Open Innovation

Open Innovation is a neologism created in 2003, which aimed at defining a new trend in innovation: it no longer has to come 100% from within, and the combination of inside and outside knowledge and resources is often beneficial.
Co-catalyst is one of the more & more numerous "Innovation brokers": as e-bay connects buyers to sellers, the innovation brokers connect a company with a need for a new technology - or at least with one identified problem, to a company working on the solution. Innovation brokers go further than e-bay: they offer consulting, licensing and monitoring services to their clients.

An interesting article was published in February 2010 on Co-catalyst blog, concerning Open Innovation anhow to make the most of it - or how not to make mistakes!

For many years innovative organisations have been trying to resolve the conundrum of how to get to bigger impact innovation more quickly and with less investment. In answer to this, the practice of Open Innovation is increasingly being adopted as the normal mode of operation for leading innovative companies. Open Innovation, applied correctly, offers the opportunity to access leading capabilities from around the world, exploiting complementary technologies and partnerships to short-cut the need for expensive internal activity and to realise innovation strategies faster. Some companies have adapted to this new way of working quickly and relatively painlessly but many organisations have had teething problems, to say the least. We have identified 10 common mistakes which can stop organisations from benefiting from the Open Innovation way of working.
1. Engaging externally without a clear innovation strategy
2. Poor definition of the requirement or need
3. Failing to get sufficient internal business or brand team engagement
4. Not having a clear, aligned internal view about how to handle IP
5. Ruling out radical or unexpected options too quickly
6. Lack of variety in Open Innovation approach
7. Not understanding the attitude as well as capabilities of potential partners
8. Not respecting the needs of potential partners
9. Looking at potential partners in isolation
10. Last but not least…failure to build trust

Go check full post on the website: http://www.cocatalyst.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/27/10-common-open-innovation-mistakes/