinkedIn (takes ~13 sec)

For more information email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

OPEN CITY - Andrea's workshop in Magenta, Italy

At 19:00 CET on Sat 12 Oct Andrea will hold a OPEN CITY workshop – on open innovation potential in governing cities.

OPEN CITY webinar is hosted by Colora event in Magenta, Italy.

OPEN CITY is a city or a town in which the governing body uses an OPEN OS open innovation platform to solve problems and innovate. OPEN CITY can start with few marginal problems and eventually include bigger variety of larger problems as citizens and the governing body learn how to use open innovation.

The workshop is suitable for anyone and is great for understanding the flexibility of open innovation which allows a wide range of applications, in this case in city governance.

For us, Magenta is a specially interested town as it has the potential to be a great OPEN CITY case study. It benefits a lot from its vicinity to Milano and yet it is small and flexible to adopt new approaches. We are proud to be supported by the Colora and Magenta.

We hope that we inspire the Magenta locals in considering our OPEN CITY concept for Magenta.

If you have any questions email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

3 phases of open innovation adoption

Based on our experience so far, we can divide open innovation adoption in the phases:

Specific projects
Company is using open innovation to solve specific problems, such as safety, ergonomy, sustainability, with a select group of innovators. Best tool to use: a shared platform, such as openinnovation.me.

Many diverse projects
Multiple teams and departments in a company are using open innovation for different problems, engaging employees, partners, customers, end-users, experts. Best tool to use: branded OPEN OS installation such as open.brand.com.

Core business model
Company core business model is based on open innovation. Company has recognized that without open innovation it can not grow and has integrated it in every necessary aspect of business. Best tool to use: OPEN OS installation for the main website.

3 phases of open innovation adoption are similar to adoption of other technologies and strategies – e-commerce, content marketing, digital advertising, AI. Each company must find its own way of using a new technology and strategy, like open innovation. Some companies immediately understand its potential and fully adopt it.

To start using open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Open innovation as a global disruption

There are three factors that show how disruptive open innovation can be:

Open innovation is accepted by all company departments
Open innovation is not only accepted by R&D and engineering, but by various departments and teams in companies. Open innovation penetrates deeper in each company, beyond any isolated project. For example, luxury marketing can benefit greatly from open innovation.

Open innovation is accepted by all industries
Managing companies using only internal talent to solve every challenge is outdated. Every company of every size in every industry can benefit from open innovation to reduce risks and increase value for employees, partners, customers, end-users. For example, healthcare can improve patient safety with open innovation.

More local & specific open innovation platforms
Open innovation is facilitated by specialized platforms. In time there will be more local platforms catering to companies of various sizes, from different industries, in different locations. For example, an open innovation platform shared by several spas in a small French town.

As all three factors are growing, open innovation will become more disruptive. The risk of relying only on internal resources will be reduced, helping companies be better at making what customers and partners want, everywhere.

To adopt open innovation now email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

open innovation for export webinar slides

On the last Friday 13th I completed a webinar on open innovation for export, organized by Manatex – an export consultancy based in Paris, France.

I explained how open innovation works, from the basic emotion until our platform openinnovation.me, and how it can support marketing, sales, and client relationships in foreign markets. Presentation was rooted in our belief that open innovation must be always shown as a very practical and easy thing to do, so we spoke about our case studies and practical examples.

download the webinar slides

Thank you to Manatex for organizing the webinar. It was a great pleasure to meet their audience. Talking to new people always expands our perspective.

If you are interested to talk more about open innovation for export, email me at nikola@openinnovation.me or connect with me on LinkedIn.

How to measure open innovation?

The only metric for open innovation is an idea that came from an external source which improved a product.

Open innovation does not depend on any other metrics. It is not relevant how many innovators were engaged, how many innovations were added, how well the innovations were written or illustrated, who the external innovators are. None of it is important if you actually get the idea which improves your product.

Although open innovation works well with both marketing and sales, their metrics have nothing to do with open innovation. Marketing is interested only in large numbers and sales is interested only in revenue, both of which are useful tools for open innovation, but are not a metric for it.

I am not saying marketing and sales metrics are not relevant. I am saying that large numbers and bigger revenue do not guarantee that products will be improved with external ideas. And companies that keep attracting ideas and keep improving their products will simply be more competitive.

To start using open innovation in your company today email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

PS Open innovation can be used to improve much more than just a product but for the sake of having a quick definition I used “product” only.

Join our webinar on open innovation for export

At 15:00 CET on Fri 13 Sep (Friday the Thirteenth) Nikola will present how open innovation can be used in entering new markets, specifically to develop export.

The webinar is hosted by Manatex, a Paris based consultancy focused on export development.

This is a good opportunity for business developers, export managers, top managers and owners, and product designers to learn how innovating with clients, customers, and end-users in foreign markets can give them a competitive advantage.

We will discuss how open innovation can impact promotion, marketing, sales, customer service, customer relationships, and product design, with focus on international trade.

Webinar will be in English and will be hosted on LinkedIn. Register below:

If you have any questions email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

Open innovation for marketing, design, luxury...

Innovation is a term preferred by science and engineering companies but as a process it is same as building customer relationships in marketing, design in non-engineering companies, inspiration in luxury. These are all top level innovation processes named differently in different industries.

Marketing is a highly technical activity which aims to build customer relationships. It benefits greatly from open innovation as an ultimate form of cooperation, but it has a difficulty accepting the word “innovation” making open relationship more acceptable.

Non-engineering companies, like furniture brands, prefer to say that they design their products even though they still apply complex engineering processes. They too benefit greatly from open innovation but prefer to call it open design.

Luxury is based on manual work of top experts, but depends greatly on the inspiration of these experts. It benefits from open innovation but it rejects the word “innovation” and prefers open inspiration instead.

Open innovation is a process of solving complex internal intellectual challenges using external talent and it can be applied in all industries, in companies of all sizes, and in all cultures, but to benefit everyone it needs to be localized to each industry and case. The process and tools remain the same, the name changes.

Our OPEN OS software can easily support a wide range of open innovation applications adjusting to each specific goal, scope, and culture. Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to learn more.

Open leadership - open innovation with employees

Open innovation is based on a premise that we do not have all the knowledge needed to reach our goals. The natural result is to ask others for help, and since we do not know who knows how much, we try to ask as many people as possible.

Open leadership is an approach to management which assumes employees have knowledge which is not used. In most organizations this is true for various reasons – closed hierarchy, poor communication, culture is not supportive, information is not shared, there are no openings for employees to participate beyond their assigned processes. Whatever the reason, most organizations are not using all the knowledge they could.

Open leaders are leaders and managers who take concrete actions to access all relevant employee knowledge. They use tools and processes that discover the best ways to engage employees into innovation and other forms of participation.

OPEN OS and openinnovation.me are perfect tools for open leadership. They can be set up very easily for internal use and can give great results thanks to its simplicity and directness. If the same successful method we used in end-users is applied to employees, internal open innovation will give results.

Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to discuss how OPEN OS and openinnovation.me can be used for open leaderships aka open innovation with employees.

What makes Andrea Toniolo a great innovation expert?

Andrea Toniolo is a co-founder, together with me, of openinnovation.me and OPEN OS. He is also an innovation expert – he helps companies innovate.

What makes Andrea great at innovation is that he is not a product designer, not an engineer, not a management consultant – he is a person that connects people and builds trust.

The main goal of innovation is to exit the bubble, go out of the box, break the barriers, transcend the silos – whatever the buzzword you prefer it is always about getting different people to work together. The more people are isolated and the more they entrench in smaller groups, the less they innovate. The more people exchange ideas, talk to each other, and trust each other, the more they innovate.

Andrea has specialized in creating these connections. He connects factory operators to product designers, construction workers to engineers, bakers to suppliers. He is good at creating connections which are often forgotten and neglected in innovation management. And he focuses on the main aspect of these connections – trust.

Andrea is a good example of an innovation expert that should be replicated by managers and consultants – focus on building connections and trust. Innovation, in essence, is not only about science, engineering, and design, but about people working together.

Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn or email him at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Our case study is accepted at WOIC 2024 at UC Berkeley

We are super happy that our case study has been accepted at World Open Innovation Conference 2024 (WOIC) at UC Berkeley this November.

This is an especially important WOIC event because it is held at UC Berkeley, California, where open innovation was started by Dr. Henry Chesbrough. Also, UC Berkeley is one of the most innovative universities in the world, in the epicenter of Silicon Valley innovation.

We are stoked that our and our client’s work is accepted by the global academic open innovation community. This is an important recognition of our unique innovation approach that directly connects end-users to product designers.

Our case study features an open innovation project with our openinnovation.me client Linea Flesh, and shows benefits of open innovation as a competitive strategy for local SMEs. This case study is interesting because it shows how smaller projects can scale and offer substantial value to end-users, clients, and companies in competition with larger non-local competitors. We look forward to presenting it.

Learn more about WOIC 2024 here.

We will share more information about the event and case study later.

Thank you WOIC, Linea Flesh, and our team for support.

Is openwashing good?

“Washing” strategies are used to create public impressions that companies are doing much more than they are actually doing. For example, greenwashing creates an illusion that a company is more sustainable than it is. In spite of “washing” being seen as a misleading strategy, it is still a necessary step change.

One way to see “washing” is that public wants change faster than companies can do it, so companies must somehow satisfy the public need while they prepare at their own pace.

Openwashing is another “washing” strategy – companies pretend to be open much more than they actually are open. They want feedback only for very limited cases, they set short deadlines, they engage only a small selected groups, etc.

In our experience, openwashing is an unavoidable part of adopting open projects. Open innovation, just like digitalization and sustainability, is a business model level change, and it takes time to adopt, and something has to be done in the meantime.

The main error is when companies and consultants actually believe in the openwashing themselves and stop pushing for bigger adoption of open projects. Openwashing can be accepted as a marketing approach as a step towards bigger adoption, but companies should stop there and linger. Same as with greenwashing – companies that do openwashing for long eventually are exposed and their brand is damaged.

If you consult or manage open projects it is actually necessary to start with small projects and overpromote them, but only as an unavoidable step towards bigger projects.

Nikola Tosic OPEN DESIGN workshop at Fabrica, Benetton

At 15:00 CET on Saturday 6th July you are invited to join OPEN DESIGN workshop at Fabrica, Benetton communication research center. The OPEN DESIGN workshop is part of a 30th anniversary of Fabrica. Fabrica was founded in 1994 by Oliviero Toscani. Read more on Wikipedia.

It is perfect for all designers (product, architecture, digital), everyone in design management, or anyone interested in design. Workshop will investigate design history, the state of contemporary design, and will suggest the future. It will also explore how each of us can play a role in that future. In this case “design” is synonymous to “innovation” and the same conclusions apply to innovation as well.

Workshop will be held by Nikola Tosic. Entrance is free and open to all. Workshop will be in English.

Fabrica address is Via Postioma, 54/F, 31020 Catena di Villorba TV, Italy.

For more information email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

We upgraded APPS to make it safer for innovators

openinnovation.me is divided in two parts: interface used by innovators to add innovations, and APPS used by companies to publish opportunities and reward innovations. After many months of working we have finally published new and upgraded APPS.

The upgrade focused on providing more data safety for innovators. Data safety is when user data is not collected and shared for purposes other than the function user wants. We completely removed all the data not needed for the basic function of openinnovation.me – collecting and rewarding innovations.

We are against using open innovation as a data collection excuse. We can guarantee to all innovators that openinnovation.me is a safe place. It makes no sense that a company claims to want innovations but then asks dozens of questions that have nothing to do with innovation.

