Colloborate

Collaboration is everywhere these days in chemical industry innovation efforts, and in many cases it has moved beyond the walls of a single company. When managed properly, the results of these endeavors can benefit everyone - the companies, consumers and the planet.

Having external creative minds collaborating on innovation efforts often leads to a wealth of new ideas which might otherwise not have arisen if the company was solely working on innovation in-house. Some of these ideas lead to additional internal product opportunities that will be developed inside the company and some lead to additional innovation opportunities that include further partnerships and additional ecosystem participants.

Creative minds from outside of the organization can also change the course of innovation during product development. The result is a better product outcome that incorporates a wide scope of insight and viewpoints. These types of ideas must be captured, vetted, evaluated, prioritized and processed within the innovation system, not at the front end of the innovation system.

Historically, such adaptations were labeled as change requests, but in today’s competitive environment they need to be embraced in the same way as ideas for new products or capabilities. The process and the supporting innovation applications need to embrace these changes as well as the participants who suggested them.