"Open Innovation"

This was one of the top scoring disserations in my cohort.

I use an unorthotodox methodology (see below) to demonstrate that i) transparency ii) clarity and iii) commitment should form the guiding principles of innovation in a corporate environment. This means enabling knowledge to flow within, and between, organisations, recognising that talent can be found anywhere in the world. This means having a clear criteria for spin-offs & commercialisation, instead of being complacent or succumb to bureaucracy. This means taking a long term view to resource allocation, versus investment myopia.

If done correctly, I argue that this paradigm of "open innovation" will result in a greater pool of specialist talents, economies of scale, risk sharing, talent attraction, more productive innovation, cost minimisation and faster time to market, etc. This is of course assuming the risks of knowledge transfer costs, licencing costs, lack of control over innovation, conflict among stakeholders with differential agendas, etc are all well-accounted for.

Overall, this shift in mindset to innovate how we innovate - from being insular to being collaborative, from being first-to-market to becoming best-to-market, from recognising that smart people are everywhere, that an open exchange of ideas is required to extract value - is crucial to forming the next paradigm shift.