the Open Innovation Marketplace

Abstract

Overview Current employment strategies usually rely on some rational compromise between hiring people with skills that are needed imme-diately and hiring people with skills that will likely be needed in the future. A more open approach to innovation promises access to " smart people " that are outside of your organization. But most strate-gies fall far short of effectively tapping that external crowd. A new framework for innovation should position leaders to understand both why and how to extract value external to their organization. A frame-work will be posited in lieu of the traditional innovation approach of stage-gate management. That new framework is designed to subdi-vide projects into modules, not stages—modules that are more amenable to sharing within a network of resources and among a vari-ety of innovation approaches. The human resources department, along with the innovation functions, in a company practicing Challenge Driven Innovation recognizes their broader role in accessing talent. They realize that 3 39 40 THE OPEN INNOVATION MARKETPLACE effective management of this resource involves both internal and external persons that can effectively contribute. They appreciate the fact that internal experts better understand the nature of the problem or need, that they comprehend " local " limitations and implementa-tion concerns. But they also know that many times the best minds for a given task lie outside the walls of the organization and they know the most appropriate mechanisms to find, enroll, and use those resources.