The importance of internal collaboration for innovation

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got” – Albert Einstein.

Not too long ago, we blogged about the building blocks of open innovation and the implicit linking of the various aspects is: Internal collaboration. We live in a highly interconnected world and a knowledge-based economy; counterproductive in such a scenario would be people working in silos, not knowing or unwilling to share knowledge and ideas.

For decades, researchers and industrialists have echoed the sentiment that collaboration would change the very DNA of corporate culture and management in a company, affecting profitability and sustainability. The collaboration of a cross-functional team (eg, marketing, sales, product development, finance, and human resources) could potentially open up multiple new businesses and initiatives.

Open innovation is a participatory and decentralized approach to innovation, based on the premise that innovation is most effective when multiple partners work together. Open innovation, when handled properly, can be profitable, reducing costs, shortening time to market and opening up new revenue streams. Open innovation is a two-way knowledge exchange that deals with both knowledge input and output. It may be the perfect solution to supplement a limited internal R&D department that is slowing down product development. However, for it to work, there must be certain cultural elements on which to build a dependent open innovation structure. We explore some of these elements.

The OECD report (2005) clearly shows the correlation between the company’s internal collaborations with its associations and the willingness to work with numerous external partners. It is not enough to have knowledge freely available on the market. A company needs resources and capabilities to use this knowledge, and resources and capabilities can be built through internal collaboration.

There are several tangible benefits to internal collaboration: knowledge sharing, risk mitigation, cost reduction, and increased speed for product development, process development, and time to market. This does not mean that we compensate or ignore the threats or possible disadvantages of internal collaboration, which is evidently visible, harmonizing different points of view and collected ideas.

Internal collaboration is not just about increasing productivity within the organization; enables mechanisms to deal with external collaborations. In fact, the need for internal collaboration is the driver behind the current $4.77 billion for the estimated $8.19 billion market for internal collaboration platforms and enterprise social software (Source: ReportsnReports.com). The rationale for such explosive growth and central theme is the ability to offer a systems approach (incorporating people, processes, and technology) to a given problem. Take the mindset that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’.

We are moving into a world where internal collaboration is innovating. In fact, the world is looking for platforms and solutions that can offer a marketplace of ideas and execute them.