Co-Innovation

Co-innovation – the benefits of collaboration

Co-innovation, open innovation, open innovation – these terms should be familiar to every entrepreneur and developer these days. But what exactly do they mean? What forms of co-innovation are there, and how does an innovation process work best? That’s what today’s article is all about. We explain everything you need to know about co-innovation and its benefits, and also briefly introduce the Ambivation Co-Canvas.

What is co-innovation?

Co-innovation, or open innovation, refers to the process of developing new ideas and technology together with one or more partners. Here, the traditionally closed innovation process, which takes place in-house in a company, is opened up. This means that external knowledge is internalized or internal knowledge is outsourced. Partners in this context can be research institutions, experts, other companies such as startups, suppliers or even customers. The term Open Innovation was coined in 2003 by the US economist Henry Chesbrough. A distinction is made between three core processes of open innovation or co-innovation, which we explain in more detail below.

The three forms of co-innovation

The open Innovation process can take three different forms. The first of these is called the outside-in process. In this case, external knowledge or skills are internalized in the company’s own innovation process. The other way around is the inside-out process. Here, knowledge and ideas developed in-house are outsourced. This can happen because the technologies developed do not fit into the company’s own core business and can generate capital for the company, e.g. through license fees. So innovation does not always necessarily have to be used at the point where it is created. Of course, this also applies vice versa. The third core process is, so to speak, a hybrid of the previous two. In the coupled process, the internalization of external knowledge takes place simultaneously with the externalization of internal knowledge. In this win-win situation, added value can be created for both sides.

Why does it make sense to co-innovate?

Nowadays, the pressure to innovate is constantly increasing, competition is growing and product life cycles are becoming shorter. Digitalization in particular is making disruptive innovation increasingly important. Therefore, it is important to optimize one’s own innovation processes.  Apart from that, co-innovation can bring some benefits for all parties involved. These include, for example, more and more innovative ideas, access to expert knowledge and a more innovative image as a company. By sharing not only knowledge, but also risks and costs, these can be minimized. The dreaded operational blindness, or a certain tunnel vision, can also be prevented by involving multiple parties in a project. Through all these factors, co-innovation can lead to faster and better innovation success.

How does co-innovation work?

There are various approaches to implementing co-innovation or open innovation. Workshops with customers or partners are particularly popular, as is crowdsourcing, which uses the knowledge of the masses according to the open source principle. These include innovation contests or competitions. If companies also demonstrate openness to innovation to the outside world, developers and innovators will approach them more quickly on their own initiative. When organizing a co-innovation process, it is important to follow clearly regulated procedures and division of labor, to create a good basis of trust, and to communicate transparently and openly. Here, tools can also be a good support, such as our Co-Canvas, which is freely provided by Ambivation. Pleas feel free to contact us about this. With this template, we would like to offer a tool through which the process and the division of labor of the collaboration can be better structured. In addition, it offers the possibility for common goal setting and simplified communication.

As a company, you should also make sure to involve your customers. Since they are ultimately the users of the innovation, it makes sense to conduct market research at the beginning of the project and to take customer feedback into account. If the implementation of the idea and the innovation process were successful, the final challenge is to implement it in the company. Here, care should be taken to ensure that employees are involved and sufficiently familiarized with the innovations.

There are a number of reasons for engaging in co-innovation. The form in which it is finally implemented can vary. If a few important factors are taken into account, co-innovation can offer added value for both partners, such as risk minimization, faster development, and greater innovative strength. Co-innovation is becoming increasingly popular and is already being successfully implemented by many companies, startups and research centers. After all, the future of innovation is not closed, but open and lies in collaboration.