Recently I attended the International Society for Professional Innovation Management Innovation Conference in Budapest, Hungary. I presented a paper and ran a discussion on creative leadership, and also attended a workshop on "Constructing the Open Innovation Manager: Renaissance 2.0". In this workshop, innovation experts from both academia and industry explored the knowledge and skill set that the next generation of innovation managers will need in order to successfully operate.
An Open Innovation Manager 2.0 is one who manages innovation in a modern, collaborative and open environment. The group I worked with separated the knowledge needed by a modern innovation manager into specialised and general areas. The specialised knowledge needed by innovation managers includes:
- the internal innovation procedures and an innovation management system in their firm;
- the technology-based platforms needed to support idea & innovation pipeline management, as well as open innovation platforms;
- a vast and steadily growing pool of innovation methods and tools;
- different types of intellectual property (IP);
- the management, valuation and monetisation of a firm's IP portfolio; and
- the ability and willingness to learn and adapt to new forms of and approaches to intellectual property in the future, a still ambiguous phenomenon that our group dubbed "IP 2.0".
The general knowledge needed by an Open Innovation Manager 2.0 includes a vastly wider repertoire of skills and experience. In the past, innovation managers have focused mostly on understanding and leveraging internal knowledge and network contacts, but today's more open innovation requires connecting with external knowledge and network partners. Innovation managers 2.0 need:
- the ability to track emerging future technologies and trends;
- a talent for recognising and seizing upon new business opportunities; and
- the networking and communication skills needed to reach out to both internal and external partners in innovation.
From innovation manager to innovation management team
At this point, I moved the discussion to the idea that in business and innovation, people's actions and innovation styles can be categorised, and that those categories can help in innovation management. For instance, an ideal candidate for a corporate innovation manager is someone who is balanced between theory and systems orientations. Such people excel in administrative roles that require a focus on performance as well as on quality and internal procedures.
The innovation manager 2.0 needs to be a jack of all trades, but people who are good at administration tend to be poor networkers, and vice versa. A way to resolve this is to hire an all-rounder who can perform well in many different areas and is able to keep many balls in the air. However, a jack of all trades is also a master of none, making this type a clear second choice to the balanced theory and systems person. A better solution to resolve the dilemma can be to create an open innovation manager team 2.0 comprising four people with complementary know-how and skills, each of whom takes part of the roles and responsibilities of a modern innovation manager:
A technocrat innovation manager in a more traditional internal role who administers the corporate innovation system and processes.
A technology and trend scout who monitors the future of the industry or category and maps out relevant future trends related to new technologies, concepts and social phenomena. This person balances orientations towards both theories and ideas. These smart, tech-savvy, big-picture thinkers are good at spotting evolving trends, thanks to having their heads high up in the clouds.
An opportunity spotter who recognises market changes and related opportunities earlier than anybody else, and is able to come up with ideas on how to seize upon these identified innovation opportunities.
Finally, a connector, a charismatic person with a vast internal, external and virtual network of contacts and a natural talent for spreading the word about an idea.
It can be difficult to find people to fill the role of innovation manager 2.0, but don't let that dissuade you. Failing to do so will lead to failure to innovate, and that will become simply failure.
Dr Detlef Reis is the founding director and chief ideator of Thinkergy Ltd (Thinkegy.com), an ideation and innovation company in Asia, a lecturer in business creativity and innovation leadership at Mahidol University's College of Management (www.cmmu.mahidol.ac.th) and an adjunct associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. He can be reached at dr.d@thinkergy.com