As an internet user, I hope all app makers would follow this standard – use only data you need for the function. Focus only on the value you provide to users.

If you have any questions about the new APPS email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

3 reasons why sustainability must use open innovation

Transition to sustainability is the biggest project human kind has ever done. Until recently we based everything on an unlimited resources. Now all our processes, machines, everything we do and use must become sustainable. Every company in the world must improve it. Sustainability transition will not stop and it will take decades. Simply, it is one of the biggest forces in society, politics, and business today, and it will remain so for a very long time.

Open innovation must be an integral part of all sustainability because of these 3 reasons:

Transparency
Open innovation – publishing opportunities, challenges, open calls, rewarding, etc – offers credible transparency. It is not enough to simply do a quarterly press release claiming some little thing in a company is a bit more sustainable just to buy few more years of “doing business the good old way”. Customers are smart and they demand more, and open innovation offers unprecedented transparency and trust.

More know-how
Very few companies know how to improve sustainability. Most companies just go to the closest popular solutions without much research. Open innovation would allow them access to a much wider range of solutions, out of which some might be far better. Open innovation opportunities, combined with targeted promotion and a well developed network, can make a company into a sustainability leader.

Working with customers
Sustainability changes can be seen by customers as brutal – they are unilateral, cold, drastic. One of the reasons companies are afraid of implementing bigger sustainability changes is because they do not know how to get their customers to support them. Open innovation can make sustainability transition into a collaborative experience, instead of a top-down negative change.

For sustainability to succeed it must use open innovation for transparency, know-how, and participation. Otherwise, the risk of rejection and lagging is high.

Critique of Lego open innovation

I am a huge Lego fan. I grew up with Lego and I never stopped playing. Our kids grew up with Lego. Our home is decorated with Lego sets. My favorite collections are trains and space.

When I started learning about open innovation, Lego Ideas helped me understand it. Everything about Lego Ideas makes sense – open calls, suggestions, voting, and finally the products I can buy in the shop. It is simple and it works.

But now, years later, when the potential of open innovation is clearer to me, I see much missing in Lego open innovation.

Lego Ideas is the world’s most famous open innovation case study. It is constantly praised by press, experts, academia. However, I am not aware of any other open innovation initiatives by Lego, and yet there is so much they could improve:

Plastics
Lego uses more than 3 million tons of plastics. Less than few percent of world plastics is recycled. Lego never had a recycling project which matches Lego Ideas in size and awareness. Plastics recycling is the first project I would apply open innovation to, especially because of the transparency and trust open innovation offers. Publicly engaging global recycling industry and experts would set a standard for all plastics manufacturers.

Packaging
Lego did not change the packaging since I was a kid. Plastic bags, paper boxes, and printed manuals are mostly thrown away. Note that Lego sells more than 200 million sets per year. This part of Lego product has resisted change in spite of all the global changes in the last decades. Open innovation could be used to improve packaging to reduce pollution.

Inclusivity
Lego is European company. It dominantly reflects European culture. And yet it is one of the most popular toys globally. While Lego Ideas offer an opportunity for more cultural diversity in toys, this is not enough. For example, Lego traditionally struggled to make sets for girls. Open innovation can be used to make Lego into a truly global brand that reflects its customer diversity.

Pricing
Lego pricing has been growing faster than inflation. There are low cost sets but Lego shops dominantly feature more and more expensive sets. And Lego patents do not allow for cheaper alternatives to Lego. Open innovation can be used to provide more value and options at lower prices.

An open innovation company
Lego stopped at Ideas. Ideas was an amazing project that resulted from common sense – it was a natural step to allow customers to design products made of bricks. However, Lego did not adopt open innovation. It simply followed common sense. If they adopted open innovation as a strategic imperative they would continue opening up and innovating with customers, experts, companies globally. They did not. Lego never used co-creation in such an important way again. Lego company, excluding Ideas, is a typical closed company that only sometimes uses open innovation.

I hope that Lego adopts open innovation with the same passion as it did Lego Ideas. This is important because Lego can lead the world not only as a top toy company which inspires millions of children, but also as a plastics company that can set an example to all the other companies.

Open innovation myths busted

So far we encountered a lot of myths about open innovation. Here are the top myths – busted:

Open innovation ends
No. Just like sustainability, it becomes a way of doing business. An open innovation project can end, but not overall open innovation strategy. It remains as a way of doing business.

Crowdsourcing does not work – it blocks the company
No. This is one of the more damaging myths. Few platform case studies (not ours) inspired research papers which promoted this myth. This created a fear of engaging larger numbers of innovators. There is no need to engage thousands of innovators at once or to hire armies of managers to evaluate innovations. These cases were the result of poor management, poorly designed strategies, and outdated platforms.

Open innovation is expensive
No. Open innovation is not free but it offers better engagements per money spent compared to most R&D and promotional strategies. For example, ROI of open innovation is substantially higher than that of digital advertising.

Open innovation is only for big companies
No. Everyone who needs to come up with something new for someone else will be better off openly asking for suggestions. Big companies are more visible because they do more promotion. Open innovation will give great results for every type of an organization of every size in every industry and country.

We need to know exactly what to do before we start
No. No industry can be that prepared. Philosophy of open innovation is based on agility and flexibility. It must start with a vision and wide understanding, and build on that. The more defined it is in the start, the less results it will give.

We can do open innovation without a platform
No, you can not. Open innovation today is a form of digitalization. It can appear simple but there are many moving parts which, in 2024, are embedded in digital features of open innovation platforms. You could also send photos by email but it is more effective to use Instagram.

We will have to do what innovators suggest
No. There are no obligations. Receiving an innovation is a start of a dialog or just an inspiration for your own innovation process. Take it as you want, but it is always better to communicate your decisions to innovators.

Open innovation is only for products
Companies need to innovate in every aspect. If they approach this thinking they know everything about everything, this is not healthy. Services, processes, brand, marketing, sales, real estate, investment – everything can be openly innovated. The concept of open innovation is limitless and applicable to all business aspects.

If you know any other myths email them to Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me case studies webinar video & slides

In our openinnovation.me case studies webinar we presented 6 case studies, each using a completely different approach to our solution and open innovation in general.

Watch the video or download the slides from our webinar.

watch the video on youtube

download the webinar slides

For any questions email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me or Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Stay in touch for future webinars.

Join our open innovation case studies webinar on Wed 22 May

At 14:30 CET on Wed 22 May we will organize a webinar presenting our main case studies.

If you are interested in different ways how open innovation impacts brands, marketing, and innovation, join our 30 min webinar.

We will present several very different case studies showing unique ways openinnovation.me is used by our clients.

Some case studies will be anonymous, but sufficient information will be shared to give you a solid understanding of our clients’ progress.

The webinar should be interesting for managers, entrepreneurs, product designers, marketing and brand experts, and academics.

Andrea and Nikola will present. Duration is 30 min, language is English. There will be time for questions during and after.

See you soon.

Please do the quick registration. Registration is necessary only to eliminate spam. You can register few minutes before the webinar as well.

If you have questions email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Why would a company use crowdsourcing for open innovation?

Is crowdsourcing used to promote the brand or to improve the products with end-users?

Open innovation is very useful for both promotion and innovation, but it can not always do both. Sometimes a company must choose between quantity and quality.

For QUANTITY – many customers like the brand – engaging the biggest crowds possible is the way to go. It will be harder to find the best innovators and build relationships with them, but the brand will be better known and more engaging.

For QUALITY – end-user innovations improve products – it might not be necessary to engage large crowds. It might be better to approach one smaller group at a time, find the best innovators, and build long-term relationships with them.

There are always exceptions, especially with very popular brands, when both promotion and innovation goals can be reached, but this is rare.

In openinnovation.me we work closely with our clients to define the best strategy, to find the best innovators, and to build long-term relationships with them.

To learn more about using openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Become an openinnovation.me partner

We are specialized in end-user open innovation. Our mission is to engage customers and end-users, and help organizations use their knowledge to create new value. To realize this mission, we design, launch, and manage open innovation platforms which can be used by organizations of all sizes, in any location, and in any industry.

We are looking to partner with companies and consultants that want to use our platforms to add end-user open innovation to their services.

We are open to two types of partners:

1) Experts in open innovation and innovation,

2) Experts in other industries and services.

In both cases, we will offer full support and platform customization, to ensure partnership success.

To start a partnership conversation, please email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

talk to us now

Fiam - Xylem open innovation case study interviews

Open innovation is based on mutual respect between innovators and engineers.

We interviewed participants in our Fiam – Xylem open innovation project so we can show how the respect between innovators and engineers is the most important aspect of our work, the core of our service.

Xylem operators are top experts in their work and are sharing their knowledge with Fiam experts using openinnovation.me. They work together for the common goal – improving the work tools and environment.

see the case study pdf

Thank you Filippo, Marianna, Salvatore, Tommaso, and Carlo for participating in openinnovation.me Fiam – Xylem project, and in our interviews.

To use openinnovation.me in your company email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

New Il Sole 24 Ore article about openinnovation.me

We are thankful to Il Sole 24 Ore for writing about our project again.

read the article

Download the article PDF, or see all our press.

openinnovation.me can help any company to start practicing open innovation within a few days and with minimal costs. We have proven with numerous projects that openinnovation.me improves product innovation quickly and easily. We hope that soon most of Italian companies will adopt open innovation, either using our or other platforms.

To learn more how to start using openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing

Artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing are two most dominant methods for future company growth. Both are equally important. Companies must both automate and work with crowds.

Artificial intelligence includes minor uses like ChatGPT for writing, and large projects like sales and marketing automations. Crowdsourcing is any form of engagement of a large number of people – a viral video, crowdfunding, open source, open innovation.

An ideal company is good at knowing when to use artificial intelligence and when to use crowdsourcing.

Automating everything with artificial intelligence is trendy, but not always the right approach. Blindly supporting either artificial intelligence or crowdsourcing is not good. The best approach is to be analytical and objective, to know the options very well and evaluate one case at a time.

Open innovation is an easy and effective way for companies to do crowdsourcing – to engage their customers and the public in common interests. It will kickstart the company in the best direction.

To learn how openinnovation.me can help your company to use crowdsourcing, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Cooperate, do not compete

“Compete or cooperate” is one of the key management decisions, like “make or buy”. Companies can both compete or cooperate with everyone – customers, employees, partners, distributors, investors – and managers must know which is a better option. They should compete only when there is no possibility to cooperate.

Unfortunately, many managers decide to compete by default. This makes everything into a conflict and misses cooperation opportunities. Making a new product will be a competition with customers. Making new distribution channel will be a competition with distributors. Making a new business model will be a competition with investors.

This competitive attitude is the result of a lack of methods and tools that provide alternatives. Historically it was challenging to make change without competition and conflict. Today open innovation offers an alternative.

By including stakeholders in the innovation process, asking for their opinions and ideas, sharing some of the decisions with them, competition will be drastically reduced. Stakeholders – customers, partners, distributors, investors – will not be competitors, enemies or the changes, but participants in the change.

Competition was a dominant method because there were no alternatives. Today, open innovation offers a very simple alternative, and it is easy for companies to switch from forcing their internal ideas onto everyone else to making ideas together with everyone else. Work together, instead of fighting.

To start using open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

How is openinnovation.me different from marketing research?

