(16:12)

In this podcast, Tom DeGarmo, a principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers advisory practice, talks about why companies must practice open innovation, especially in this economic downturn.

What do the Apple iPhone and Linux have in common? They are both products of some form of open innovation. Linux came about through the collaborative efforts of the thousands of developers who participate in the open source community. The hundreds of applications for the iPhone mushroomed when Apple made the iPhone platform available to application developers. Other companies, such as Google and Microsoft, have followed in Apple's open innovation footsteps.

Tom DeGarmo, a prinicpal with PricewaterhouseCoopers, first got exposed to open innovation when he worked at Bell Laboratories, AT&T's research arm, back in the 1980s. He says that Bell Laboratories' culture thrived on sharing experiences, ideas, and research for the sake of research. He says, "We took the best of what we learned and applied it to problems outside of the lab."

With traditional innovation, or what DeGarmo calls closed innovation, companies have ownership over their assets and their intellectual property. They look at how they can leverage their employees' expertise to solve problems. "This type of innovation can be somewhat limiting and very constraining. In a down economy, companies need to explore every avenue for innovation."

Companies that practice open innovation, on the other hand, look outside for smart problem-solvers. "Some of these people might have already solved your company's particular problem, might have people working on your particular problem, or might have people with insight to share. You might find people who are working on totally unrelated problems. If you apply these problems to your situation, you might solve your problem. If you are open enough, you can take advantage of what the world has to offer."

In this on-going series of innovation podcasts, DeGarmo provides insight from his research experience with open innovation, gives examples of open innovation communities, and gives CIOs and CTOs several takeways for using technology to carry out open innovation initiatives.

Bio
Tom DeGarmo is a principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers' advisory practice and leads the technology consulting solutions practice. He joined the company following PricewaterhouseCoopers' purchase of BearingPoint's commercial services business unit in June 2009. DeGarmo was executive vice president of BearingPoint's 2,000-person commercial services business unit, comprised of financial services and commercial services (including managed services, management consulting and Latin America). He has also served as a board member for the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council. DeGarmo has more than 25 years of experience in commercial and public sectors, including positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Unisys.

Resources
PwC Innovation, PricewaterhouseCoopers
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/innovation/index.jhtml

Use Web Innovation to Cope with Downturn, Harvard Business Review

https://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/35871

An Open Business Model Is the Convergence Imperative according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, GlobeNewswire
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=96706

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer

Audio Editing by Doug Marcis

(20:11)

In this podcast, Steve Shapiro, InnoCentive's vice president of strategic consulting, talks about how InnoCentive's open innovation model has helped companies solve the most challenging problems.

When the Oil Spill Recovery Institute in Alaska wanted to find out how to pump out the almost solidified oil at the bottom of Prince William Sound from the Exxon Valdez spill, the Institute did not turn to its researchers. Instead they posted a challenge to InnoCentive, an emerging company that specializes in open innovation, also called crowdsourcing. According to The New York Times, the Institute paid John Davis, a chemist from Illinois, more than $20,000 for his idea. Davis, an expert on cement, figured that if making cement vibrate can keep it from hardening, then a similar concept can be adapted to keep the oil in the tanks from freezing.

Founded in 1998 by three scientists working for Eli Lilly, the major pharmaceutical company, InnoCentive, became an independent company in 2005. To date InnoCentive companies, such as Dow Chemical and Procter & Gamble, and not-for-profits have posted more than 1000 challenges on InnoCentive. Research areas include everything from business processes to chemistry. Steven Shapiro, InnoCentive's vice president of strategic consulting, says that today's corporations cannot depend on their internal research and development departments to solve their toughest problems. "They need to look at external resources. InnoCentive enables these organizations to tap into a global network of more than 200,000 solvers who enjoy the challenge of competing for a cash reward. Our partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation is helping to solve problems posted by not-for-profits working in poor countries."

In this podcast, Shapiro explains the reasons for using open innovation to solve tough problems, InnoCentive's business model for generating revenue, some of InnoCentive's most successful challenges, the benefits of using InnoCentive, and the challenges this company faces in this economy.

