Developing Open Innovation Talent
While it has yet to appear on any lists of the year’s top jobs, the title of Open Innovation Manager is certainly an emerging career path as companies are no longer seeing open innovation as the next trend but as their next growth frontier. This leads one to ask how one qualifies for such a job and how can current college students and recent graduates position themselves to catch the wave of this business movement? Here is an outline of how it might look.
Various tracks: innovation may often be centered around the development of technological advances however there are also plenty of opportunities in marketing & consumer research-based innovation.
Education: a specific degree in may be lacking but there are a number educational of tracks that could lead to a career in open innovation. The best options appear to be in a technical field or in business. Universities around the world are offering seminars, lectures and other forms of non-credit training on innovation that students should attend. Any innovation-focused education would best be supplemented by coursework in entrepreneurship and training in facilitation. Students should also take advantage of the many innovation competitions and challenges available like the Henkel Innovation Challenge or the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge.
Rounded work experience: It’s important that managers have technical skills and understanding but they must also be able to communicate well. These roles are tasked with generating acceptance of open innovation within an organization and facilitating the process amongst various teams. Of course, having previous experience driving innovation is going to be important, also.
External and internal opportunities: while the nature of the job lends itself to external hiring, currently most openings are filled from within as companies find it in their best interest to find someone who is already a champion of the organization and can more quickly bring others on board with this new practice. This provides plenty of opportunities for future-minded individuals to create a new job for themselves by positioning themselves as an advocate of innovation within a current organization.
What do you think? Based on your experience, what advice can you give to the next generation of innovators?
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