In today’s world, companies are required to innovate more and faster than ever before. Based on qualitative interviews and the latest academic thinking on the subject, Accenture and the Institute for Innovation and Competitiveness i7 created by ESCP Europe have tried to go beyond the buzzword and have investigated what actually lies behind this concept. They therefore studied 20 companies that are actively leveraging Open Innovation to boost their overall innovation performance. The sample was selected from among large international companies for whom innovation is a priority and which have extensively communicated on their Open Innovation practices for several years.

You will be surprised at their findings in this excellent report!

Conclusions in the report (as presented by the authors) are:

1. Open Innovation is a new thing: more precisely an old practice (such as collaborating with other companies or research centers) which is being systematized and for which processes are setup at a strategic corporate level.
2. Open Innovation has a fast pace of adoption: in less than 10 years it became it has been extremely well broadcast (especially when compared to other practices such as lean Six Sigma).
3. It allows to tapp into an almost unlimited number if external sources.
4. An Open Innovation strategy can take various shapes, the report proposes a matrix to position the Open Innovation strategy to implement in your company depending on your level of openness.
5. The company implementing Open Innovation must define the right balance between depth and breadth of relationship with partners. In particular this depends on your capacity as a company to absorb external knowledge.
6. If your company implements Open Innovation, you must (and if not you will) excel at the partner management process.
7. Open Innovation is not Open Bar. There is no Open Innovation “free lunch”. You must invest to have a return on investment.
8. Open Innovation, is not a function, it is an attitude. It is not only about appointing a “chief open innovation officer”, Open Innovation must be implemented in your company’s DNA through processes, practices, tools etc.
9. Open Innovation has not resolved the innovation’s Bermuda triangle – what are the KPIs? It is hard to measure return on investment.
10. Open Innovation Works: Shorter Time to Market, Not cheaper, higher company’s innovativeness, more sustainable, better IP protection.

These excellent 20 articles identify the major challenges facing companies around the world as they try to take advantage of new opportunities in our increasingly connected global community.

It is a great report that is very well worth reading.

Key Findings:

1. Diversity is a key driver of innovation and is a critical component of being successful on a global scale. Senior executives are recognizing that a diverse set of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds is crucial to innovation and the development of new ideas. When asked about the relationship between diversity and innovation, a majority of respondents agreed that diversity is crucial to encouraging different perspectives and ideas that foster innovation.
2. A diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial for companies that want to attract and retain top talent. Competition for talent is fierce in today’s global economy, so companies need to have plans in place to recruit, develop, and retain a diverse workforce.
3. Nearly all respondents reported that their companies have diversity and inclusion strategies in place. However,  not all of the plans are identical. About a third said their companies have global strategies that allow for minimal regional deviation, while half said that their organizations have a global plan that also allows for different strategies and programs in order to address regional needs or cultural differences.
4. Organization’s diversity goals and priorities won’t change significantly over the next three years. When asked about their company’s current diversity and inclusion priorities, 43% cited retention and development of talent, followed by ensuring diversity in the workplace in general (35%), developing a robust pipeline of diverse talent (29%), and managing cross-generational issues (28%).
5. Responsibility for the success of company’s diversity/inclusion efforts lies with senior management. In order for a diversity/inclusion plan to have real meaning, there needs to be accountability and oversight. Seven out of ten companies reported that the buck stops at the C-level and their board of directors.
6. Significant progress has been made to build and retain diverse workforces, but there are still some impediments to companies’ efforts. Respondents feel they’ve made progress in gender diversity, but they feel they’ve fallen short in areas such as disability and age

The following are some of the key findings of the new research:

• China Now Leads World in Patent Filings: Published patent applications in China increased by 16.7 percent between 2006 and 2010; and this year’s patent activity secures China’s status as the world leader in patent application volume, as previously predicted by Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters projects that China will publish 493,000 patent applications annually by 2015.
• Trademark Applications Surge: Since 2000, the number of trademarks registered in China has increased by more than 450 percent, far outpacing other nations, despite widespread counterfeiting and infringement.
• Growing Influence in Scientific Literature: Over the last five years, there has been an 80 percent increase in Chinese scientific literature annual output, making China second in the world in published scientific papers. The United States, which currently has the highest overall output, grew by five percent.
• Slow to Expand Globally: Chinese organizations are not protecting their inventions by filing patents globally at the same level as other innovation-minded countries. Currently, only 5.6 percent of China’s inventions are protected with global patent filings abroad, far less than the United States (48.8 percent) and Japan (38.7 percent).
• China’s Corporate Innovation Lags: According to the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators analysis, the most innovative companies in the world are based in the United States (40 percent), Europe (29 percent) and Japan (27 percent).
• Global Brands Capitalize on Chinese Consumerism: In an economic environment that is expected to reach $4.3 trillion USD in retail spending by 2015, leading multinational companies have been among the top 20 trademark filers in China from 1976 through 2011.

