Growth Through Government Partnerships
Government organizations may get stereotyped as being slow and unadaptable but stories from around the globe demonstrate that plenty of government departments are open to utilizing tools like crowdsourcing and open innovation to meet a variety of goals from listening to constituent opinion to developing more efficient and strategic policies. Accordingly, private organizations should not rule out government when looking for innovation partners.
For example, this year the EU is launching an Innovation Union, as a way of addressing the challenges of the current economic climate and changes in competitive pressure. The initiative is about facilitating practical innovation that can happen quickly enough to maintain competitiveness and living standards under historically unique pressures.
In an interview with Innovation Management Magazine, Reinhard Büscher, Head of Innovation Policy at the European Commission talks about how important it is to “revolutionize” how the public and private sector work together. “Innovation… needs to involve both the owner of the problem and those who might help them,” he said. “It’s important to bring together all relevant actors, the owner of the problem and the solution provider.”
Already, seven European cities are working together to expand “future internet” services such as cloud-based platforms. The goal is to develop smarter, digital, greener and more inclusive economies, particularly projects are that are structured to enhance the “networked Living Labs approach”, which involves citizens and business in service design and creation.
“Collaborating with the government on R&D projects is a strategic advantage that helps companies innovate more effectively and accelerate their company‘s growth,” according to an article on Blogging Innovation. “Government resources can provide companies with four key benefits: funding, technology transfer, access, and procurement opportunities. Creating a long term relationship with the government as an innovation partner is a tremendous way to mitigate risk for R&D projects to keep your company growing and innovating.”
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