Open innovation: this is how multinationals can be startups

Open Innovation is the innovation model identified by the Californian economist Henry Chesbrough for which companies can use resources from outside (startups, universities, suppliers) is now almost 20 years old and is also widespread in Europe. Here is the most recent definition, how it actually applies and the benefits.

In recent years, companies have been experiencing a profound transformation internally and in relations with the outside world thanks to open innovation.

Open innovation is a new strategic and cultural approach on the basis of which companies, in order to create more value and compete better on the market, choose to resort not only to internal ideas and resources, but also to ideas, solutions, tools. and technological skills that come from outside, in particular from startups, universities, research institutes, suppliers, inventors, programmers and consultants. At the same time, this new approach to innovation involves a review of business processes and work profiles in the context of a changed internal culture.

The first in the world to define the new innovation strategy that is transforming the business world was Henry Chesbrough, an American economist and author, as well as Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation in California. Chesbrough baptized the new concept with a book entitled “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology”, published in 2003 by the Harvard Business School Press. The scholar reflected on the fact that globalization had made research and development processes more and more expensive and risky, because the life cycle of prod-u c t s h a d become s h o r t e r .