Openly Innovate

The Program in Open Innovation at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business defines “open innovation” as “The use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation. [This paradigm] assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to advance their technology.”
A recent article in the January/February issue of ODT’s sister publication, Medical Product Outsourcing, titled “Opening the Door to Innovation” offered great examples of ways open innovation has led to the creation of considerable medtech advancements, such as how:

• Surgical bone saws, drills and screws were influenced by carpentry tools;
• Magnetic resonance imaging began as a chemical and physical analysis tool before it was realized that the technology could discern tumors from normal tissue;
• Bone glue (designed to replace screws in reconstructive surgery) was inspired by the adhesive gel produced by mussels that enables them to cling to rocks, piers and boat hulls; and
• Next-generation hypodermic needles are modeled after North American porcupine quills.

A highly publicized example of open innovation is Ossur’s Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthetic. The device’s design replicates the big cat’s hind leg, whose foot extends and reaches out to paw at the ground while the large thigh muscles pull the body forward.

Open innovation is about approaching problems in non-traditional ways. This might mean working with new partners, changing the way problems are solved within your organization, or simply looking more closely at the world around you to find solutions.