Toward an innovation sourcing strategy

In a recent study, the amount of innovation coming from external sources was estimated to be, on average, 45% of the total for the companies concerned. For some retail companies that figure was high as 90%, while for discovery-intensive pharmaceutical and chemical organizations it was 30% - still a significant number. Half the executives interviewed asserted that the percentage of innovation form external source would grow over the next 3 years not one said it would decline. The need to innovate with outsiders has led companies to tap various external sources, for user communities to competitors. Given the availability of new types of innovation sources, executives are expanding the purposes for which that consider external source appropriate. Whole all of these changes sound good and are benefiting a great many companies, they also add a new layer of complexity to the manger's tasks. And unfortunately, despite the growing acceptance of external innovation, it has been found that many companies lack a sourcing strategy to guide them in managing it. They often take an ad hoc approach that produces uneven results.