How to Conduct Successful Technology Scouting
Key findings from Best Practice Research Study
Even though the concept of Open Innovation (OI) has been around for some time, insights tend to focus on the ‘what’ and ‘why’, but not the ‘how’. This post gives a sneak preview of the actionable findings from the recent best practice study I have conducted into Open Innovation, and reveals what best practice is for Technology Scouting.
Technology Scouting is one of the approaches which contribute to OI’s vast and dynamic landscape, and helps companies look externally for technology that can be leveraged to meet an internal competency gap or need. As the Want, Find, Get, Manage (WFGM) process is one of the key frameworks for defining and managing Open Innovation in organisations, it was used to form the backbone of this best practice research study. Even though we are aware that most of the challenges are experienced in the downstream integration phases, this research focused on uncovering best practice within the Want and the Find phases of the framework.
This research highlighted eight main elements of the Want and Find phases which, if executed correctly, contribute to achieving Open Innovation success. Below is a snap shot of how organisations can embed five of these elements into their existing processes to make themselves more open.
Spend time and resources defining and articulating the need correctly. Work out the real needs by mapping the background of your problem situation to ensure the right message is communicated. However, be sure the problem statement is not written too sector specific as this will stifle external conversations.
Engage your Business Units to extract Technology Needs. The best practice research shows that Business Units can be engaged by involving Open Innovation in the project from the start and by using samples and success stories to build the Business Unit’s trust in Open Innovation.
Introduce a decision making approaches to assess whether technology should be developed internally or sourced externally. Even though a structured assessment tool is seen to be vital to support making this decision, best practice recommends that companies should always scout internally first.
Prioritise the Technology Needs across the multiple Business Units to ensure management’s direction and decisions are based on facts, not personal opinion. Introduce a filtering criteria which will reveal the true value of the potential solutions.
Ensure your Technology Scouts are one of your competitive advantages. From the research, it is apparent that it doesn’t matter what disciplinary background the technology scout has, it is their personality and characteristics that make them a good scout - the other bits can be tweaked.
As well as uncovering how to implement Open Innovation into an organisation, a clear underlining reason was evident as to why OI fails. If the business is unable to imbed external ideas and solutions into their existing processes, an organisation will find that their OI efforts are being done in vain.
This research highlighted eight main elements of the Want and Find phases which, if executed correctly, contribute to achieving Open Innovation success. Below is a snap shot of how organisations can embed five of these elements into their existing processes to make themselves more open.
Spend time and resources defining and articulating the need correctly. Work out the real needs by mapping the background of your problem situation to ensure the right message is communicated. However, be sure the problem statement is not written too sector specific as this will stifle external conversations.
Engage your Business Units to extract Technology Needs. The best practice research shows that Business Units can be engaged by involving Open Innovation in the project from the start and by using samples and success stories to build the Business Unit’s trust in Open Innovation.
Introduce a decision making approaches to assess whether technology should be developed internally or sourced externally. Even though a structured assessment tool is seen to be vital to support making this decision, best practice recommends that companies should always scout internally first.
Prioritise the Technology Needs across the multiple Business Units to ensure management’s direction and decisions are based on facts, not personal opinion. Introduce a filtering criteria which will reveal the true value of the potential solutions.
Ensure your Technology Scouts are one of your competitive advantages. From the research, it is apparent that it doesn’t matter what disciplinary background the technology scout has, it is their personality and characteristics that make them a good scout - the other bits can be tweaked.
As well as uncovering how to implement Open Innovation into an organisation, a clear underlining reason was evident as to why OI fails. If the business is unable to imbed external ideas and solutions into their existing processes, an organisation will find that their OI efforts are being done in vain.
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