Definition
Continuous two-way collaboration with external partners to introduce insight and economic efficiency growth tools, shorten design to delivery cycles and bring about complete solutions and strategic differences.
In detail
Open Innovation (OI) is a growth tool that emphasizes continuous two-way collaboration with external partners (such as customers, suppliers, and research institutions), bringing in external insights and technology to shorten the design-to-delivery cycle and form complete solutions and strategic differentiation. It complements Ideation: Ideation is the batch generation and screening of ideas around customer problems (methods such as discovering user needs and Lead User inherently include external sources), while OI focuses on continuous two-way collaboration with external partners (see the SPG process in [[gap-vignette]]). In the I2E growth system, OI is an important tool in the Ideation stage, typically outputting an Open Innovation funnel that screens and evaluates external collaboration opportunities.
Example in practice
An industrial equipment company faced technical bottlenecks, and internal R&D progressed slowly. Through open innovation, they collaborated with university labs to introduce new material technologies and co-developed customized solutions with key customers. This not only accelerated product launch but also created a differentiated advantage difficult for competitors to replicate. The company established an external idea funnel, regularly evaluated collaboration projects, and ultimately launched a new generation of product lines.