New Study Shows Companies are Hungry to Leverage Open Innovation to Drive Growth, Yet Internal Processes are Holding them Back

CLEVELAND, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- NineSigma, Inc., the leading innovation partner to organizations worldwide, today announced the release of its OI (Open Innovation) Scorecard Survey Report. The report presents insights from a survey of over 750 organizations worldwide, regarding their readiness, progress, and results related to OI.

The OI Scorecard Report from NineSigma shows the 3 levels of collaboration organizations embrace to become successful open innovation leaders – from internal collaboration to collaboration with existing networks, and finally collaboration with a vast global innovation community that includes solution providers outside their industries and/or technical disciplines.

Download the free OI Scorecard Report to review full results.

When innovation is pursued and achieved as a core organizational goal, amazing things happen. Products and services leapfrog the competition, development timelines go from years to months and the future is limitless. This report shows that OI is not just being used by large enterprises, but is increasingly important to mid-sized businesses. It also reveals that organizations with over $1 billion in revenues tend to collaborate with suppliers and university partners while smaller organizations are more likely to collaborate with customers.  

Where organizations stumble in implementing OI strategies, however, is in instituting the right processes to reinforce collaboration. In fact, in all three levels of collaboration, lack of formal processes was reported as the most prevalent obstacle to effective OI. Essentially, companies are standing in their own way.

"We consistently find that organizations which see Open Innovation as central to their culture are able to realize the greatest benefits from it," said Andy Zynga, CEO of NineSigma. "When there is a unified understanding of how OI fits into the various departments and roles throughout an organization, and how it drives the company's success as a whole – that's when breakthroughs start to become the norm and the magic really happens," he added.

The survey data shows that the larger the network, the less engaged organizations are with innovation partners and the more limited the infrastructure is to support collaboration. Over 70% of respondents fall into the "early stage" category in terms of Global Collaboration, and only 14% of respondents were categorized as "highly engaged" with innovation partners. This means that respondents may be starting to reach beyond their organizational walls to collaborate or innovate – but the majority are not taking advantage of resources beyond their typical networks, to seek the best ideas worldwide.

The secret to successful OI lies at the intersection of a methodology for engaging with outside partners and the processes to make OI sustainable. Organizations that master this combination of engagement and process have the potential to be true game-changers.

About NineSigma

NineSigma connects organizations with external innovation resources to accelerate innovation in private, public and social sectors. The company provides open innovation services to organizations worldwide, including Kraft Foods, Philips, Siemens, and Unilever, to solve immediate challenges, integrate new knowledge, fill product pipelines, and stay ahead of the competition. Named to the 2012 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private U.S. companies, NineSigma's proprietary process has produced billions of dollars in value for its clients. NineSigma has the largest open global network of solution providers and an extensive database of existing solutions spanning numerous industries and technical disciplines. NineSigma's online innovation community, NineSights®, is the world's first open innovation social media destination, connecting innovators of all sizes with resources and relationships to drive growth. Learn more at www.ninesigma.com and www.ninesights.com. 

Media Contact: 
Jackie Lucas, Warner Communications — [email protected], (978) 255-1159 

SOURCE NineSigma