Bio
Steve Shapiro is InnoCentive's vice president of strategic consulting. He founded the 24/7 Innovation Group, a management research and education company focused on helping organizations be more competitive. Before 24/7, Shapiro spent 15 years with Accenture, where he established and led its Global Process Excellence Practice. He delivered innovation training to 20,000 Accenture consultants. His books include 24/7 Innovation, Goal-Free Living, and The Little Book of BIG Innovation Ideas. He earned a B.S. in Engineering from the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University.

Resources
Open Business Model Player InnoCentive Radically Expands Its Markets, Opensource.Association

http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/open-business-model-player-innocentive-radically-expands-its-markets/

If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/22inno.html

Crowdsourcing Innovation: Q&A with Dwayne Spradlin of InnoCentive, Fast Company
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kermit-pattison/fast-talk/millions-eyes-prize-qa-dwayne-spradlin-innocentive

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Content Strategy and Media Production by Tom Parish, Inc.

In this podcast, Dr. Joel West, an associate professor at San Jose State University's College of Business, talks about the open innovation paradigm for technology development. His teaching and research focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. Along with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke, West is editor of the book, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

Working and living in the heart of Silicon Valley, Dr. Joel West cannot get away from technology innovation. In fact, his course offerings and research at the San Jose State University's College of Business focus on technology innovation and strategic management in technology companies. San Jose State University ranks at one of the top 25 research business schools in the U.S.

Dr. West's interest goes beyond traditional innovation to the concept of open innovation. He defines it as the idea of using the market rather than the internal hierarchy, both as a source of innovation and a way to commercialize innovation. Open innovation also means treating innovation like anything else -- something that can be bought and sold on the open market, not something that happens within a company. He says that a company can no longer depend on its internal resources to drive its innovation efforts.

His research in open source computing led him to look at open innovation and a book on the subject. He was one of the co-editors with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke on the book, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm (2006). He also writes several blogs about open innovation, including openinnovation.net, which describes his research and provides comments on other academicians' research projects.

In this podcast, Dr. West explores what powers the concept of open innovation and how it differs from traditional innovation efforts, such as research and development. He says that open innovation raises the question about how those companies that practice it differ from those organizations that have research and development programs. Henry Chesborough explored this in the first book on open innovation published in 2003.

West says, "Companies that practice open innovation will do the same things they did before they adopted it. They might have a research and development department. Chesborough went one step further by looking at the revolutionary nature of open innovation. According to him, open innovation is a process that enables a company to find the best sources of innovation, and to find the best paths to commercialize that innovation. The company might accomplish these goals looking within company and looking outside the company. They might take other paths that they would not have considered if they did not know about open innovation."

Dr. West has two important takeaways for chief information officers, chief strategy officers, and chief technology officers: look for external resources who know how to make your products better or who have new products ideas, and find the best ways to bring these resources into your organization. He says, "You might look at university students, your suppliers and customers, or an open innovation community. You might have to look at all of these possibilities to find out which class of individuals or position in the value chain will provide the best ideas you want. Money does not always motivate people to share their ideas with you. Many people like the idea of a challenge to compete for recognition. You might have a contest to find the best ideas."

Bio

Dr. Joel West is an associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Department of Organization and Management in the College of Business at San Jose State University. His research, teaching, and industry experience center on global technology industries, which provide the lifeblood of Silicon Valley.

His research findings have appeared in Asian Survey, Information Systems Research, Management International Review, R&D Management, Research Policy, Telecommunications Policy, and The Information Society, among other journals. He has won best-paper awards for tracks of the Academy of Management and HICSS conferences, and has been active in service to the research community. Along with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke, West is editor of the book Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

West earned a Ph.D. in management from the University of California, Irvine.

Resources

Joel West's Personal Blog

http://http://blog.openinnovation.net/2010/02/joel-open-innovation-podcast.html

Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm

http://www.openinnovation.net/Book/NewParadigm/

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis