Interesting that I caught up on the innovation network sites recommended by my good friend Navneet recently. It was amazing to see Innovation networks where one can solve problems and in the process make money. Some of the sites I visited:
1. www.pgconnectdevelop.com: Connectors who bring together partners, innovators and P&G lines of business
2. www.innocentive.com: Plays as an aggregator of Innovators and businesses (who want science problems solved)
I'm sure there are more such sites, but I restricted the above two worthy of mention as they provide incentives for innovators for solving their problems. The concept of open networks for a business value is not new. Linux sort of revolutionized this idea where software programmers contributed to the development of the OS (carefully monitored by expert who decide what goes into the production version). It was seen that very quickly businesses such as Red-Hat encircled them by providing support/services and eventually also ending up doing R&D.
But is the open innovation network models really provide business value?
This is one large question difficult to answer as these models evolve. But one can use the benefit of hindsight for software products like Linux. Interestingly so, being in sales and business development in the IT landscape, I can tell for sure the product is difficult to sell to businesses and make a commercial business out of it. Several reasons afflict them and we will not even try and enumerate them here. (you can mail me if you like and I'll share my perspectives on it for a price :-)). Going by the above I feel these networks will die as the savvy scientists and technologists would not like to sell their intellectual capital for free. The best of the ideas will often surface outside these networks and find commercial value outside these networks. Imagine what it will do to the sponsors of research in large universities, commercial organizations that recruit scientists and pay them huge sums for breakthrough ideas/products and so on...Lets not even think about the legal challenges these may pose (I am a novice in IP laws).
My hypothesis:
a. Companies cannot think these networks to replace the R&D divisions yet.
b. Nor will the best of scientists and technologist openly throw away their intellectual capital for pennies.
What fact do you have to prove or disprove above hypothesis? Please share with me...
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Sunil,
ReplyDeleteMy experience - Hypothesis (a) is correct as of now. However, the open networks and its evolution into co-creation networks is becoming a big influence already. Hypothesis (b) surprisingly is not really what we have seen. Scientists are more than willing to share what they create for pennies as you state, for the simple reason at the time that the big Elephants come to take their babies, the scientists are not in a position to feed them. The fact that their babies will survive and fulfil their dreams in terms of becoming the adult that they dream is more important for the scientist-mother :). In fact it is really a +ve sum game there.