When people first hear about openinnovation.me they ask us how is it different from what they already do in marketing – polls, questionnaires, interviews, data, analytics? openinnovation.me is profoundly different approach to working with end-users and customers compared to any traditional marketing research. Here is why:

openinnovation.me is for innovation only
The only purpose of openinnovation.me is to allow end-users to send innovation suggestions to product designers. Innovators try to improve the products, companies are there to see what innovators added and somehow use it in product design. Absolutely no other function is allowed or can be done.

openinnovation.me is a direct line to designers
When an innovator adds an innovation to openinnovation.me, it is seen by people who design the product. There are no management channels which obscure or edit it. As it is written by innovator, with all the little errors and personal style, it is immediately shown to people who make the products.

openinnovation.me must create change
Added innovations are used by design teams to actually change products. This is the purpose of using openinnovation.me. Companies that work with us really do want to make innovator suggestions real. Maybe not in the exact form as suggested, maybe not immediately, but the intent is real.

openinnovation.me respects innovators
In marketing research individuals are not relevant and are invisible. They are quantified and a single voice and a single idea has no value. In openinnovation.me an innovator is the most important. They are respected, their ideas is respected, the company knows them, and pays them.

What confuses some people is that market research and openinnovation.me use web forms as an interface. openinnovation.me is using web forms because, at the moment, this is the most effective method. The difference between openinnovation.me and marketing research is what happens with the submitted information and how the person who submitted the information is treated.

To use openinnovation.me for your company email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

When to say NO to open innovation?

Open innovation should not be used for everything. Here are some examples when open innovation should not be used:

High level of secrecy
Many industries require a high level of secrecy in projects and can not share anything outside their strictly controlled environment. These projects are usually in biotech, pharma, defense, high tech. However, such projects can be present in all companies.

You are 100 % sure you can find a solution alone
Some problems are straightforward and there is no need to look for outside resources. This is typical in early stages of competition. For example, GPTs are now just developing and leading companies feel confident they can solve current challenges by themselves.

The solution is closely connected to internal needs
Your new solution needs to solve a complex internal problem. Solving the internal problem requires high level of understanding and external innovators are not motivated to solve it. For example, you want to increase the profit margin by using a new process.

Open innovation costs more than internal innovation
In general, when done right, open innovation is cheaper and more efficient. But there are exceptions. Maybe the external solution would require expensive revenue sharing or other costs.

Intellectual property issues
Some projects have intellectual property restrains which are not ready to include open innovation. Jumping into open innovation without preparing IP is not the best solution at that moment. Some open innovation projects require IP management preparation.

openinnovation.me focuses on bottom-up open innovation which focuses on end-users, customers, and other large groups of innovators in areas hard to innovate internally: safety, comfort, etc. This makes it easy for any company to quickly start practicing open innovation without worrying about above cases.

To start using openinnovation.me for your company email Andrea Toniolo at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Open innovation improves company design and creativity

Innovation is design, innovation is creativity. It is rare when design and creativity are not an innovation, and when innovation is not design and creativity. They are the same activities aiming to create new values for customers, employees, partners. The only reason why they are called by different names are cultural differences between companies and industries. Some like the word creativity but do not like the word innovation, and vice versa.

Open innovation works together with internal innovation. If you can solve a problem internally, then there is no need to be open. Open innovation (design, creativity) should be used only for challenges which can not be solved internally. Meaning, open innovation is used for a completely different set of problems compared to internal innovation. In this way it increases the innovation and design output of the company by allowing it to be more valuable.

Therefore, open innovation improves company total innovation, total design, and total creativity – ability to create new values for customers, employees, partners – by solving also problems which were out of reach for internal resources.

To use open innovation as a way to increase design and creativity in your company, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me for custom B2B services

openinnovation.me has been proven as an integral part of a B2B service.

Digitalization and globalization are the biggest forces in B2B – more B2B companies are digitalizing customer experiences and more markets have competitors that are not local. These forces will make competition harder and harder.

In this case, one of the best B2B competition strategies is customization. B2B clients want their suppliers to continuously adjust to their needs. The more customized a B2B service is, the more competitive it is. However, customization is difficult to manage. The first customization usually comes via management channels – sales and account managers talk with their client POCs. These are sufficient for initial short-term customizations, but not for continuous customization.

openinnovation.me provides a channel for continuous customization of B2B services.

openinnovation.me allows direct continuous communication between end-users and product designers. Therefore it provides much more detailed long-term feedback than management channels. Managers have difficulty understanding detailed feedback necessary for continuous customization and compensate this by using data.

However, data is not offering necessary details for highly competitive continuous customization. On the other hand, openinnovation.me provides detailed feedback constantly allowing B2B suppliers to always adapt to clients and provide a highly competitive service.

To use openinnovation.me as part of your B2B service email Andrea Toniolo at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Video & slides from Confindustria Vicenza B2B open innovation webinar

We presented openinnovation.me and our Fiam Xylem project at a Confindustria Vicenza webinar on on Thursday 8 February. Above is the recording.

download the webinar slides

To learn more about how openinnovation.me can improve your B2B client relationships email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Join our Confindustria Vicenza B2B open innovation webinar

Join our Confindustria Vicenza open innovation webinar at 11:30 on Thursday 8 February.

We are very proud that Confindustria Vicenza is helping us promote open innovation to all of their members. We will focus on presenting open innovation as a simple, fast, and practical addition to B2B strategy.

Participants are Andrea Toniolo, openinnovation.me co-founder, Nicola Bacchetta, Fiam CEO, and Carla Lotto, Xylem communication manager.

Webinar will take part on LinkedIn, will last an hour, will be done in Italian.

Read more about it on LinkedIn and Confindustria Vicenza website.

Open innovation training

Our goal is to introduce open innovation to as many industries and companies as possible. This is why our offer includes flexible easy to customize consulting and software solutions.

Now we are adding the missing piece – open innovation training.

Our open innovation training is an easy way for a company to start adopting open innovation without committing to consulting and software projects yet.

Our training is also flexible and fully customizable. We can train a single executive or a large team of factory operators. We can focus on the strategic impact of open innovation or train teams in how to participate in innovation. We will adjust the training content for the industry. So, whatever the need of your company is, we will adjust the open innovation training to it.

Our goal is to make open innovation an easy practical thing to do. This is why our training uses quick practical exercises which make practical sense. Through these exercises, which can be customized, participants have a much better adoption and understanding of open innovation as a practical action that anyone can do.

To learn more or purchase our open innovation training email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

A&T conference Andrea Toniolo talk video

Our founder, Andrea Toniolo, gave a talk at the new Automation & Testing conference in Vicenza, Italy. The event was organized in partnership with openinnovation.me client Fiam. Enjoy the video.

For more information please email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

The role of open innovation in reducing conflict between companies

In the last month the business news have been dominated by the conflict between Apple and Masimo. Apple, instead of cooperating with Masimo, has chosen to enter in conflict with them. In our consulting our client had similar experiences.

These conflicts are not the only choice and are not necessary. Companies can always choose to cooperate instead of entering into a conflict. Their conflicts are always very destructive not only for the companies involved but for the customers also. They block innovation for everyone. In case of Masimo, important medical innovation was blocked.

Why conflicts happen is hard to know. In my understanding, conflicts are chosen by few individuals who, at the moment, did not know what else to do, and were under a lot of pressure to perform. Conflict was the easiest choice in the short term. Their reflex is to attack, not to cooperate.

This is why open innovation is important. The more companies adopt open innovation, the easier it is for them to cooperate. They will have staff, processes, and platforms which make it easy for them to cooperate. This will drastically reduce decisions to enter in conflicts. The reflex under pressure will be to cooperate, not to attack.

If both Apple and Masimo practiced open innovation properly, they would most likely cooperate instead of entering into a conflict. This would be more beneficial for both companies and – most importantly – it would provide medical innovation to all of their customers.

Open innovation is a method to reduce conflict between companies, competitors, big and small, and to increase their cooperation. Open innovation, when fully adopted by owners, top managers, middle managers, all staff, in all companies, will exponentially boost cooperation and value creation for customers, while reducing conflict and innovation blocking.

The more companies prepare for conflict, the less they prepare to innovate and cooperate. Role of open innovation is to reduce conflict and make cooperation a dominant strategy for all companies.

To adopt open innovation in your company use our process – training, project design, platform adoption, scaling. To start email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me 2024 goals

In 2023 we have come a long way. Highlights are our first projects with openinnovation.me platform for professional users and recognition of those projects at World Open Innovation Conference.

We also launched two new products: OPEN OS for large companies that want a fully branded experience, and openarchitecture.me for real estate (a moonshot). Our product portfolio now covers professional product manufacturers, real estate owners, and large companies that want a custom bottom-up open innovation experience.

Behind the scenes we work hard with our clients and their networks to produce even more projects. Our work consists of open innovation evangelism and training which slowly results in real projects and innovation.

In 2024 we plan to continue to improve OPEN OS and all our platforms that use it. While our open innovation process is stable, we want to improve marketing and branded features and research new tech like AI and 3D.

Also, we will probably launch a new platform for healthcare. We see healthcare as an area which can benefit greatly from bottom-up open innovation, where patients and people working directly with patients can be heard more and rewarded for it. Especially in private healthcare, where main patient experience innovation should happen.

We hope to have a great case study for the next World Open Innovation Conference which will take place in Berkeley. We had an amazing learning experience in Bilbao this year and we hope to qualify for the 2024 edition as well.

Most importantly, OPEN OS allows us to quickly publish open innovation platforms for single brands or industries, and we are always open to ideas. If you want to work with us in 2024, to use our platforms or OPEN OS for your idea, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me or Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

The world is moving towards more open innovation each year. We hope you had a great 2023 and that 2024 will be even better.

Video & slides from our State of open innovation webinar

On 30 Nov we held a State of open innovation webinar. Above is the recording.

The most interesting points are:

• Open innovation is a natural next step once resources of internal innovation are exhausted.

• Open innovation is a cultural and operational change that includes more open product designers and engineers who communicate directly to partners and customers.

• Open innovation practice requires a mix of many skills from marketing to engineering.

• Open innovation today is practiced between all types of organizations and individuals. It is already present in all aspects of business and government.

download the webinar slides

To learn more about open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Webinar state of open innovation - Thu 30 Nov

Join us for a webinar at 14:30 CET Thu 30 Nov.

Webinar will focus on:
– Our impressions from the World Open Innovation Conference 2023,
– Why is open innovation important as the next stage of innovation,
– How can companies of different sizes and from different industries apply open innovation.

Everyone is welcome. Webinar should be interesting for anyone in management, innovation, and design in most industries. We will touch subjects for automation, construction, real estate, healthcare.

Start: 14:30 CET on Thursday 30 November 2023
Speakers: Andrea Toniolo, Nikola Tosic
Duration: 30 min (presentation and Q&A)
Platform: Zoom
Languages: Italian, English

If you have any questions email Andrea Toniolo at andrea@openinnovation.me.

World Open Innovation Conference 2023 report

Our main conclusions from the World Open Innovation Conference 2023 are:

Open innovation is inevitable
Most of the innovative companies have reached peak internal innovation decades ago, and have, as a consequence, adopted open innovation. It is clear that internal innovation is only a step towards open innovation. Innovation leaders from aerospace, pharma, biotech, energy companies present at the conference confirm this.

Open innovation saves lives
Open innovation continues where internal innovation stops. In healthcare, medicine, biotech, pharma, safety the change from internal to open innovation literally saves lives. There were projects with metrics that show how open innovation decreased mortality and increased saving lives.

Open innovation is bottom-up
Big companies compete to innovate with medium companies and startups. Medium companies compete to innovate with small companies and startups. Everyone competes to innovate with their suppliers, partners, experts, and – most importantly – end-users. Open innovation moves idea and value creation towards the top.

