Want to excel at Open Innovation? Open up…your MIND !

Firms can’t get full strategic value from Open Innovation unless they first open up their minds!

Ask yourself: “WHY are we using Open Innovation?”. The tactical answer is “To develop new products”.

A strategic answer would be “To open up our employees’ mind”.

Your rivals can easily copy your new products, but it’s hard to copy new biz models and even harder to copy new mental models! See graphic below.

Read my new MIT Sloan Management Review article to learn how pioneering companies are using Open Innovation to open up the MINDS of their leaders and employees and adopt disruptive business models like B2B Sharing to co-build the Frugal Economy.

This applies to NATIONS as well. Read this insightful article by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Karabi Acharya on why America needs to open up its mind to adopt disruptive frugal healthcare solutions from other countries.

I have been preaching the same since 2008: read my HBR article on it.