Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation
By Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk and Rick Aalbers
September 21, 2011
A small number of “idea scouts” and “idea connectors” are disproportionately influential in producing successful open innovation outcomes. Smart companies make sure they are linked.
Marissa Mayer, a vice president at Google, exemplifies the “idea connector.”
Image courtesy of Flickr user marcusnelson.
Companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems, Genzyme, General Electric and Intel are often credited with having attained market leadership through open innovation strategies.That is, by tapping into and exploiting technological knowledge that resided beyond their own research and development structures, these companies outmaneuvered rivals that relied largely on in-house approaches to innovation. But while other organizations try to follow the example set by these trailblazers, our research shows that many are failing because they neglect to ensure that the outside ideas reach the people best equipped to exploit them.
About the Research »
About the Research
The insights presented in this article are based on our research and consulting work over the past five years with a number of leading companies in a variety of industries. These industries include high-tech engineering (Siemens, Boston Scientific, Creganna), information and communication technology (Microsoft, Intel, Atos Origin, TED), energy (Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron), management consulting (Deloitte) and financial services (Equens). Our work has centered on understanding how opportunities for innovation diffuse throughout interpersonal networks. To examine this process, we used ONA techniques (see “ONA: A Tool Adapted From the Social Sciences”) to visualize networks, identify the key innovation brokers and discover any underutilized potential. We then conducted interviews with over 80 innovation brokers to get a deeper appreciation of their attributes and the roles they perform. We also took measures of personal innovation and correlated them with network position, sources of knowledge used and personal factors such as tenure and area of expertise. Finally, we studied the use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies in the innovation process in over 30 organizations by using interviews, surveys and network-analysis techniques.
There is a way to change this path for the better. By understanding the roles of two types of innovation brokers — “idea scouts” and “idea connectors” — in the open innovation process, and by utilizing their talents effectively, managers can preside over major improvements in
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After reading this article, I had a internal debate, Steve vs Steve. One Steve thought that the idea scout and idea connector made sense and the other Steve thought that everyone in the enterprise should be an idea scout in their business. That led me back to entrepreneurs who are both idea scouts and connectors. That is there job. I certainly agree that the internet is a vast and still untapped resource. Great article.
Thank you.
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