Page 233 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

218 grow from within

pany’s leaders believe that these exploratory investments ben-
efit IBM in the form of deeper relationships with a wider range
of stakeholders and generate actionable ideas, not to mention
the benefits of positive publicity and goodwill.
Recall the case of BP’s office of the chief technology officer
(CTO) for digital and communications technology, highlighted
in Chapter 3 as an example of the Advocate Model. The CTO
office has generated hundreds of millions of dollars of value to
the company by finding and transitioning external technolo-
gies to a range of BP’s businesses worldwide. One of the great
insights of the BP case is that external players are often happy
to engage in experimentation largely at their own expense, as
BP provides a real-world opportunity for them to implement
their products and build relationships with BP’s decision mak-
ers. Negotiations over intellectual property can be delicate, and
there can be difficulties marshaling BP to move at a small com-
pany pace. But organizations that are devoted to overcoming
these fundamental mismatches can gain a competitive advan-
tage by serving as the proving ground for small businesses that
are on the precipice of market success. Large companies can
benefit by being early adopters of technology in tested and val-
idated ways that are tailored to their needs.
Open innovation takes many forms, including open source
software development, customer communities, inventor net-
works, and online R&D markets. The latter offer a fascinating
model facilitated by the Internet. Firms such as InnoCentive,
NineSigma, and yet2.com bring together clients with scientific
or technical problems with scientists worldwide who might
offer solutions. Such forums have accelerated the formation of
connections among disparate disciplines and industries, which
are so often a fountain of innovation. For example, a consumer
packaged goods client of NineSigma who was seeking a fabric
care technology found a surface chemistry solution from a semi-