Abstract
The COVID-19 crisis has underlined the need for accelerated innovation to rapidly help business solve social problems. These problems require access to capabilities and knowledge that no single organization or existing supply chain possesses. Drawing on the experience of the open innovation and rapid-scale-up achieved by the VentilatorChallengeUK to address a shortage of ventilators required by patients seriously ill with COVID-19, this article develops a framework for accelerated innovation and delivery that crosses traditional industry boundaries. It offers a series of important lessons for how open innovation, exaptation, and ecosystem strategies—backed by a set of enabling initiatives—can be used to solve multi-faceted social and business problems at speed.
Highlights
The ecosystem delivered on clinicians’ and politicians’ requirements, established and repurposed seven manufacturing facilities to accelerate production, set up a new supply chain sourcing over 42 million parts from 22 countries, and trained around 3,500 front-line assembly teams ensuring speedy delivery with adherence to the regulatory standards
The ventilator challenge successfully achieved accelerated innovation, large-scale production, and delivery of a new ventilator design to address the explosion of patients seriously ill with COVID-19
Innovation can be accelerated by combining three strategies: an open innovation mindset; exaptation of existing technologies, people, and partnerships; and strategies to catalyze the emergence of a diverse ecosystem of varied partners who bring different capabilities, knowledge, and experience to address this kind of challenge
Summary
The ecosystem delivered on clinicians’ and politicians’ requirements, established and repurposed seven manufacturing facilities to accelerate production, set up a new supply chain sourcing over 42 million parts from 22 countries, and trained around 3,500 front-line assembly teams ensuring speedy delivery with adherence to the regulatory standards.
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