Designed to bring organisations – large and small - together who are interested in developing innovation both internally and collaboratively with others.

1. How to Leverage External
Knowledge and Technology
Dr Marian Garcia
Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK
Open Innovation Network– Canterbury, 5th June 2013

2. Profiting from External Knowledge
Issues of Open Innovation
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Where will the basic science come from?
Will stronger Intellectual Property help or hurt the
greater inflow and outflow of ideas?
Will companies accept external ideas as willingly as
internal ideas?
Will companies allow internal ideas to flow outside
to other businesses?
How can companies sustain Open Innovation?

3. Want-Find-Get-Manage Framework
Need for an efficient process to identify, evaluate, value and
contractually acquire external technology
How to find and
select the right
partners?
How to decide on
internal or external
development?
How to set up a
collaborative
agreement?
How to manage a
collaborative
relationship?
Tools, processes, guidelines and support

4. “Want” Helps to Define How We Will Strategically Use
External Partnerships to Execute Our Innovation
Strategy
Want
Based on our strategic planning,
what external resources do we want
in our business?
A+B=C
Internal resources + external resource = meet customer needs

5. Define Your Wants Through Your Strategy
Identify what role external sources will play in your
business strategy for future projects
Translate specific business objectives into corresponding
collaboration strategies/objectives
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For “Core” capabilities, do internal or manage extremely
closely
For “Critical” capabilities, build strong alliance
relationships
For “Contextual” capabilities, leverage markets
Create Your “Shopping List” for external items

6. Increase the Probability of Quickly and Effectively
Fulfilling Wants
Find
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How do we find the sources for
technologies and capabilities that
will fulfill our Wants?
Develop processes to identify sources that are “hiding in
plain sight”
Focus internal R&D development to both fill in the gaps
not available outside, and to create the systems and
architectures to integrate internal and external

7. Partner Recruitment Approach
Start Inside
u
u
Outline a Joint
Development
Framework
Build internal
consensus
Look Outside
u
Explore partnering
options
u
Conduct a rapid
fit assessment
u
Make preliminary
partner selection
Clarify & Select
u
Refine the Joint
Development
Framework with
the candidate
partner
u
Finalize partner
selection
Iterate as
necessary

8. The Role of Knowledge Brokers

9. Rapid Iteration: A Requirement for Fast Time to
Market
Want
Find
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Based on our strategic planning, what
external resources do we want in our
business?
How do we find the sources for
technologies and capabilities that
will fulfill our Wants?
Your Wants are partly determined by what you can
Find and Vice Versa
Promotes Faster Adaptability

10. Focus on Technology Scouting
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Ecosystem interactions
Realizing value from the Ecosystem
Orchestrating connections between yourselves and
other ecosystem players WHILST
Also facilitating connections between players in the
ecosystem who themselves have previously been
disconnected.

11. Thanks
Dr Marian Garcia
m.garcia@kent.ac.uk

12. Promoting Innovation and Collaboration
 Feedback on ideas/topics for discussion
 Getting involved in research?
 User-centric business models
 Social Media for NPD
 Next meeting: 20th Nov 9.30am at Medway Innovation
Centre
 …. and finally, a last challenge for next time – identify a
client /supplier /contact where you think there may be OI
synergies and invite them to the Network