End-users are always included
From jet engine design to country management, end-user participation is an obligatory parameter. End-user feedback is collected indirectly or directly. Indirectly is through intermediary companies like SMBs, startups, partners, distributors. Direct is through platforms like our openinnovation.me.

Open innovation is humane and humble
The humane essence of open innovation always attracted us. It is a new dynamic in how companies think. Before, businesses were focused only on sales and profit. Open innovation teaches companies to do more – to cooperate, not to be selfish but to share. This was felt strongly in the conference.

Henry Chesbrough leadership

It was important that we meet Dr. Henry Chesbrough – the founder of open innovation. He sets the tone for the global direction of open innovation which is then propagated through research, books, conferences to platforms, consultants, companies. We wanted to understand his style of leadership, in person.

We were very much impressed by Dr. Chesbrough’s ability to combine high level innovation, tech, and business with a very humane and compassionate approach. He repeatedly emphasized that open innovation is a humbling activity which requires openness on all levels.

We are thankful to Dr. Chesbrough for his leadership, for setting the right tone, and we are confident open innovation will only grow in importance and its positive impact.

Ideo, Ye, open innovation

The internet is buzzing with the news of Ideo, an innovation agency, firing big chunk of its staff. Last year Adidas fired one of their celebrity innovators – Ye. Both of these events are important symptoms of how innovation is changing.

Back in the good old days of the 80s and 90s, when mass media was one-to-many TV, radio, print, companies decided to outsource innovation. There were masses of agencies and individuals claiming to know exactly what customers want, ready to cash in on the belief that innovation can be outsourced. This worked because mass media sold it to “the masses”. This system allowed companies to control the market by claiming these agencies and individuals are geniuses who know what customers want.

Fast forward to today’s post social media society where customers expect to be heard. In such a market paying an outside guru to come up with an innovation and then selling it with tons of PR and advertising does not work. Simple truth is: if billions of people can like images on Facebook, so can companies listen to their customers.

Innovation agencies and individuals that sold themselves as holy grails of know-it-all started slowly disappearing. Ideo is one of the lingering dinosaurs – an agency which sold itself as a reader of customer minds (a hint – if an agency is using post-its they are not the future, they are the past). Ye is another example of a narrative that innovation geniuses who can tell a company like Adidas what to do for the customers. Both Ideo and Ye have failed.

So what can companies do if not hire someone else to innovate for them?

Companies should innovate by themselves. They should have their own unique processes that deliver consistent innovation for the customers. And open innovation is at the core of that strategy. Customers today want deeper relationships with brands but not for the purpose of wasting time on social media, but in hope to actually get better products, better services, something that makes their life immediately better. Customers know what they need but were pushed aside by “innovation gurus” who are easier to control by companies.

But in the future the only way to gain any control is to do what customers want. To listen to customers, to respect them, to pay them for their work, and to give them the products they want. It is not possible to convince and control customers by inventing Ideo or Ye as one-in-a-billion geniuses who can speak for the customers when companies can easily speak to customers directly.

All companies will have to learn the lost art of listening to customers. This trend is unstoppable.

To start doing what customers want with openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

World Open Innovation Conference - watch us online

At 16:30 on Thursday 9 November we will be presenting our case study at the World Open Innovation Conference at B Accelerator Tower, Bilbao.

The conference will last two full days – Thursday 9 and Friday 10 November. See the agenda.

You can watch the conference online if you purchase the online only ticket here.

PS I heard Bilbao has the best cuisine in Spain.

openinnovation.me is for the professional users

openinnovation.me is for the professional users. Professional users are people who use products in their work. They do not buy the products but are hired by a company that buys the products for them. For example, a construction worker, a factory operator, a delivery driver, a nurse, etc.

openinnovation.me creates a direct channel between professional users and the product designers. This direct channel is not obstructed by management or anything else. Professional users’ suggestions are immediately heard by product designers.

Before openinnovation.me professional users and product designers almost never communicated directly. Professional products depend on safety, comfort, usability, efficiency, but without direct communication with professional users, product designers could not improve these product features.

Now, with openinnovation.me companies have an open channel between designers and professional users, and can reward users for their quality feedback. More importantly, professional users get to improve safety, usability, comfort of the products they use daily. Eventually, professional users will favor companies that use openinnovation.me because it makes their work safer, easier, better.

To start using openinnovation.me in your company email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

The first openarchitecture.me case study open call

We are looking for a partner with whom we can produce our first openarchitecture.me case study.

What is openarchitecture.me?

openarchitecture.me is a participatory architecture platform. It is build by the team behind the openinnovation.me, an open innovation platform for professional products. openarchitecture.me uses the same method and technology as openinnovation.me, and applies them to urbanism, architecture, and real estate.

What are the main benefits of openarchitecture.me for urbanism, architecture, and real estate?

We hope that every real estate project will include some level of participation, that every design in urbanism, architecture, and real estate management will be informed with the external stakeholder feedback. We also insist that this feedback is rewarded with cash, that it is not elicited for free or with gifts. Our tested process has proven to improve promotion, training, positioning, and innovation of customers and experts. Also, it reduces risk of adoption of new products, projects, and changes by improving education, training, and engagement. This is achieved through a careful combination of design, marketing, and digital experience.

What are the goals of the case study?

The two main goals of the case study are to fine tune the features and processes for the architecture and real estate, and to have a solid proof that it works. We consider the proof that openarchitecture.me works if a brand receives and rewards relevant innovations. The quantity of innovations is not relevant, while the quality is. We are replicating our openinnovation.me successful process where we successfully completed a case study with a partner, received substantial press, and presented it at conferences.

Who can be our case study partner?

We are looking for an architecture studio, real estate investment or management company, government organization which manages real estate decisions, or any other organization or company which owns or manages real estate.

What kind of a project can be used for the case study?

Any project in any phase – residential, commercial, production, public, cultural, sports. As long as it is a project either intended to be built or already built. It is important to state that already completed and in use projects are very welcome because we believe such projects should be innovated and upgraded as often as possible.

What are the responsibilities of a partner?

To cooperate with us towards the success and promotion of the case study. This would include providing us with content for their brand, projects, and opportunities, organizing promotional campaigns and activities (workshops, calls, advertising), evaluating innovations, and participating in the promotion of the case study.

What kind of support will the partner get?

We will provide a one year free license, one year free consulting, and a minimum innovators budget of 500 EUR. Typical reward might be between 50 and 100 EUR so the innovators rewards budget will amount to 5 to 10 rewards.

How will the case study be promoted?

We aim to promote the case study in our own media, in press, in academic lectures and conferences, and in any other way. The case study will always be branded as a partnership between openarchitecture.me and the partner. Our goal is that as many people as possible learn about the case study and decide to engage us, and also to see our partner as supportive of participation and innovation.

Is there a deadline?

There is no deadline, our goal is quality. We will continue sponsoring companies until we reach a satisfactory results, which means we might sponsor more than one company.

How can a company apply as a case study partner?

To apply or learn more please email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

The first 20 years of open innovation

Open innovation is not new. Eliciting customer and expert feedback was always an important part of business. There was probably someone in Ancient Egypt who practiced some form of open innovation. So open innovation was not invented in 2003. It was defined. And defining it made it systematic and accelerated its adoption.

Before it was defined in Henry Chesbrough’s 2003 book it was done informally and intuitively. It was done sometimes with few closest people when managers felt like it. Even this gave results thanks to open innovation efficiency, but it was far from what a systematic activity could offer.

Today, 20 years after, many managers are aware of open innovation but are still searching what to do. They are using spreadsheets, email, chats, survey polls – basically anything they can get their hands on without actually committing to a standard open innovation solution. Also, many managers still do not accept that open innovation requires payment – without payment it is not a fair exchange of ideas.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Also, open innovation is accepted at the highest level of government and management as equal to cloud and cyber security. Institutions are investing in it and promoting it more. Every day more companies and managers learn how to do it, which tools to use, who is an expert and who isn’t, what are the desired results, and – most importantly – what to do with the results.

In the next 10 years, by 2033, adoption of open innovation will accelerate even more. Every company and industry will have its own specific approach of innovating together with customers and experts. Open innovation will become as normal as having a website or an Instagram account. The first 20 years show a huge leap, which means that the next 10 years will be even faster.

To start using open innovation in your company email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

A&T conference - we will present our work together with Fiam & Xylem

Join us at the Automation & Testing Vicenza conference where we will together with Fiam and Xylem present our join case study.

We will focus on the importance of open innovation in improving safety, comfort, efficiency in the automation and testing industry. Fiam will explain how open innovation has become part of their client relationship, while Xylem will offer their perspective as the client and user of open innovation. We – openinnovation.me – will discuss open innovation challenges and goals in such a relationship.

Speakers:
Andrea Toniolo, CSO, openinnovation.me
Nicola Bacchetta, CEO, Fiam
Carla Lotto, Marketing Manager, Xylem

Time and date:
16:40 Wed 25 Oct 2023

Location:
A&T Automation and Testing, Area Conferenze 2, Fiera di Vicenza

get a free ticket (register)

Speakers will also be joined by Alex Crestan, Henry&Co, and Matteo Pozzi, Elevator Innovation Hub.

For more information email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me - World Open Innovation Conference best practice

openinnovation.me Fiam project is accepted as a World Open Innovation Conference best practice

We are very proud that our work with Fiam has reached this level of recognition from the biggest innovation institutions and experts. It is a validation of our long term vision and dedication, and we hope it will help us bring open innovation to even more projects, companies, and customers.

About World Open Innovation Conference
World Open Innovation Conference is the most important global open innovation event showcasing selected the best academic and practical projects. The conference is organized by Berkeley’s Garwood Center For Corporate Innovation and curated by Dr. Henry Chesbrough, the founder of open innovation. Its mission is to promote open innovation globally, and this year is its 10th anniversary. Learn more.

About Garwood Center For Corporate Innovation
Garwood is one of the top global innovation research centers, part of Haas Business School at Berkeley University. It is founded by Dr. Henry Chesbrough and is dedicated to open innovation. Berkeley is one of the leading universities in the world, focused on high tech innovation, located in San Francisco and traditionally connected to top tech innovation brands like Google, Apple, Salesforce. Learn more.

About Dr. Henry Chesbrough
Dr. Chesbrough is considered the father of open innovation. He has defined the term open innovation in his 2003 book “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology” and has since been a dedicated evangelist of the concept globally. He is the founder and the main curator of the World Open Innovation Conference. Learn more.

About Fiam
Fiam is a leading Italian designer and manufacturer of industrial air and electric tools and assembly systems. Fiam has been using openinnovation.me as one of the main channels in their client relationship by creating a direct communication between professional users of their products and Fiam product designers. Fiam has proven this method, with our support, and is using it with all their clients globally. Learn more.

How to view
The conference is available online and on-location on Thu 9 and Fri 10 Nov 2023. You can purchase tickets here.

For more information email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Italy lists open innovation as equal to big data, cyber security, IoT, robotics

Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) has included open innovation in Impresa 4.0 project. This means that Italian companies will be financially supported by the Italian government for open innovation projects. Read more here. Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to discuss this financing opportunity.

Additionally, this is the first time that open innovation has been considered as a business and tech mainstream. MIMIT has listed it together with big data, cyber security, IoT, robotics, cloud, process digitalization, VR and others. All of these mainstreams are already billion or even trillion EUR global industries, while open innovation is the only emerging solution.

This is another proof that open innovation will only grow and companies that adopt it now will have an advantage. Open innovation, like all other listed solutions, requires time and investment to be integrated and we are ready to help you through that transition most efficiently and profitably.

