FreshNetworks Blog

A CNN article last weekend asks if collaboration is the future of innovation (see here). There are collaboration networks everywhere – in China a team of people are translating Facebook into Mandarin, whilst in Europe a network of orthopedic surgeons are exchanging ideas on how to treat orthopedic patients.

User-led innovation often occurs when a user has a particular need – for example the mountain bike was invented when a cyclist wanted to go downhill really really fast. Collaboration networks occur when groups of these individuals come together to work on problems. Often these people have no connection to any brand they might work on and sometimes this causes problems. There are numerous instances where collaboration networks have grown up. adapting and innovating with an existing product, only to be faced with a cease and desist letter from the brand itself.

This is a shame – if brands knew how to harness their passionate innovators they could be powerful. Whatever business you work for, the most intelligent people are usually working elsewhere. It’s just a statistical fact, but it also shows that if you are truly honest about innovating it is not enough to look internally. An R&D department is not going to have the answer to all your questions – in fact the chances are that the very question you’ve ben struggling with for years.

Some firms get this and some don’t. It’s rumoured that the ethernet, laser printer and computer mouse were innovated in Xerox‘s R&D department but never taken forward and eventually brought to market by other firms. On the flip side, P&G is an innovation-centric organisation – and much of this innovation comes from outside collaboration networks. Almost 42% of their new products come from external sources, and they hope to increase this to 50% in the near future.