Co-Innovation

What is Co-Innovation?  Co-Innovation is two parties with unique expertise that come together in a 50/50 funding of resources.  The key component being they have complimentary interests. Think of it as a Venn diagram.  The goal of Co-Innovation is to find where the Venn diagrams overlap.  Co-Innovation means:

• Two parties with patented expertise.
• A complete 50/50 venture.
  • Define what it is/why it exists.
  • Find the common area of interests.
  • Agree on what the target is.
  • How do you go about doing it.
• Neither of you can do it alone.
  • You and your partner cannot do it alone.
  • This creates mutual dependency.
  • Requires both entities to participate in.
• You are going to launch a real product.
  • The product had to be launched within 24 months.
  • The product had to have high impact to both organizations.

If you set up a Co-Innovation program successfully, they will have benefits to your organization such as:

• Reducing risk.
• Speeding up delivery of innovation.
• Leveraging your R&D budget.

Lessons Learned

Over the years of creating these programs there are a couple lessons I have learned.

How do you manage these programs once they are under way?

• Use your senior executive sponsorship to set the pacing.
• Set gates and milestones.
  • You must have clear targets.
• Share and show what you are working on.
  • Get real feedback from customers using your products.

How do you get a Co-Innovation program going?

• You have to find the areas of mutual interests.
  • This takes time and many conversations with leaders of other organizations.
• Set up a one-day workshop where teams from both sides talk about their areas of interests.
  • Start working together as teams and propose a target.

When Co-Innovation programs go wrong, the case is usually that people want to call it a Co-Innovation program when it really is not.

• A lot of companies confuse Co-Innovation with contract R&D.
• Another is that a lot of people are really focused on research with no real plan. Innovation is all about execution.
• It turns into a PR or a marketing effort.

If you follow these basic rules, Co-Innovation programs can really ignite your organization and take you into market opportunities you would never be able to achieve on your own.

Strategic Storytelling

Why is it so hard for people to pitch their ideas?  To tell their ideas in a way that people swarm towards it and want to be a part of it.  The skill of the pitch is so hard to find.  What I have found is that the skill of pitch usually falls into two categories:

• The person making the pitch believes they can win you with facts
  • They know what they are talking about.
  • They attempt to belittle anyone who challenges them, with facts.
• Overwhelming with content
  • They overwhelm y