Start adopting open innovation today – email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me

openarchitecture.me - our new open innovation platform for architecture & real estate

Our mission is to build software which makes open innovation accessible to all, affordable, easy to use, and industry specific. We started with openinnovation.me which focuses on B2B product design – it allows B2B companies to cooperate with end-users of their products. However, openinnovation.me covers only a part of the global market. To spread open innovation to other markets we must customize our software for each industry and promote as separate platforms.

This is why we launched openarchitecture.me – an open innovation platform for architecture and real estate.

Architecture and real estate have a substantial impact on our lives but the decisions are highly centralized and risky. Large architecture and construction companies are already using open innovation (aka open architecture, open design) for public spaces, but this is far from enough. We hope that openarchitecture.me makes it possible for all designers, builders, owners, managers of all real estate projects to be open to innovation feedback from all end-users, stakeholders, experts.

There is a common belief that architecture, construction, and real estate are very conservative industries resistant to change and innovation. We hope that openarchitecture.me can prove this prejudice wrong.

Our next step is to complete an openarchitecture.me case study.

For more about openarchitecture.me email Nikola at nikola@openinnovation.me.

Product is not enough - customers want an ecosystem

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is to invest in product innovation, and not in ecosystem innovation.

If companies only innovate products then they will not be competitive. Even the best products require an ecosystem of equally innovative marketing, sales, training, and other services. No matter how innovative the product is, it will be easily hidden behind an ecosystem of outdated services. Simply, the contemporary markets require complete ecosystems on every level, even if a company focuses only on products and uses third party distributors.

Open innovation is one of the most effective and advanced innovations in this ecosystem. And it is starting slowly to be a standard – customers require it because it is the most efficient channel for them to get more value from the company.

Here is how openinnovation.me makes open innovation an easy choice:

Low cost
We have drastically reduced price of open innovation platform. In some cases we are 10 – 20 times cheaper.

Easy to use
Adding products and opportunities, making groups, inviting customers is all very easy. It usually require no or minimal training.

Easy processes
All additional processes like campaigns, workshops, finding innovators are all easy to adopt and do not require many resources.

Growing benefits
Once a channel with a B2B partner or customers is created it just keeps growing, while processes become more efficient. Value keeps multiplying.

To improve your ecosystem with openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Open innovation mix: agile, data, platform, campaigns

For optimal open innovation prepare following:

Practice an agile product innovation process
Open innovation depends on the support of the product designers and if their process is closed, they will not be able to support it. Agile product design process works perfectly with open innovation.

Share well prepared open data and information
Depending on the goal, innovation depends greatly on the information you give innovators. Photos, videos, descriptions, case studies, and especially open data will inform and guide innovation suggestions. The more the better.

Use the latest open innovation platform
Improvising platforms with forms, marketing research solutions, spreadsheets, and whatnot, or using outdated insufficient platforms will not work. Obviously, we recommend openinnovation.me.

Promote with dedicated campaigns
A well set up profile on an open innovation platform is important but not enough. You must campaign, reach out to potential innovators, talk to them, engage them. In our experience, workshops work well with openinnovation.me, but all types of promotions should be tested – each brand and project is different.

To start using openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

3 ways you can add innovations

There are 3 ways you can add innovations on openinnovation.me:

To an opportunity
Opportunities help you focus on specific questions, guidelines which focus on your creativity. Brands publish them to make it easier for you to understand their problems and engage.

To a product
Opportunities are not the only way to engage. You can go to the product page and add your innovation to products, without an opportunity. Whatever idea you have about a product you can add it directly to a product.

To a brand
If opportunities or products are too specific for you, and you need more space for your big innovation, go to the brand list, add your innovation to a brand and they will get it. This innovation does not have to be about products, and can be about anything.

This way you can add an innovation on anything to any brand, and they will see it, and you can be rewarded. No limits. Start innovating.

openinnovation.me is a necessary customer channel

Relationships with customers are far more complex than the buy-sell exchange. They always were. Ever since humans did business they wanted to communicate more, learn about each other, cooperate.

What changed is not the need for a relationship, but that we are globalized and digitalized today. While we sell more globally and we use more digital tools, we tend to forget the parts of our relationships which were there all along.

Open innovation was always part of a business relationship. Listening to customers, understanding them, and trying to build what they need is the essence of any business. But open innovation is in danger of being reduced. It was informal and personal and as such it is forgotten in a more globalized and digital business environment.

This is why openinnovation.me is important. It will formalize and digitalize open innovation, enriching the new relationships provided by the global growth. Without adopting openinnovation.me the relationships that existed before will be reduced and customers will be deprived.

To use openinnovation.me to improve your customer relationships, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me is part of New European Bauhaus

We are proud to be accepted into the New European Bauhaus.

Our values of participation, openness, design, innovation, inclusivity, and sustainability are aligned with the New European Bauhaus, and we hope to learn and grow together. Our goal is to make open innovation easy to use, affordable, and industry specific – and as such it is a crucial part of the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus.

New European Bauhaus is an EU project focused on sustainability, design, innovation, and participation, and engages a wide range of members, including Arup, Tarkett, Liguria, and many others.

Learn more about New European Bauhaus.

Innovators want to help

We noticed that one of the blocks to open innovation is the fear of negative criticism. Managers chose not to start open innovation projects because they do not want to hear criticism, get negative comments, and complaints. Here are 3 tips which show you that this fear is not necessary:

Innovators know that open innovation is for innovation only
Innovation is a creative activity, and as such it requires a positive attitude. So far in our experience this was natural to innovators. There are not many channels which offer them participation and they appreciate that.

openinnovation.me is designed for adding innovations only
In an extreme case that someone wants to share something other than innovation, openinnovation.me design makes it clear that they should use other channels.

Open innovation campaigns always set a positive tone
All the promotion, workshops, meetings related to open innovation should always promote the essence of open innovation – positivity, creativity, participation, cooperation, sharing. Once this atmosphere is set, little motivation remains for negativity.

In our experience, innovators know that open innovation is a positive cooperative experience, and that there are other channels for criticism (forums, customer support, etc), and therefore we see no risk. Do not let this fear block your company from using open innovation. Innovating together is a very satisfying activity for everyone. We love it.

To start an open innovation project for your company email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me is paid, easy, accessible

Open innovation can not work if it is hard for innovators. Our goal is to eliminate all obstructions of creativity and openness. Here are the top design decisions we made to make openinnovation.me easy and effortless for innovators:

Every innovator can get paid
We do not believe in giving a large reward only to a single winner. Our system is based on rewarding as many innovators as possible. Brands can give rewards ranging from small tips (25 EUR) up to large professional payments (10,000 EUR).

Easy to use
So far hundreds of innovators used openinnovation.me for the first time and none of them requested help with using it. openinnovation.me is simple to use and without any distractions.

Always accessible
Website, mobile website, and an Android app make openinnovation.me accessible to everyone everywhere always. There are no deadlines, location limitations, complicated logins. We are planning an iOS app soon, but Apple users can easily use our mobile website.

Open innovation is not open if it depends on innovator’s to invest, if it is hard to use, and has limitations on when where and how it can be used.

To start using openinnovation.me for your brand email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Market research, focus groups, social media comments, open innovation...

What is the difference between market research, focus groups, social media comments, and open innovation?

They all share the same goal – inform the company about what customers want. But they all use different methods, have different costs, and give different results. Most importantly, they are not in competition with each other, but they work together to complete the picture of what customers want.

Market research
Market research uses polls and interviews, and other similar methods which elicit very specific structured feedback from customers. Questions are designed by the company to be easily quantified in hope that more customers offer more input which is easy to process. Market research can be expensive and biased, but needs little change in the company.

Focus groups
Selected customers are asked for a more elaborate opinion. These are very controlled situations which can provide good insight but again in a very controlled way. Focus groups can be very expensive and biased, and they also need almost no change in the company.

Social media comments
They are free and abundant, but are very unstructured, hard to understand, and very biased. Most extreme comments can be in a minority but can still pull the company in a wrong direction. Social media comments do not need any change in the company.

Open innovation
Low cost and with minimum bias because of its focus on practical improvements, but it needs some changes in the company – which is actually good. All other three are external reactions which have very controlled effect on the company while open innovation builds a more transparent relationship with customers.

It is best to use all four together because they are not exclusive, but if you must chose one we suggest open innovation because of the low cost (thanks to openinnovation.me) and its direct and immediate positive impact on products.

To adopt open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Top opportunities April - May 2023

Geoplast is looking for project information where their product is used in an innovative, different, interesting way. This opportunity is shared among architects and engineers who use their products. Maximum reward is 250 €.

See all Geoplast opportunities.

Elmar is looking for interesting indoor garden solutions which can be used in their kitchens. This is an opportunity for product designers, but also anyone who has a good idea. Maximum reward is 250 €.

See all Elmar opportunities.

Linea Flesh, an Italian manufacturer of hygiene products, has published several opportunities asking for new dimensions of their products. Dimensions play a big role in their product efficiency and they are interesting to hear for new and unexpected suggestions. These opportunities target final users of their products who work in production facilities. Maximum reward is 100 €.

See all Linea Flesh opportunities.

Each opportunity shows to customers and end-users that the brand is open to learning from their experience and values the relationship they have. Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to start using openinnovation.me for your brand.

Il Sole 24 Ore features Fiam and openinnovation.me

We are proud that our work with Fiam is featured in the most trusted Italian business news – Il Sole 24 Ore.

Read the article here

Thank you Fiam, Il Sole, and Barbara Ganz.

Fiam was our first case study. Our join work is one of the best examples how openinnovation.me can benefit innovation, marketing, and sales.

See Fiam opportunities

To start using openinovation.me for your brand email Andrea at andrea@openinovation.me.

A new faster reward system

Today we introduced pulldown reward options which will simplify and accelerate rewards.

So far brands had a number input when publishing and rewarding innovations. Decision which amount to use in this input was causing substantial delays. It required training and support. By replacing the input with a pulldown we will substantially accelerate rewarding and reduce the need for training.

This design decision was made after months of working with brands and innovators, and is based on our deep understanding of open innovation.

Pulldowns are now replacing number inputs and will offer range including a zero reward with a thank you email, smaller tip amounts which can still reward the work for lower relevance suggestions, the regular range of rewards for relevant suggestions, and even high amount rewards for innovation breakthroughs.

To learn more about using openinnovation.me for your brand, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Which innovations to reward and how much?

Cash rewards are the most important element of openinnovation.me. We insist on cash rewards because they add respect and professionalism to the relationship that no other form of a reward can. For example, giving free products, samples, coupons, discounts is not appropriate in our opinion as a reward for innovation suggestions. And the brands we work with agree.

However, the dilemma is which innovations to reward. There are two main approaches:

Reward all work with a smaller rewards
Reward all innovations which satisfy the minimum requirements because of the work they required, and separately offer a much higher reward for exceptional innovations. For example, set an opportunity reward to 100 EUR and reward all innovations even if they do not cause change in your work. In this case you are rewarding the work of the innovator, not the idea. And, since you have the contact of the innovators, you can individually contact and reward exceptional innovations directly. This is a customer focused approach that builds the community.

Reward only the best innovations with high rewards
Ignore innovations which are not new to you, which do not surprise you or change your work, and reward only the innovations that do with much higher rewards. For example, offer a 2,000 EUR reward for a specific problem. This is an innovation focused approach that builds the product.

We recommend applying a range of rewards, so both minimum work and the top innovations are rewarded according to their value. It is not good to ignore innovations which do not work immediately because you can demotivate innovators. Maybe their later attempts can be more fruitful or their suggestions can make more sense in time.

