Open Innovation: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA

Part 4 OPEN INNOVATION FOR REALLY BIG INITIATIVES

Parts 1 through 3 of this PDMA Essentials book have all focused on using different kinds of Open Innovation models and forms for solving the rather well-defined and quite specific problems of individual firms. In the chapter in this part, however, Christopher Miller goes beyond the individual firm context to look at how Open Innovation can be used to tackle problems that require multiple firms, institutions, and even government organizations to work together to solve. He uses six different cases to explicate the six discovery stages involved in jointly solving these problems. Some of the cases use multiple, noncompeting firms; some use multiple, competing firms; and others combine multiple firms, government organizations, and other kinds of nonprofits to solve extraordinary problems—some of which have been created by demographic trends, but others of which have actually been caused by unanticipated side effects of previously commercialized important innovations. This chapter provides templates for how many different members of society can band together to execute really big initiatives.