Partnering with U.S. Universities in the Era of Open Innovation

Today’s University is a rich resource for companies seeking game-changing technological breakthroughs. In this in-depth article Melba Kurman looks at the benefits of open innovation partnerships between companies and American university researchers.

Establishing the Foundations for a Balanced Innovation Portfolio

Corporate innovation programs can’t fulfill their potential without the right foundations in place. Many organizations are taking their programs across the enterprise. In this article we consider three key foundations and how they can be boosted to improve corporate innovation: the linkage between every day innovation and corporate targets, the levels of openness, trust and acceptance of diverse opinions.

How to Accelerate Open Innovation Initiatives with Disruptive Technology

Global companies focused on open innovation can accelerate corporate innovation strategies by partnering with a select set of early stage, disruptive technology providers. The result can accelerate open innovation initiatives to fulfill existing market needs or to access new market opportunities while leveraging intellectual resources from outside your organization.

Innovation Strategy: Matching What is Possible with What is Needed

Corporate innovation has traditionally been driven from the technology side; from departments like R&D and engineering. It’s an approach that can be very successful. Indeed, it has often led to great breakthroughs. But if a company wants to win in today’s value-based economy, this is no longer the best way of doing things.

How to Align Innovation with Your Corporate Strategy

For any corporate innovation initiative to succeed, it is important that it is aligned with corporate strategy. Jeffrey Baumgartner shares a simple three step approach to help ensure that this happens and to avoid common pitfalls.

The Legal Side of Open Innovation

There is one area in which open innovation differs significantly from in-house innovation: the legal element. The consequences of ignoring the legal side of open innovation can be catastrophically expensive, warns Jeffrey Baumgartner.

Innovation: Back to the Basics

With everyone and her aunt now involved in innovation and a never ending stream of articles, blog posts and books being published on the topic, we need to be sure we are clear on the basics of innovation, particularly corporate or organizational innovation.

Being Innovative in a Big Company

One of the problems that many large organizations face is how to innovate successfully within the confines of a massive, bureaucratic operational structure. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of research and development, where small, entrepreneurial firms routinely do end runs on large companies will multi-million dollar research budgets.

How to connect corporate objectives and investment in innovation

Innovation may be the watchword of the executive team, but desire does not necessarily lead to the right level of real, sustained commitment. Now, a recent study by Imaginatik Research, building on previous work on the financial impact of innovation, has uncovered a simple, compelling connection between corporate objectives, and the generation and management of ideas and business opportunities.

Innovation: A Leadership Issue

Creating a sustainable innovative environment is a leadership task. In order to succeed at this task, leaders must develop innovative abilities and develop them in their constituents. Here's how.

Presenting Innovation in a Way That Gets to ‘Yes’

As the global economy has improved and CEOs get past their hunker down/cut costs/survival mentality, the question of how to drive growth begins to dog them. But getting senior management to take action on innovation often needs a catalyst, and a solid strategy for getting them to say "yes" to innovation.