To learn more how to reward innovations email Andrea at andrea@openinnovatio.me.

openinnovation.me for sales

Companies do not work well if they divide themselves into sections which do not work together. R&D, product design, marketing, sales – customers do not care about these divisions. They only care if a company creates value for them.

In this spirit, we do not see open innovation as a strictly R&D or product design activity. Our main contribution to open innovation is integration with marketing. For open innovation to truly work, we must adopt a marketers mind.

We also see open innovation as a sales tool. The whole point of innovation is to sell. If we can skip directly to sales, then this is best. Here are simple and direct ways to use openinnovation.me for sales:

Suggest your products as innovations
Salespeople can register, find an opportunity, and suggest their products as innovations, as long as the innovation is real and relevant to the opportunity.

Invite leads to tell you what they need
Selling is a lot about “I am great, my product is great” – and it can be suffocating. It is refreshing to just let your leads talk about themselves and their needs.

Invite current customers to tell you what they need
Nothing will make your current customer happier than rewarding them for suggestions. openinnovation.me is one of the best loyalty programs easily generating repeat and accessory sales.

To learn how to use openinnovation.me for sales email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

And remember, the sales person that listens the best will win.

openinnovation.me - a simple idea that works

openinnovation.me is based on a very simple idea:

1) Companies want to ask customers and experts for help,

2) Companies publish questions offering rewards for the best answers,

3) Companies promote their questions to reach more customers and experts,

4) Customers and experts answer the questions,

5) Companies reward the answers.

Behind the business terminology of opportunities, innovations, brands, it is actually a simple idea: ask, get answers, pay the best. A win-win situation which results in happier customers, better informed companies, and improved products and services.

Start using openinnovation.me now.

Why open innovation fails?

Open innovation is one of the most important strategies. Many companies that depend on innovation consider it a core principle of growth. They dedicate more resources to owning the next idea, than anything else. In spite of this, open innovation has not become a standard. Reason for this is that it is applied poorly. Here is why:

Only few opportunities are published
Publishing few opportunities per year does not work. We live in a world where publishing is done daily, not monthly. Anything published today, is old news tomorrow. Only way to remain relevant is to constantly publish, to always be present.

Very specific innovations are requested
When opportunities are based on narrow internal engineering and design needs, then innovator pool is drastically reduced. To reach more innovators more subjects must be covered. Also the company must be open to accept innovations outside opportunities and products. And most importantly, innovators must feel that the brand is open for innovation on all levels.

Too little promotion is done
Promotion of opportunities is greatly underestimated. Each opportunity should be promoted with inbound and outbound methods, including cold outreach. The more opportunities there are, the better the team is in promoting them. Learning how to promote opportunities takes a while.

We designed openinnovation.me to avoid these failure points:
– We support constant publishing of opportunities. The more the better, same as in social media and blogging.
– Many opportunities allow covering many topics on opportunity, product, and brand level, making the brand totally open.
– Our platform and tools are designed with promotion in mind, making it easy to grow your audience.

Please email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to start using openinnovation.me for your company.

Webinar - Limits of internal innovation

Join our Zoom webinar Limits of internal innovation this Wednesday 22 Mar at noon sharp (12:00 CET). We will discuss for about 30 mins (more if needed), anyone and all questions are welcome. Language is Italian, but when needed we can switch to English.

EASY REGISTRATION

Andrea Toniolo, our founder and innovation consultant, will moderate a discussion on internal innovation limitations and benefits of open innovation. We will also explain which aspects of innovation are better done internally and which can benefit greatly from opening up.

This webinar is great for product designers, innovation managers, entrepreneurs, business leaders.

See you soon. For more information email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Cold outreach for open innovation

Campaigning for open innovation projects should include cold outreach.

Cold outreach is any form of reaching out to potential innovators with whom you had no prior communication. This means that you need to explain who you are, your company, and your open innovation project. Cold outreach is important because it connects your company to new experts and should be practiced constantly by sales, engineers, or marketing.

Here are few tips:

Prepare the list
Finding potential innovators to reach requires a specific know-how. Take your time in learning how to find experts and learn as much as you can about them before you contact them.

Focus on the brand level
With openinnovation.me we focus innovators on three levels: brand, product, and opportunity. Avoid promoting only a single opportunity because it has a higher risk of not being interesting to the potential innovator. Interest them in your brand in general.

Reduce bias, be experimental
The whole purpose of open innovation is to surprise yourself, to get the unexpected idea. Some level of control is needed, but also too much control can reduce the surprise and innovation quality. Always contact potential innovators which do not seem standard – you never know what you might get.

To learn more about cold outreach for open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

How to promote your openinnovation.me brand profile?

After the brand profile is set up comes an important step of reaching potential innovators. Here are the key steps in openinnovation.me promotion:

Publish opportunities targeting specific innovator types
The purpose of opportunities is to act as niche landing pages for specific types of innovators. For example, publish an opportunity targeting only electric engineers or only students. Publish as many opportunities as you can. The more there are, the bigger the chances are that you will find the match between innovators and an opportunity.

Link and mention it everywhere
Make sure your openinnovation.me brand profile and product pages are linked and mentioned in all relevant locations. Also include your brand profile in general campaigns and QR codes in physical locations and products. This shows commitment and will bring traffic.

Create dedicated campaigns
You can create promotional campaigns only to promote your openinnovation.me brand profile. These campaigns can have press, digital advertising, and more. They can be done, for example, once a year. Consider using a small part of your advertising budget for openinnovation.me.

Ask potential innovators in person
Just like reaching out to potential customers, you also need to reach out to potential innovators. One-on-one communication is the most effective, especially when it comes to finding expert innovators.

To learn more how to promote your openinnovation.me brand profile email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Advertising vs open innovation

Advertising is the main way to communicate with customers. Companies spend enormous amounts of money on advertising and the total global spend is close to a trillion USD. This is approx. 1 % of the global GDP making it one of the biggest global industries.

But advertising is far from perfect. Most of the global advertising is controlled by Google and Meta algorithms making it difficult for companies to differentiate. Also, a century old John Wanamaker‘s statement “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half” still remains relevant. Most importantly, advertising is based on interrupting customers and not on organically growing their interest.

As an alternative, open innovation is affordable, has a better ROI, and is not based on interrupting. We suggest that a small part of the advertising budget is dedicated to open innovation, and – once the results come in – it will be obvious open innovation is a more effective way to to communicate with customers.

To invest in open innovation email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

1 % rule of open innovation

1 % of customers who use the product should participate in product innovation.

If a product is used by 10,000 customers then 100 customers should give feedback on the product suggesting how it can be improved. This is a suggested minimum to prevent causing damage and avoid losing contact with customers. If more customers participate, the better it is.

Customer participation is also specific – it should be a suggestion of real improvements, not a complaint or praise which does not contribute to product design.

Obviously, as product is more successful, there are more customers, and the 1 % grows as well. This is why an easy to use accessible online platform like openinnovation.me is needed.

Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me about using openinnovation.me to include 1 % of your customers in product innovation.

How to listen better

Listening is an ability to be open, to accept someone else’s opinion, need, authority. Listening also is the best way to manage a company. The more managers listen, the more successful the company will be. Here are three main tips in how to listen:

Listening does NOT oblige you to do anything
If you listen, you are not obliged to do everything that you hear, nor you have to do it exactly as you hear it. Listen between the lines, understand the motivation behind what the customer says, and react in your own creative way. Listening is not a binary. It is a creative process which has no obligatory outcomes. Feedback that you hear today can give you a completely unexpected idea months later. Think of listening as goal in itself – by listening you are already providing value.

You will NOT lose the control of the project
Some managers feel that when they listen, they are losing control, that they are not doing their jobs, that the project will go in the wrong direction. Actually listening to feedback does not oblige you to change your project. Listening actually empowers your control over the project by building trust and giving you more information.

You will NOT lose the control of the relationship
Customer relationships can become narrow and rigid over time. Managers do not like to shake them up with changes. But changes will happen no matter what and it is better to take initiative than to be passive. The best way to manage the relationship changes is by listening. Listening reduces the risk in constantly changing relationships, relaxing the tensions caused by changes.

By being a better listener, you will be a better manager, and your company will perform better.

For more about our listening training email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me for product digitalization

We added digitalization as an openinnovation.me innovation type.

Digitalization is one of the main forces of change for brands. Digitalization includes process digitalization (for example, CRM and ERP software) and product digitalization. Product digitalization includes all possible ways a product can be digitalized or included in digital tools. For example, digital twins, BIM objects, data sharing, IoT, AR, VR, etc.

Now openinnovation.me allows brands to collect digitalization innovations for their products. It also allows digitalization experts to suggest innovations which might not be on the brand’s radar. Brands should publish product specific or general digitalization opportunities targeting experts, consultants, and other digitalization providers. Companies that attract the best digitalization innovations will be more competitive.

To publish product digitalization opportunities on openinnovation.me, email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me presented on TelePadova

Andrea Toniolo presented openinnovation.me in an interview on TelePadova.

Main points of the interview are:

Every customer knows something useful,

To use this knowledge companies need to be good at listening,

Companies need a tool to listen.

Watch the interview on YouTube.

To use openinnovation.me to listen to your customers, email Andrea at andrea@opeinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me for product recycling

Recycling is extremely undeveloped. About 5 % of plastic is recycled. Many metals have less than 50 % recycling rates. Less than 15 % of clothes and textiles is recycled. Only 20 % of electronic waste is recycled and it is estimated 5 billion phones were thrown away in 2022.

Most products are not designed to be recycled. Most production, supply, and retail are also not designed for recycling. One of the main reasons is the lack of know-how, time, and other resources. Designers and managers do not know how to do it, do not have the time and incentives to learn, or do not have enough time and resources to make changes.

One way to improve product recycling is with openinnovation.me. It offers an easy way to publish opportunities which reward recycling innovations. Opportunity campaigns can target recycling experts, innovations collected, and recycling know-how can be integrated in product design and lifecycle.

To improve recycling of your products with openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me for product safety

Obviously, products should not hurt its users and safety should be the most important requirement of any product. To achieve this innovation and product design teams rely on regulation, data, and on their internal know-how. In practice, this is not enough.

USA Consumer Product Safety Commission reported more than 11 million medical emergency injuries caused by products in 2021. This implies many more injuries which were not a medical emergency. The stats are probably the same in many other countries.

This is an example how millions of people are being injured by products in spite of regulation and internal efforts. Conclusion can only be that innovation and product design processes should prioritize safety even more, especially by using end-user feedback and open innovation.

To use openinnovation.me to improve safety of your products email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Safety, comfort, durability... - new innovation types

We just updated innovation types which specialize openinnovation.me more towards product innovation.

Innovations and opportunities can now be added using following innovation types:

Safety – can the product be safer?
Comfort – how can the product be more comfortable to use?
Durability – how can the product last longer?
New use – new use for a product?
Performance – how can the product be lighter, faster, stronger?
Assembly – is the product assembly too difficult and frustrating?
Recycling – how can the product be recycled?
Transport – can the product be transported cheaper or more efficiently?
Sustainability – can production, materials, design, transport, use be more sustainable?
Inclusivity – how can the product production, transport, use be more inclusive of all body types and cultures?

These types are not obligatory, and innovations and opportunities can be added without them.

We added them to help brands and innovators focus on product design aspects which require open innovation the most.

To learn more email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Open innovation is a continuous project made of many little steps

Two biggest errors in making your company an open innovation company are:

Error – open innovation is a one time project
Open innovation is an attitude towards innovation, marketing, sales, and everything else in business. Main goal of companies is to create value for customers through innovation. To do that well, companies need customer feedback. Highest quality customer feedback comes through open innovation. Therefore open innovation need never ends and needs continuous improvement.
Tip: never end open innovation, make it a continuous part of culture.

