Welcome to the Fluid Innovation blog.  We hope to share with you a variety of perspectives on Open Innovation, technology, commercialization, intellectual property and probably some random thoughts and ideas that pique our interest.

So who is Fluid Innovation and what is Open Innovation all about?   The term was coined by Dr. Chesbrough at UC Berkley, he has written two books (Open Innovation and Open Business Models).  The term Open Innovation has taken on a life of its own and now encompasses a wider net of topics that may lead to some confusion since it touches on open source projects, intellectual property, collaborative R&D and technology commercialization.  We will focus on the traditional definition that supports the transfer of technology from and to the firm best positioned to execute successfully in the marketplace.  In general it is a fairly simple idea BUT it leads to significant shifts in thinking and strategy.   The premise is that good ideas and inventions can (and should) come from anyone, anywhere.  It highlights the fact that the people or companies that create a novel new product or process are not always in the best position to implement and execute successfully in the marketplace.  If we can all agree that this is true then we should be willing as a company or an individual to be more “open” about sharing opportunities but also be more “open” to evaluating opportunities from outsiders.

Simply put, firms should look outside of their traditional sources of growth (internal development and acquisition) to create systems and processes to quickly evaluate external ideas and efficiently acquire and integrate outside innovation.  There are a couple key points to highlight:

• This strategy often delivers new products and services at lower cost, less risk, shorter time to market and often include ROI models, reference customers and sales leads. 
• Leading organizations of the future will be the ones that are able to make the shift from “not invented here” while creating the systems and culture to execute on their Open Innovation strategy. 

The final key idea behind Open Innovation is that it works both ways.  Firms should not only be open to identifying and bringing in new growth opportunities but they will also need to (a) be honest in evaluating their ability to execute in the market and (b) be prudent to their shareholders by capturing and evaluating all of the firms investments in intangible assets and then actively seek to transfer/out-license/sell opportunities that the firm is not in the best position to implement in the market.

So you may be curious what firms are embracing Open Innovation today, here are a few of the early adopters and some related content:

• Proctor & Gamble
• IBM
• Philips

And now, who and what is Fluid Innovation?  Well we have been working in the technology commercialization and intellectual property landscape for years and our goal is to create the marketplace, the tools and processes and the community of buyers and sellers that lead to the execution and visibility of real transactions.  We are about creating value through transactions, it is about reducing the transactions and communications costs that exist in the market for good ideas.  We are not talking about a craigslist for patents/IP or an expensive consulting organization or a collegial open innovation community.  Although we will include similar elements in our solutions, at our core we are about matching market opportunities with growth oriented firms that are best positioned to execute in the market.  So stay tuned and check in on us as we evolve and progress toward our goal of ”Making Open Innovation Easy.”

 And in true Open Innovation fashion, please feel free to comment or contact us with your thoughts and ideas.  Who knows where it may lead.  Welcome!