In this presentation, I share my benchmark views on how open innovation in general has been adapted over the years. The benchmark is based on my free e-book, 7 Steps for Open Innovation.

1. www.innovationupgrade.com
stefanlindegaard@me.com
Twitter: @lindegaard
Hey! Free books, white papers and exercises on innovationupgrade.com!
A Benchmark for Open Innovation:
How Good is Your Company?

2. What is open innovation?
“…a philosophy or a mindset that they should embrace within their
organization.
This mindset should enable their organization to work with external
input to the innovation process just as naturally as it does with internal
input”
Open innovation as a term will disappear in 5-7 years!

3. 1. Common Language and Understanding, Motivation,
Mandate and Strategic Purpose
2. Assets and Needs
3. Value Pools and Channels
4. Internal Readiness
5. External Readiness
6. New Skills and Mindset
7. Communications Strategy
7 Steps for (Open)
Innovation
Get the free book – let´s have a session later!

4. Step 1: Common language and Understanding,
Motivation, Mandate and Strategic Purpose

5. • Does your organization have a good understanding
of open innovation and the demands it puts upon
your company?
• What is motivating the organization to pursue open
innovation?
• Is the mandate for open innovation clear and the
strategy and strategic purposes well thought out and
well understood by everyone involved?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 4
+ Need for OI is recognized
+ Strategic attention on OI and innovation
management in general
- No common understanding of innovation term
- Too much focus on creating innovation culture
P&G (long history, next level)

6. Step 2: Assets and Needs

7. • Have you identified the assets and resources (internally as
well as externally in your ecosystem) that are relevant for your
innovation projects?
• Have you identified other assets and resources that are
needed but are not available within your current ecosystem?
• Do you have a process for getting access to these needed
assets and resources?
• Do you have a process for merging internal and external
resources?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 5
+ Strategic focus drive higher awareness
- Better processes and frameworks to be
established
- IoT and its impact is not yet understood
Johnson & Johnson, 3M (internal OI only?)

8. Step 3: Value Pools and
Channels

9. • What value pools can you tap into to build value for your
innovation initiatives?
• Are these relationships solid or do you need to do additional
work to build good, mutually beneficial working relationships?
• Are there potential external value pools that you have not yet
tapped at all? If so, what is your plan for reaching out to them?
• Are your channels for communicating with your value pools
strong or do they need further work?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 4
+ Strong focus on startups and Supplier-Enabled
Innovation (SEI)
- Better processes and frameworks to be
established
- Low maturity on selection, still opportunistic
Electrolux (SEI), Fintech (startups)

10. Step 4: Internal readiness

11. • What is your company’s state of internal readiness for open
innovation?
• Does your culture support networking across internal units
and with external organizations?
• Is senior management up to speed on how innovation really
works?
• Do you have the right people in place to make open
innovation happen?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 3
- Most executives don´t really know how
innovation works
- No dedicated training on OI / networking
- New organizational structures are needed
Koc Holding (willingness to learn / develop),
Zappo´s (organizational experimentations)

12. Step 5: External Readiness

13. • How ready is your industry for open innovation?
• What are the obstacles and drivers for open innovation within
your industry?
• What are you doing to persuade your partners to work with
you on open innovation?
• How strong is the trust between your organization and your
external partners?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 6
+ Everyone talks about ecosystems today
+ Better understanding of industry obstacles and
drivers in general
+ You don´t go anywhere without trusting others
(experimentation needed)
GE (educating internally as well as externally)

14. Step 6: New Skills and Mindset

15. • Do your company’s leaders understand that people matter
more than ideas when it comes to making innovation happen?
• Have you identified people who are best suited for working at
the different stages of innovation?
• Do you hire for potential or is your hiring based on past
experience and competencies?
• Are your hiring and training programs geared toward
developing the characteristics and skills needed for
innovation?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 4
+ Focus shifting (slowly) from front to back-end
- Lack of new thinking on hiring processes (HR
not involved in innovation)
- No people pools
GE (educating internally as well as externally)

16. Step 7: Communication Skills

17. • Do you have clear messaging that lets people know why
innovation is important to the company?
• Are you working cohesively with the corporate
communications team on communicating about innovation?
(You might have to train them.)
• Are you doing a good job of communicating with internal and
external stakeholders?
• Do you train your innovators to become better
communicators?
Think / Reflect
Grade: 3
- Corporate innovators still lack communication
skills, awareness and training
GE (educating internally as well as externally)

18. 1. Common Language and Understanding, Motivation,
Mandate and Strategic Purpose - SCORE: 4
2. Assets and Needs - SCORE: 5
3. Value Pools and Channels - SCORE: 4
4. Internal Readiness - SCORE: 3
5. External Readiness - SCORE: 6
6. New Skills and Mindset - SCORE: 4
7. Communications Strategy - SCORE: 3
7 Steps for (Open) Innovation: The
benchmark and your company?
How does your company compare to my benchmark?

19. Some key observations
• Go beyond products and technologies, embrace
other functions
• Go beyond problems and challenges; also
opportunities
• Go from one-to-many to many-to-many
• SEI and startups are very active value pools
• IoT will make it even more complex; people, partners
and machine layers, ecosystems and platforms

20. Open Q&A

21. Author, speaker and strategic advisor
on open innovation, innovation
management / culture and the people
side of innovation.
Get in touch!
www.innovationupgrade.com
stefanlindegaard@me.com
@lindegaard
Stefan Lindegaard