Error – organize open innovation in big difficult steps
Open innovation is best managed when organized in many small tasks, small tweaks, small changes. A nice sentence on one page, a button added in a newsletter, a small campaign, an 30 min Zoom training. A lot of small steps and efforts add up over time. Years later company is more competitive, more open, making more valuable products.
Tip: work in many small steps, avoid big steps which block growth.

Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to plan your companies adoption of open innovation.

Do you take or give more?

This is a philosophical leadership article, appropriate for the end of the year.

Some leaders are good at taking. This is how they view business, marketing, sales, and innovation. They innovate in order to take attention, data, money, time from their customers, teams, community.

Other leaders are good at giving. They innovate to give value, knowledge, money. They empower their customers, team, community.

No one is just taking or just giving. And we can never take without giving, or give without taking. But it is important to question what dominates, in which direction does the balance tilt. If we, as leaders, are not keeping an eye on this, no one else will.

Ask yourself: Do I take or give more? If I am not happy with the answer, how can I change it?

openinnovation.me promotion in stores

Physical stores are a great place to use openinnovation.me to differentiate products from competition. Here are 3 ways openinnovation.me can be used in stores:

Sales staff
Store staff should inform customers of the added benefit of buying products that use openinnovation.me.

In-store displays
Displays should include openinnovation.me explaining what kind of innovation brand needs and what rewards it offers.

On product information
Adding a well designed sticker on products will engage customers more effectively and motivate them to purchase.

More importantly, there are two messages products with openinnovation.me can display:
1) Help us improve the product – we listen to you,
2) Product improved by you – we listened to you.

Between two products, the one using openinnovation.me will most likely be bought not only because of the cash rewards, but because of the added value of participation and openness.

To use openinnovation.me for your consumer brand email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

7 steps of open innovation company transformation

A company can be seen as an innovation manufacturer which buys and sells innovation, making open innovation a natural next step in growth, equal to sales. Therefore all companies should become open innovation companies in order to compete in buying innovation, just as they compete in selling it. Transforming a company into an open innovation company should be seamless. We recommend our 7 steps approach:

1) Accept
Open innovation is understood and accepted by all team members. This requires training and dialog.

2) Rebrand
Company communicates that it is not only as a seller but also as a buyer of innovation. This is a necessary and delicate step, unique to each company.

3) Tool up
Open innovation requires a platform. We recommend our openinnovation.me, but any platform is good. Platform needs to connect all key team members with customers.

4) Educate
Customers are educated in how the company buys and uses open innovation. Open innovation promotion is constant and consistent, just like sales.

5) Listen
Once everything is set up and customers are informed it is time to listen. Time and attention are dedicated to listening to external innovators.

6) Answer
Even if not all innovation suggestions are accepted, they should all be answered and many should be rewarded for the effort.

7) Make
This is the final goal of open innovation – making better products thanks to external suggestions.

We can carefully guide companies through the 7 step open innovation transformation. Each company is unique. To start email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

5 best ideas from our "Innovate with 8 billion people" open talk

We had a nice open chat this Wednesday. Here are the 5 best ideas exchanged:

Next natural step
Open innovation is a natural progress of innovation development. All innovation starts with individual innovators, then grows into innovation and R&D teams, and finally opens up to include partners, customers, and external experts.

Equal to sales
Every market will be an open innovation market and every company will be an open innovation company. Listening to customers is equally important as selling to them.

Holistic approach
Open innovation can not be adopted as an isolated side project, but as a key element of the company culture.

Platforms are necessary
Companies feel customer need for more openness, but need digital tools to facilitate it.

Incremental is better
Open innovation is often blocked by big expectations and big projects. Our method of doing smaller projects with smaller rewards creates more activity and education.

Our consulting helps companies adopt open innovation with a unique and tested method. We will be discussing this method in coming posts. For more email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Innovate with 8 billion people open Zoom talk notes

At 12:00 CET on Wednesday 23 November Andrea and Nikola will host an innovate with 8 billion people open Zoom talk. Everyone is welcome to join and participate in the talk.

To be better prepared download and read PDF notes for the open talk (they will slightly change):

DOWNLOAD PDF NOTES

To join the open Zoom talk click here when the time comes:

JOIN OPEN ZOOM TALK

Innovate with 8 billion people - join our open Zoom talk on Wed 23 Nov

Today world population reached 8 billion people. Many of us were born in a world with a population of only 4 billion. We were educated by parents born in a world of a bit more than 2 billion.

How does this affect innovation, product design, business strategy, marketing, sales, SMBs?

In a world which keeps getting bigger, our customers are feeling smaller and more excluded. All the today’s challenges are too big for them – climate crisis, globalization, digitalization. Customers feel overwhelmed, stressed, and are passive. They do not feel in control.

Openness and open innovation are desperately needed remedy to motivate customers to make decisions faster. We must include them and shake them out of their passive routine. This is best done by asking them to participate through open activities. The age of them listening to brands is over. The age of them being part of brands is starting. This will bring back the world under their control and ownership.

We will host an open Zoom talk at 12:00 CET on Wednesday 23 November to discuss these topics. Feel free to just jump in. We planned for 30 mins but if it takes more we will keep going. Let’s discuss openly and see where it takes us. Anyone is welcome!

When the time comes just click here:

JOIN OPEN ZOOM TALK

Passcode: 123
Meeting ID: 814 0839 9376

See you then :)

4 ways to promote your opportunities?

Once your opportunities are live, it is necessary to promote them so end-users of your products get interested and add innovations. Some brands are well known so minimal promotion on their websites, newsletter, and social media should get substantial results.

However, many brands make well respected products while they remain almost unknown. In such cases some more promotion is needed. We recommend these 4 steps:

1. Select a narrow group of end-users you can target
Do not try to reach everyone in the world immediately. First succeed with 5-10 local end-users and grow from there. Be patient and work in smaller steps.

2. Organize an in-person workshop
Do not rely only on digital, especially if your products are physical (tools for example) and your end-users do not know your brand well. Go to the end-users and talk to them in person in their workplace, and motivate them with your enthusiasm.

3. Leave posters in their workplace
Posters should clearly ask them to add innovations to your openinnovation.me opportunities. Also mention the reward. Include QR codes to your opportunity and place them in most visited workplace area.

4. Add stickers to your products
Adding a sticker directly to your product is the most powerful way of including end-users in innovation. It shows real dedication. Include QR code to your opportunity or product. While a sticker with a QR code is not the most beautiful addition to product design aesthetics, it does add enormous relationship value (designers can surely find a clever way to add it).

For help with promotion email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Why do we use free text for innovation suggestions?

Open innovation is the most important thing a company can do – it combines innovation and marketing into one. And marketing always relied on market research – asking customers what they want through polls, interviews, focus groups. But market research was always limited by technology and company culture.

Research was limited by selection of who is asked, when they are asked, where they are asked, and what they are asked. Asking a specific person specific questions in a specific place at a specific time is greatly limiting feedback.

Truly open feedback allows everyone to say whatever they want, where they want, and when they want. No selections, no locations, no time limits, and no premade multiple choices.

This is why in openinnovation.me add innovation form we use free text input because we believe end-users should be free to write whatever they like and their expression should not be limited. If any multiple choices are present they can only be an addition, a guideline, and not the main form of expression.

We feel that limiting end-user suggestions with specific questions and deadlines will lower the trust, expression, and overall benefit of open innovation – this is why we will always rely on free text input.

To start using openinnovation.me email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me for sustainability

There are two ways a brand can approach sustainability:

1) Promoting their sustainability projects without being open for cooperation, assuming they can do everything alone or with few selected partners,

2) Being open and seeking help from everyone, understanding the complexity of sustainability.

There is no sustainability problem which can be solved in a closed manner. Sustainability is not divided by brands, teams, countries. It is an issue which involves everything and everyone on the planet. It requires cooperation and openness we have never seen before.

We suggest to all brands to make as many open innovation opportunities for sustainability innovation – internally, with partners, externally. Every brand should communicate that they are willing to listen to any idea, any suggestion. Improvements in efficiency from talks with employees, partners, and end-users add up and move the sustainability forward.

Being open is not about working with selected partners on selected projects. Sustainability requires a radical change in what it means to be an open brand. It requires openness towards everyone and in all topics. This is the only way blocks can be removed and progress accelerated.

openinnovation.me offers unlimited number of opportunities so you can add as many as needed. We will help you design and promote your sustainability opportunities. We will guide you through the learning process towards real results. But it is up to you to start today.

Sustainability is not something any of us can do alone.

To start email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

openinnovation.me is for product innovation

Based on feedback from our clients, we decided to focus openinnovation.me only on product innovation.

We have replaced previous innovation types (my idea, product, project, trend, and problem) with new ones: improvement suggestion, new use suggestion, new product suggestion. These innovation types are not obligatory and serve as a guideline. Innovators will be able to add innovations without selecting a type. This allows them to write more freely but if they need a direction they can use these types.

Additionally open brands will be able to add text description to their products.

These changes are now live on add innovation form, innovation list, innovation page, and product page. Corresponding changes are made in APPS. Open brands can start adding product descriptions.

Our aim is to make it easier for end-users to add product focused innovations, helping brands make better products. After careful evaluations in the past months we are confident these changes will make the communication between product end-users and product designers more effective. We will continue to evaluate and improve.

For help or more information email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Openness consulting makes business more humane

Openness is our main mission. We promote openness by helping companies to include customers, end-users, and other external experts in their decisions. Our platform openinnovation.me focuses on opening up product innovation for SMBs. Our consulting approach is wider in helping companies be more open to provide more value to customers.

Openness can be seen as an opposite trend to centralization and automation but we do not see it that way. The bigger the influence of a company the more it will benefit from end-users and customer feedback. The more influential the algorithms are, the more value they will provide with direct feedback. Openness is not a zero-sum addition to current processes – it is an upgrade, an improvement. Openness increases humanity, empathy, trust, transparency, and satisfaction for both management and end-users.

Our consulting can improve:
Marketing & brand strategy – including end-users feedback and increasing trust,
Sales – making it more of a dialog,
Product design & innovation – through open innovation,
Algorithm design – adding humanity with customer and end-user knowledge (not data),
Teamwork – adding openness internally improves job satisfaction.

Email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me to discuss how openness consulting can help your business.

Open call - Fiam, Geoplast, Lovato, Linea Flesh are offering 40 new innovation rewards

Brands on openinnovation.me can reward any innovation sent to them. User is eligible for a reward by simply adding a brand to their innovation. No opportunity is needed. This is an Innovation rewards feature.

Fiam, Geoplast, Lovato, and Linea Flesh have started using Innovation rewards and are offering each 10 rewards of 50 EUR. This is a total of 40 rewards and 2,000 EUR. They are interested to learn from their employees, partners, and end-users of their products – especially construction workers, factory workers, electricians, installers.

To add an innovation click on brands below to open their profiles and then click “add innovation” button. If you have any problems email support@openinnovation.me and we will reply quickly.

Fiam is always interested to hear from end-users of their tools.

Geoplast is interested in innovations in sustainable construction.

Lovato is dedicated to energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings.

Linea Flesh is looking for innovations related to biomedical and pharma industries.

Better informed product design is more successful

Being open is to collect more information, to be better informed. The more informed product design is, the better product it will make. Openness does not change the role of a designer – designers must always make informed design decisions. Openness means that the market is more complex and competitive, and designers must collect more information.

