For decades the business world was built upon the
innovation model, however in today's global community driven environment, the standard internal R&D teams of
yesteryear are now having to rethink how things are done. We all know the famous phrase "two heads are better than one" however, what we all need to realize is that the phrase is certainly scalable; it should be adjusted to reflect the modern world: "1 million heads are better than 1 thousand".
Companies such as IBM for example, whom once based their business on proprietary software and internal
innovation, are now embracing open source. As a result, they have regained the respect of the public and have made a pretty nice profit while doing so. They still have an internal R&D department, but now days, a good percentage of their work deals with collaborating with the open source community.
Startups are popping up everywhere, everyday. Each share the same basic idea: "Create a product or service in which people want to use. Provide something fun and cool, or helpful to the community. Profit is later gained by the value of said community". The even more clever side of this is that, you typically do not even need to provide content. You let the community do that for you! Think about google for a moment...where would they be if no one was willing to share their ideas, knowledge, information, etc?
"Internal
innovation" is far from being dead, however it now has a much different face. The new
innovation model stems from the community in an indirect way. Those whom embrace the modern world of communication, openness and collaboration, each have the potential of
becoming 'the next google'. The modern web is proving to be a fertile breeding ground for new ideas and
innovations that the larger corporations may not ever catch on to or do not consider to be within their companies areas of focus. So, who exactly can gain the most from embracing collaboration and social trends? You !
Every new social network spawns thousands of new possibilities for
innovation and 'invention'. For example, consider Twitter. Twitter is close to
becoming a house hold name, just as Google did and shortly after,
MySpace. Twitter is an extremely valuable tool for creative thinking and
innovation. Look at the hundreds, maybe even thousands of
startups whom are emerging simply by creating new ways for users to use twitter!
This sort of
innovation is happening all of the time. However, once and a while a simple idea for an
innovation can turn into a full fledged 'invention' idea, something that hasn't been done before or maybe has, but didn't quite smack the nail on the head. It can be said that all invention and
innovation are a direct result of some problem or question. For example, Tom, the creator of
MySpace may have been surfing the net one day and thought to him self "I wish there was a cool site in which I can share with the world who I am. A place where I can meet new people and communicate with my existing friends...".
In summary, when I use the words 'internal
innovation' I am referring to the ideas that can be sparked in each and every persons mind. It should not be thought of any more as a relic of the past but as a reformed, reinvented concept. It's R&D department, your own imagination. It's funding - your time and passion.
