Why the future belongs to those who look beyond their walls.
Why open innovation matters in today's market
In today’s fast-changing business environment, no company (no matter how large or well-resourced) can afford to innovate alone. Technologies evolve faster than internal teams can keep up. Customers expect more. And value chains are increasingly interconnected.
Open innovation has emerged as a strategic response to this complexity. It enables organizations to tap into external knowledge, technologies, and talent beyond their traditional boundaries. By doing so, they can accelerate time-to-market, reduce innovation risk, and build more resilient, future-ready businesses.
For innovation leaders the question is no longer if open innovation matters, but how to make it work.
What is open innovation?
Coined by Henry Chesbrough in the early 2000s, open innovation is the practice of leveraging both internal and external ideas, capabilities, and paths to market to advance innovation outcomes. It’s about turning innovation into a collaborative, cross-boundary effort, not a siloed activity confined to corporate R&D.
At Bluemorrow, we see open innovation as a strategic mindset that helps companies de-risk innovation and stay ahead of market shifts. It involves:
- Collaborating with startups, universities, research labs, and even competitors
- Crowdsourcing ideas or solutions
- Licensing external technologies or spinning out internal IP
- Building platforms or ecosystems that enable co-creation
Importantly, open innovation is not about outsourcing innovation. It’s about amplifying internal strengths by connecting to external opportunities.
What open innovation is not
To get it right, it’s crucial to separate open innovation from related (but narrower) concepts:
- It’s not just crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a tool; open innovation is a strategy.
- It’s not only about co-creation. Involving users is valuable, but open innovation goes beyond that to include technology scouting, joint ventures, and more.
- It’s not about giving away IP. Successful open innovation requires robust legal frameworks to protect what matters while enabling collaboration.
The business case for open innovation
Companies that embrace open innovation outperform those that don’t. They innovate faster, respond better to change, and unlock new revenue streams.
Here’s why it works:
- Speed to market: Collaborations can reduce development timelines significantly.
- Cost efficiency: Sharing resources and risks lowers the financial burden of R&D.
- Strategic relevance: Partnering with the right players ensures innovations meet real-world needs.
- Talent access: With most AI and deep tech talent now outside corporate walls, partnerships unlock critical capabilities.
- Ecosystem resilience: Building networks of innovation partners increases adaptability in uncertain times.
According to the OECD, firms collaborating externally introduce twice as many new products or services as those that rely solely on internal R&D (OECD, 2021).
Common open innovation formats and approaches
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Open innovation can take many forms, depending on your goals and maturity level. Common formats include:
Challenges of open innovation and how overcome them
Open innovation is powerful, but not frictionless. Many organizations struggle to implement it due to internal roadblocks:
How Bluemorrow supports your open innovation journey
At Bluemorrow, we support organizations in making open innovation work, not just in theory, but in practice. Our experience spans strategy design, ecosystem activation, and hands-on execution.
We help you:
- Identify opportunity areas where open innovation creates the most value
- Select the right formats and build robust collaboration models
- Navigate legal and organizational barriers
- Build capabilities to integrate external innovation into your core business
- Scale what works, while learning from every experiment
Whether you’re running your first startup collaboration or designing an enterprise-wide open innovation strategy, we’re here to help you move faster, de-risk smarter, and build for the future.
Ready to Open Up?
Open innovation isn’t just a trend, it’s a smarter way to innovate in an interconnected world. And it works best when it’s done with intention, structure and the right partners.
If you’re ready to expand your innovation horizons, let’s talk.
References
- Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology.
- OECD (2021). Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2021: Times of Crisis and Opportunity. Link
- Cohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1990). Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), 128-152.