Designers have always looked for new ways to inform their work. What changed now is that it is not enough to use established research methods such as polling, interviews, focus groups. They are limiting through choice of questions, participants, and deadlines. Since end-users now have constant access to internet and want less controlled conversations these research methods can be seen as restricting.

Contemporary open design is moving towards digital, always accessible, direct without middlemen, controlled by end-users, and transparent. Any restriction of this communication results in less information and potentially poorer products. While time and focus of designers and end-users is hard to control, giving them access to easy-to-use direct tech solution offers immediate improvement.

To use openinnovation.me to collect end-user feedback in product design email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

5 examples how real and ideal product use differ

Here are 5 examples how end-users can contribute breaking the barrier between ideal product and real product use with openinnovation.me:

Safety
Product safety is hard to evaluate in the internal design process. The actual end-users of products, people who use the products daily for months or years, are the biggest experts when it comes to their risk of injury.
Example: factory workers innovating factory tools to reduce injury and stress.

Ergonomy
End-users who use the product often and over long periods of time have much more knowledge about the product ergonomy than internal design teams. Internal design teams can not dedicate so much time to such level of testing and often sacrifice ergonomy for design standards.
Example: office workers innovating office furniture to increase computer work comfort.

Inclusivity
End-users with non-standard body types and health conditions can offer valuable feedback to reduce their discomfort.
Example: hospital patients innovating care processes to reduce patient stress.

Integration
In reality products are used in complex environments as end-users integrate many products in their unique experience. Advertising can suggest ideal environments for products, but this is always far from reality.
Example: drivers innovating car accessories to reduce lower back pain on long drives.

Performance
Product performance is often measured by standardized metrics by elite performers. Actual product performance reality is that it is far more complex and often subjective.
Example: weekend cyclists innovating bicycles to adjust them to more comfort and away from elite performance standards.

To start an openinnovation.me project for your product email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

How to use openinnovation.me for marketing

openinnovation.me is great for innovation, but it can also be a powerful tool for marketing.

Regular marketing channels are less and less supportive of innovation. Retail, advertising, and PR prefer to stick to proven things that generate low risk revenue. For them innovation is always questionable because it is more difficult to understand and adopt. This leaves companies that innovate without the necessary support.

But companies can use openinnovation.me to target specific customers, also in tens of thousands, invite them to submit innovations, and reward them. This can be similar to offering coupons or discounts, only that it requires customers to add an innovation.

If 20,000 customers are invited using openinnovation.me, most likely most of them will show interest and remember the product and brand because of the novelty and the reward. openinnovation.me is not a known channel which they got used to ignoring.

And if a brand rewards 1,000 customers 50 EUR each, this is still a cost of only 50,000 EUR for a campaign which reached tens of thousands and had very high engagement with 1,000. While this performance might not work for non-innovative consumer products, it can be very powerful with more complex, expensive, and innovative products, especially in B2B.

To learn more how openinnovation.me can be used in marketing email Andrea Toniolo at andrea@openinnovation.me.

Geoplast vs Peri - without open innovation customers lose

Geoplast, our client, is a medium size highly innovative Italian company focused on making construction sustainable. Peri is a multinational leader in the construction industry. Geoplast has a limited access to the market due to its size, while Peri has, in lack of a better word, unlimited access to the global market.

In 2005 Geoplast created the first successful recycled plastic formwork – Geopanel. Recycled plastic formwork was a holy grail for the construction industry – an innovation which must happen and the only question was when and by whom. Many tried to replace unpractical wood and metal formworks with recycled plastic, but failed. Geoplast did it.

The world desperately needed to replace wood and metal formworks with recycled plastic because of sustainability, safety, and efficiency. One of the main values of recycled plastic formwork is that they can be reused 10 times more than wooden panels. In spite of this great and obvious objective need, the market did not change. Geoplast gradually increased sales of their Geopanel but all the big formwork producers were quiet and building sites were still full outdated formworks.

A decade later, in 2016, Peri launched their own plastic formwork – Duo. It was a copy of Geopanel. Duo was even awarded for innovation and quickly spread globally. Soon it’s revenue was several hundred times bigger than that of Geopanel, which was available a decade earlier. Geoplast sued Peri and – after 6 years – is still involved in an expensive legal battle preventing Peri to promote Duo.

In this mess, everyone is a loser. Recycled plastic formwork is one of thousands of changes necessary to change construction, and reduce pollution, climate crisis, and other risks. Because a multinational chose not to include external innovation in their profitability, innovation adoption has been blocked for more than 15 years. I can only hope that medical research is not managed in such a way that poor innovation management deprives us access to life saving medicine.

While many companies know how to manage open innovation with licensing, partnerships, joint-ventures, etc, Geoplast vs Peri shows that also many companies are simply unable. Peri chose not to cooperate with Geoplast for a decade, and then simply copied a product causing an additional legal delay, depraving the public of a necessary innovation. Decades ago Nike revolutionized sponsorship contracts by partnering with athletes like Jordan. Some industries and companies are still in the dark ages when it comes to business structures which support innovation.

It is a responsibility of companies – especially multinationals which control the market – to practice open innovation. Their shareholders and owners should accept that not all innovation will come from their own organization. They must know how to profit from external innovation. No company should generate profit by depraving its market of innovation and not all innovation can be created internally.

How to include end-users in your innovation

It is challenging for product designers to experience their products as end-users. A chef can try their dish, a game developer can play their game, a film director can watch their film, but even in such simple examples product designers do not share the perspective of an end-user.

In more complex engineering products it is easier to design a technical solution because problems are independent of consumers – making a car engine or a water pump more efficient does not depend on consumer impression. However, this is a wrong assumption – such solutions must be installed, used, maintained by people who are in this case end-users.

This is why it is crucial to include end-users in innovation.

With openinnovation.me it is easy to include end-users in innovation: publish an opportunity focusing on a specific use of your product and invite a group of end-users to participate. You can easily explain to them what kind of feedback you need and reward them with cash for their innovation suggestions.

Read about our first case end-user innovation study here.

If you need more help to include end-users in your innovation process email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

5 ways brands can use openinnovation.me

openinnovation.me allows brands to give cash rewards to end users of their products for their innovation suggestions. Here are 5 ways brands can use openinnovation.me:

1 More competitive feedback
All brands want to get feedback, but most brands do not want to pay for it. Brands that start rewarding user feedback with cash will have an advantage, and will get the best feedback.

2 Unique innovation approach
No designer can actually imagine how it feels to use a product over and over again. Safety, ergonomy, real environment, integrations, new uses are few product aspects which are best understood by product users. Brands that collect this feedback will have more competitive products.

3 Positive way to offer customer support
Customer support is based on negative experiences because users are motivated only by frustration. With openinnovation.me users are motivated to be creative and innovative. This is a positive relationship which prevents negative experiences.

4 Accelerated training
Winning innovation proves that the user understood the product very well. Adding a winning innovation requires substantial experience and understanding of the product, and is a great way to motivate training. It can be used as part of training or as an independent motivator.

5 Two way customer relationship
Customer relationships are moving towards two-way exchanges more and more. openinnovation.me ads a new channel to the customer relationship which is beneficial for both brands and customers. It is better at building loyalty than discounts, gifts, free trials.

To start using openinnovation.me for your brand email Andrea at andrea@openinnovation.me.

New feature - Innovation rewards

Goal of openinnovation.me is to help brands and users innovate easier together. This includes brands paying users (innovators) for their innovations (posts). So far only way for brands to pay users was to post an opportunity and reward innovations which respond to it. This meant that users had to focus on what brand defined in that opportunity.

Our new feature – Innovation rewards – allows brands to reward ANY innovation which tags their brand. While Opportunities feature focuses users on a specific need a brand has, Innovation rewards is much more open allowing users to surprise brands. We see this as a great step towards increasing openness and cooperation between brands and users.

If you manage an open brand on openinnovation.me, log in to your OI apps and go here and set number of rewards and amount per reward. This will reflect in your total innovation budget on your brand page.

We also launched our Start page which should make it easier to access opportunities, innovations, brands, and products.

Fiam - our first successful case study

After two and a half years of development we are happy that we have our first and successful case study – Fiam.

Fiam is an Italian innovator of semi-automation tools and was seeking ergonomy suggestions from end users. Only way to get ergonomy feedback is from people who use their tools daily in real work situations. Fiam published an opportunity, connected with end users, and quickly received innovations. Innovators were successfully paid. The whole process took less than a month and was managed by Andrea Toniolo.

This case study a great example of how openinnovation.me enables innovation on a new level. We allow brands to quickly publish opportunities and enable innovators to easily suggest innovations. And – most importantly – innovators are paid. Before us, open innovation projects were made by large companies and for high level experts. They were slow and expensive. We made open innovation faster, easier, and accessible to everyone.

This is an important step towards making open innovation part of every company in the world.

Thank you to everyone for making this happen!

Learn from The Masters Of Innovation tomorrow at 10:30 CET

Tomorrow at 10:30 CET we will host an open talk with The Masters Of Innovation – business leaders who successfully manage high rate of innovation in competitive industries:

– Mirco Pegoraro, CEO of Geoplast,
– Nicola Bacchetta, CMO of Fiam,
– Michele Lovato, CEO of Lovato.

This is a great opportunity to ask questions which you can email to Andrea, ask during the live talk, or ask later via comments.

Here are some questions we will discuss:

– How did you decide to make the first product?
– What is the biggest problem you solved with your product?
– How do you discover problems? Your own design intuition, personal experience, research, feedback from customers?
– What are the most important factors in maintaining a high rate of innovation?
– What are the biggest challenges in selling innovative products?
– How relevant is the local Veneto culture for innovation?

Make Salone del Mobile more open

Salone del Mobile is one of the biggest furniture fairs in the world. It showcases the latest furniture innovations and designs.

Innovation and design are influenced by intuition and by anonymous trend data, but should also include conversations with stakeholders. Our goal is that innovation and design become more participatory by including more external stakeholders. We believe this is better for furniture brands and customers.

For example, furniture design will benefit from feedback by people who install the furniture, or by families who have to switch to working from home.

Take a small step towards making furniture innovation and design more open – add innovations to these Salone del Mobile 2022 brands:

Il Giornale di Vicenza promotes openinnovation.me Fiam opportunity

We are very proud that Il Giornale di Vicenza wrote an article about Fiam innovation opportunity on openinnovation.me.

Read the full article here.

This is a good example of how promoting open innovation offers two benefits to brands: it attracts innovators (innovation) and it promotes the brand as innovative, open, and competitive (marketing). Promoting the opportunity on social media, advertising, press will be more beneficial for sales, brand awareness, and loyalty than most other types of content (company news, technical information, fairs, etc).

Customers are saturated by content but they are still searching for something new and different – open innovation opportunities offer this.

We congratulate Fiam and thank Il Giornale di Vicenza. We expect more brands to follow the openinnovation.me path.

Fiam's first opportunity focuses on safety and ergonomy

We are very proud to announce the first Fiam opportunity.

Fiam is an Italian company which designs and manufactures semi-automation tools used by factory workers. Fiam is using openinnovation.me to collect innovation feedback from factory workers who use their tools. Their goal is to maintain leadership in safety and ergonomy.

Fiam has recognized that there is an innovation limitation which can be overcome only if they communicate directly with end-users. True innovation in safety and ergonomy requires high quality communication with end users.

As a solution, openinnovation.me provides Fiam with an always open channel to end users, and a reward system. Factory workers who use Fiam tools can send public or private innovation suggestions to Fiam directly at any time. There are no deadlines or any other limitations making communication between Fiam and end users always open and easy. Also Fiam can then reward all relevant innovations and has started by offering fifteen 100 EUR rewards.

Innovate with Fiam here.