Wellington
There’s an opportunity for an ‘open innovation’ platform in New Zealand, and it could justbe the way for companies to cost-effectively solve some of their R&D challenges.
The concept’s taken off in some overseas countries, though
Open innovation is a term that can have a thousand meanings, but essentially it is using externalknowledge (in its many forms) for a company to solve particular problems. This might for example, anengineer or scientist suggesting a solution to an internet-posted problem, with the best solutionearning some kind of fee or reward. Various overseas models attempt to connect and manage therelationships between ‘seekers’ and ‘solvers’, and in some way act as a broker.
Howard’s given some thought to the idea, especially as she observes that many companies wastemoney and miss opportunities because they don’t understand how technology can help them be moreefficient.
“Companies don’t know what they don’t know,” she says. “They also waste money bysolving problems from scratch, when they have already been solved elsewhere.” Another factor isthat “small, medium enterprises often don’t have the staff to know how they can pick up newtechnologies that would complement their business,” she says.
Companies realising opportunities to grow and improve often:
•Don’t know the problemsthey’re wanting to solve already have been
•A problem can be translated from anotherindustry
•There’s expertise available in niche areas such as engineering
The idea needs better evaluation; especially for such a small place as New Zealand.
Often there might be only one particular expert in a particular area, and at least initially, itwould be important to preserve anonymity she says.
However, these challenges aren’t unsolvable, and it’s an idea whose time has come Howardsays.