Category Archives: Internal Innovation Networks

A house with a roof but no walls

Back in 2005 or 2006, I was on a business trip in Germany. One night, I was having dinner with a business partner of mine, an innovation manager at a large German chemical company. We chatted about this and that, … Continue reading

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Internal innovation: overcoming the dangers of remote work

Pessimists are said to be the happiest people on earth, for they celebrate when their own predictions don’t come true. There was a shock wave of panic last spring when, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, firms around the globe had … Continue reading

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Does the Term “Closed Innovation” Still Have Meaning?

(This piece was originally posted to the HeroX blog) Remember the famed Bell Labs, once a powerful R&D center for the telecommunication equipment company Lucent Technologies (acquired by Nokia in 2016)? Bell Labs’ researchers are credited with the development of radio … Continue reading

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A crowd inside

When you read the original (and, in my opinion, still the best) definition of crowdsourcing proposed by Jeff Howe in 2006–“the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally … Continue reading

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The strength that comes from within

                                  This post has originally appeared on the Cultivate Labs Blog  As crowdsourcing becomes more widely adopted as a corporate innovation tool, the spotlight … Continue reading

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From a Spark to raging fire. (How Liberty Global got its corporate innovation right.)

(This post has originally appeared on Edge of Innovation) So many companies struggle with their corporate innovation programs that it’s important to identify and celebrate “success stories,” as there still aren’t many cases of organizations that get corporate innovation right. One … Continue reading

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Can we make crowdsourcing available to small companies?

Crowdsourcing is a powerful open innovation tool allowing organizations to tap on the collective wisdom of their own employees (internal crowdsourcing) or pools of external talent around the world (external crowdsourcing). Internal crowdsourcing (usually managed through Internal Innovation Networks) can be … Continue reading

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Internal Innovation Networks as a Basis for Corporate Intrapreneurship

(This post first appeared on the Front End of Innovation Blog) Intrapreneurship is a relatively new concept developed to help large companies create new businesses, a process often called transformational (or disruptive) innovation. Intrapreneurship aims at instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship–usually … Continue reading

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The Strength Within

(This post originally appeared on Forward Metrics) Back in 2005, on a trip to Germany, I was having a dinner with a business partner of mine, an innovation manager for a large German chemical company. Chatting about this and that, … Continue reading

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