Abstract
Open innovation, which refers to combining internal and external ideas and internal and external paths to market in order to achieve advances in processes or technologies, is an attractive paradigm for structuring collaborations between developed and developing country entities and people. Such open innovation collaborations can be designed to foster true co-creation among partners in rich and poor settings, thereby breaking down hierarchies and creating greater impact and value for each partner. Using an example from Concern Worldwide’s Innovations for Maternal, Newborn &Child Health initiative, this commentary describes an early-stage pilot project built around open innovation in a low resource setting, which puts communities at the center of a process involving a wide range of partners and expertise, and considers how it could be adapted and make more impactful and sustainable by extending the collaboration to include developed country partners.
Highlights
Looking to developing countries as a source of innovation has become a core business practice for a number of Western-based, multi-national corporations (MNCs)
Despite radically different contexts, there are lessons to be learned by developed country health systems from experiences in developing countries, i.e., opportunities for reverse innovation, where necessity and ingenuity have overcome resource constraints to achieve positive outcomes
Since many innovations originating in developing countries conform to “frugal innovation” principles, i.e., they are ultra-low cost, durable, easy to use, draw sparingly on raw materials and minimize environmental impact, they are often well suited to any health sector under growing pressure to achieve better outcomes at significantly lower costs [10]
Summary
Looking to developing countries as a source of innovation has become a core business practice for a number of Western-based, multi-national corporations (MNCs). Innovation drives growth and success in business, and MNCs spend billions of dollars every year aimed at finding solutions to new or unmet needs. While even reverse innovation can be successful by relying solely on internal organizational resources and talent, retaining all research and development in-house can be costly and slow, and limits access to creative people and ideas that reside outside. Open innovation is a paradigm that refers to combining internal and external ideas as well as internal and external paths to market to. Open innovation can take various forms, from crowdsourcing to structured organizational alliances and strategic co-ventures (see Figure 1). Intellectual property (IP) that had previously been carefully guarded, for example, should be shared and could create additional value through licensing arrangements, joint ventures, or other strategic collaborations, something Chesbrough refers to as the “inside-out” aspect of open innovation
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