Open Innovation Blueprint: Commandment 6

This continues my on-going blog on mapping out a blueprint for implementing Open Innovation. The first entry in this series talked about the framework I am using to analyze this question, the Ten Commandments of Change Management. Open Innovation is a big change, and therefore requires a change management program. In today's blog, I'll cover the sixth element of the framework:

6. Line up political sponsorship
Several elements of your plan can help you line-up political sponsorship. For one thing, don’t attempt Open Innovation without the CEO’s backing—P&G’s #1 tip. If you can get the CEO to talk publicly to Wall Street, that’s even better because you can use those sound bites to secure support in the organization.

For Technology Marketing, you have to come up with a convincing reason why the business units should make their technological assets available outside of the company. Here it makes sense to devise policies for some of the revenue to flow back to the business unit. For Technology Scouting, create a bit of a competition among the business units to be the first in line to try a new approach that has the CEO’s blessing and stands to accelerate their innovation cycle times.

I'll mention again, in the spirit of being open, all of these ideas are open for discussion, so please share your thoughts!