Resources > Guru Speak > Roland Harwood, 100%Open
Roland Harwood, Co-founder, 100%Open
Roland Harwood
Roland Harwood is Co-founder and Networks Partner at 100%Open, an open innovation agency that works with the likes of LEGO, E.ON, Orange and Oxfam to co-innovate with partners. Before co-founding this agency, Roland served as the Director of Open Innovation at NESTA, the UK Innovation Agency and Investment Fund.
Graduating with a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University, he has held senior innovation roles in the utilities and media industries and in addition has worked with hundreds of start-ups to raise venture capital and commercialise technology. Roland has also worked as a TV and film music producer for SonyBMG. In this exclusive interview, Roland shares his views on open innovation, and how 100%Open is helping companies co-create products, and find solutions through open innovation. Excerpts: "Open Innovation Requires New Business Model and Mindset"
Younomy: What is your understanding of open innovation? In other words, "open innovation" in your own words… Roland Harwood: Open innovation is a buzzword that captures the shift towards a more collaborative way of working in an increasingly networked world. Our simple definition is simply 'creating new value with partners by sharing the risks and the rewards'. Essentially this means working with people or organisations outside your company - for example customers, suppliers or clients. And not just transacting with them but building something new together. Younomy: How do you think open innovation is impacting businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and the economy itself? Roland Harwood: Open innovation sounds deceptively simple but it requires new business models and more importantly a new mindset for it to be truly successful. And whilst the buzzword will disappear over time, the underlying trend will only increase. Only those organisations that are able to switch their default mode of operation, from closed to open, and from know-how to know-who, will be able to survive and thrive. In fact I believe that we are only just beginning to see the true impact of the web and globalisation, which manifests itself in the blurring of organisational and national boundaries and the rise of a much more human and collaborative economy. Younomy: Prof Gary Hamelin his new book What Matters Now writes about the importance of the exposure to new (physical) environment and new people plays in innovation ("Taking a Korean marketing team to Silicon Valley, getting a bunch of Finnish engineers to marinate in Tokyo's club..."). Under what settings 100%Open's innovation events/programs are organized? Roland Harwood: I haven't read Gary's book yet but agree about the importance of physical hubs and eco-systems to foster innovation. I think open innovation only really makes sense at a local or global level, whereby you can meet people and build relationships face to face, or you can access knowledge and resources globally. In terms of the environment, I believe that people are only able to collaborate with people they respect as equals. This means that the traditional importance of the manager is disappearing and rapidly being replaced by the facilitator and broker who is able to spot connections and engineer serendipity and momentum. In terms of the composition of teams, we would always look to build in diversity, trust and a common purpose. Younomy: Through your “Innovation Service Provider (ISP™) network”, you claim to address “total project needs" of companies/organizations "end to end” - from generating ideas to finance. Can you please cite one or two success stories in open innovation that benefitted from your end-to-end solutions? Roland Harwood: We aspire that our business, 100%Open, is a new kind of networked and virtual enterprise. We tend to have associates, not employees, and various workspaces, instead of fixed offices. Linked to that, all of our work is developed and delivered through our network of partners with other innovation service providers such as technology providers, designers, investors, and so on. For example we recently ran a series of innovation challenges with Orange (part of the France Telecom Group). For this project, we developed the technology platforms with two great companies called Chaordix and e-Vate. These companies seeded the platform with insights and trends in partnership with The Future Laboratory. This online community is managing and moderating the innovation challenge platform with a network of freelance social media associates. We finally built the business case propositions with Last Second Tickets, and working closely with a pioneering service design agency, Live|Work. The end result was a new service called Fun Finder which launched nationally in the UK in December 2011. Fun Finder is a £20m+ service proposition which came out of an open innovation approach. This is all rather complex but essentially what we do all the time is pull together teams around problems or opportunities on behalf of clients who don't have the relationships or the capacity to do it directly. Younomy: What are your checklists of developing an online collaboration/co-creation platform? What technical or community features – social media included – do you think are very important for an engagement platform? Roland Harwood: Whilst we definitely prefer certain technology platforms, in reality the key ingredients to a successful platform are not technical. We should generate really interesting questions; organize critical mass of interested and engaged people, and clear processes and/or criteria whereby ideas are progressed quickly. In many ways, if you have those three, then the platform can be very basic. Having said that, in terms of technical features, we seek to partner with companies whose technology is as intuitive to use as possible. Social media integration is also increasingly crucial, as are elements of gamification i.e. awarding points of badges for participation. Finally, for innovation, it is increasingly important to link the ability to both post ideas and vote for ideas, possibly through integration with other project management tools and processes. Having said that, in terms of technical features, we seek to partner with companies whose technology is as intuitive to use as possible. Social media integration is also increasingly crucial, as are elements of gamification i.e. awarding points of badges for participation. Finally, for innovation, it is increasingly important to link the ability to both post ideas and vote for ideas, possibly through integration with other project management tools and processes. |