Open Innovation: The R&D model for the 21st century

Open innovation has been fundamental to major technological breakthroughs of current times. The Networked Society – in which everyone and everything are connected in real time – will change the way we innovate and collaborate, and is a key enabler of open innovation.

The term “open innovation” was popularized by Henry Chesbrough in his book Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. He wrote, “Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology.” Chesbrough demonstrates how, for several years, the corporate world has been adopting this process of collaboration, idea exchanging, experience sharing and integration of researchers inside and outside companies. But these concepts have never been as important as they are now in the 21st century.

The increase in availability and mobility of highly qualified human resources in different locations is one of the advantages of adopting a research and development (R&D) process based on open innovation. It is also the fastest and most effective path to finding the right business model for company’s products and services.

The results are significant. And in a way, they explain the agility and quantity of technological innovations available to the society in the modern world.

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