Trap 1: Mediocrity signals: While the rhetoric is that the organisation is innovation and entrepreneurial, the action of leaders signals complacency and mediocrity. How many time have we seen this happen. One of the challenges, of course, is that managers get promoted not only on their ability to lead, but also on their longevity within the organisation. Do they make great leaders? Not necessarily. Do they promote innovation and entrepreneurship? Why should they. For many, innovation and entrepreneurship equals risk – and why take risk? Mediocrity is a safer, risk-free path.

 Trap 2: Strategic ‘attention deficit disorder’: The survey found too many top managers start and abandon initiatives so frequently that they appear to display a kind of attention deficit disorder (ADD) when it comes to strategy and tactics. They don’t allow sufficient time to discover whether initiatives are working, and they communicate insufficient rationales to their employees when they make strategic shifts.

Trap 3: Corporate Keystone Kops:  The research found that many executives who think everything is going smoothly in the everyday workings of their organizations are blithely unaware that they preside over their own corporate version of the Keystone Kops – fictional policemen so incompetent that they ran around in circles, mistakenly bashed each other on the head, and fumbled one case after another. Some leaders to the farce through their actions, others by failing to act.

Trap 4:Misbegotten ’Big, Hairy Audacious Goals’: At some companies, however, BHAG statements are grandiose, containing little relevance or meaning for people in the trenches. They can be so extreme as to seem unattainable and so vague as to seem empty. The result is a meaning vacuum. Cynicism rises and drive plummets.

The report concludes: As an executive, you are in a better position than anyone to identify and articulate the higher purpose of what people do within your organization. Make that purpose real, support its achievement through consistent everyday actions, and you will create the meaning that motivates people toward greatness. Along the way, you may find greater meaning in your own work as a leader.

I totally agree.

• No-one wants to take ownership because the ideas is indeed disruptive, and because it is, it sits in nobody’s “patch”. People feel that they will not be rewarded for pursuing it, so why bother?
• There really is no money. While people promised funding if a good idea emerged, when it does everyone runs for cover
• Death by Powerpoint – the need for repeated “decks” that look pretty, but take endless amounts of hours to say that the idea is a good one and should be propelled forward
• Lack of empowerment – no-one is willing to take the risk and put their name to the idea. So it just sits…and sits…and sits.
• Everyone is just too busy. Who has time for new ideas anyway?

Answers here.

1. Innovation is the act of coming up with new and creative ideas.
2. Innovation is a random process.
3. Innovation is the exclusive realm of a few naturally talented people.
4. The biggest obstacle to innovation is a lack of organizational resources and know-how.
5. The most important type of innovation involves bringing new products and services to market.
6. Teaching employees to think creatively will guarantee innovation.
7. The most powerful way to trigger your brain is to simply ask it a question.
8. Most companies pursue incremental rather than disruptive innovation.
9. Most companies are not structured to innovate.
10. Listening to your customers is a great way to innovate.

Facebook, a privately-owned firm, was given an estimated market capitalisation of $77bn, largely thanks to its 800m members.

Organisations in emerging markets are benefitting from rising web penetration. China’s online audience has grown from 246m users in 2007 to 459m users by the end of 2010, with totals reaching 88m and 42m for India in turn.

Global internet usage now encompasses 2.1bn people, of which half are drawn from the top ten nations in terms of size of internet audience. This group also includes Brazil on 79m, Russia on 60m and Iran on 37m.

Ss penetration currently stands at 42% in Russia, 41% in Brazil, 34% in China, and only 8% in India, considerably behind the global average of 30%, significant room for further expansion remains. According to the report, some 81% of visitors to the top ten global websites – including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Baidu – are from outside the US.

55% of Twitter traffic between 2008 and 2011 came from mobile gadgets, as did 33% for Facebook. Moreover, 250 firms from Fortune 1,000 launched mobile ad campaigns in September 2011, up from just 25 in July 2010.

The revenues generated through applications and mobile advertising were pegged to reach $12bn this year, up from $700m in 2008. Advertising will account for roughly $4bn in spending.