Open Innovation Lessons from a Corporate Giant
Forbes magazine carries an illuminating article on the lessons that can be learned from studying the form of Philips, the Dutch multinational electronics company that is the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world.
Philips was founded in 1891 and so it’s hardly a spring chicken. As Forbes points out it had been struggling to prove that ‘its form of conglomerate enterprise’ still has a role to play in today’s markets where consumers are increasingly calling the shots.
But its fortunes are being transformed and it has discovered a renewed zest thanks to open innovation.
The article highlights a number of ways that Philips has ventured outside its own four walls to engage external expertise including the founding of a technology park at its own industrial base in Eindhoven. The site has attracted a number of start-ups that have a relationship with Philips.
Accelerate Innovation
Philips wants to accelerate its product development cycle and make itself an attractive proposition to the individual or small business inventor. It has neither the time nor resources to invent the way it used to and sees OI and the crowd as the routes to achieve shorter product cycles and more innovation.
Challenges
However, working with the crowd does not come without challenges as explained by Alberto Prado who heads up high impact innovation at Philips:
“For bigger organizations this is more challenging as the innovations we seek fit into established categories and roadmaps,” he said. “The flexibility of the crowd is still a clash for us. There’s a limit to the flexibility you want to create.”
Are these challenges surmountable? That’s the $64,000 question, but in the meantime Philips continues to embrace the crowd with challenges and competitions for consumers to get their teeth into.
To read the full article click here.
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