The best way to detect and take advantage of Innovation opportunities is through establishing collaboration models with third parties, in an open and transparent manner.
To ensure success, it is necessary to ensure, for each of the actors in the collaboration, that they all have something to gain as a result of the implementation of the initiatives. In order for this to occur, before initiating any action, the complementarity of the interests of each party must be established.
Only in this way can
Leverage external crowdsourcing platforms: Crowdsourcing platforms can be leveraged to brainstorm ideas on a specific problem.
Various scenarios could be:
- Consultations and working groups with clients through campaigns on social networks or other means of communication.
- Partnerships with vendors and partners to support business or customer challenges.
- Exchange of proofs of concept, marketing campaigns or market studies to detect business gaps, upselling, cross-selling, …
- Proofs of concept with vendors to grow a new market or protect against competition.
- Co-creation with startups, startup accelerators, bootcamps and even venture capital or private equity companies. These partnerships with these players can be mutually beneficial for organizations that need innovation support for growth and for startups that need customers and traction than established organizations.
- Competitors also as a source for open innovation
- Empower employee creativity
- etcetera
Benefits of collaborative innovation
- A different perspective creates innovation
We are all unique and we tend to see realities from different perspectives. When people from different profiles, units or entities are brought together, each person will see the same challenge from their own unique perspective. Most likely, the vision of someone from Production differs from that of Sales and in turn from the same potential Customers. Bringing people together can help clarify problems and offer solutions that satisfy everyone.
Apple employed a cross-functional team to create the revolutionary iPhone. They brought together experts from different departments in the organization to start what would become a smartphone revolution. Today they are considered one of the best teams of all time that produce various innovative solutions (iPad, iWatch, new web browsing models,…).
- Momentum of change
In general, the larger an organization, the longer it takes to make decisions. This is due to the number of people or units that should be involved in the final decision process. Cross-functional collaboration helps dramatically reduce the time it takes for an organization to reach a decision and supports it with external input. Ensure trust, empathy and acceptance as all actors are on the same page from the start.
- More and better learning
When there is effective collaboration, everyone learns more, everyone is a winner. Collaboration unites people from different backgrounds that are part of the business chain, thus promoting the cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge. Each individual is aware of what the others do. Understand their functions, needs as well as the global vision.
Bell Labs managers employed this technique when they brought together scientists and engineers, each with unique abilities. Executives were able to create a risk-free corporate culture that viewed failure as an integral part of growth.
This experiment led to the invention of the vacuum tube. This has revolutionized thousands of industries. The more people in your various departments understand the basics of each other's specialties, the more productive the company will be.
- Old ideas can be challenged
It's pretty hard for anyone to find bugs or improvements in their own feature. Therefore, having an external vision to correct and detect errors is a great opportunity. This is a crucial step to improve the quality of the final result. Cross-functional collaboration offers a way for everyone to know what is being done. The "the way we've always done it" syndrome can end up giving way to a new perspective.
- A level playing field
Although hierarchy and organizational structure is essential, ideas are not exclusive to management. In general, a more multidirectional approach is needed to achieve a more productive result. Collaboration with all internal and external people ensures that not all ideas originate from executives or senior management. It ensures that people of any role can contribute and participate in creating new ideas, increasing everyone's engagement.
In the mid-2000s, Cisco instituted a cross-functional team that included representatives from software engineering, marketing, quality assurance, manufacturing, and customer service. The goal was to increase the security of the router lines.
About 100 people attended the meeting. This included a core streamlining group of 20 individuals. There was also a small governance team made up of two vice presidents, the director of development, and the 20-person core group coordinator.
This cross-functional governance worked as Cisco is currently the number one router security vendor.
Summary
Collaborative innovation is understood as the accumulation of different functional knowledge and visions contributed by committed actors to achieve a common goal. With such diversity, a culture of continuous improvement can be achieved in which everyone owns and commits to the challenges and can take the initiative to provide a common solution. Collaboration is a critical teamwork process that improves organizational performance.
On the other hand, it must be taken into account that internal or external innovation is subject to the same challenges that any startup to develop.
