Ozan, H. (2009) Innovation Factors Improved by Online Collaboration

8/14/2019 Ozan, H. (2009) Innovation Factors Improved by Online Collaboration

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INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINECOLLABORATIONHkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009


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Having ubiquitous access to peers changes the wayinnovation can be utilized. But which factors change and in

what way are they improved?

The Internet changes the ways we collaborate.

Introduction

Internet and web-based systems have

started providing traditional

innovation methods with new means.

In our view, the strongest contributor

to this phenomenon is the improved

connectivity between people, what we

choose to call online collaboration.

In two articles we will first look at the

factors that improve

innovation activities,

and in a second articlewe will analyze

conventional

innovation methods

and look at how they

are improved with new technology.

Electronic collaboration supports

collective creativity

Regardless of method used to

improve an organizations innovation

capability and outcomes, mostmethods focus on improving

creativity. Most innovations happen at

the boundaries and specializations of

people, so by stimulating creative

thinking among diverse competences

the likeliness of generating more

innovative and hence successful

output increases. Sometimes these

methods regard tools to improve

individual creativity, but most often

they aim at enhancing group

creativity. The general shortcoming of

individual creativity is that it lacks the

multifaceted perspectives of others,

something that commonly

strengthens the quality

of ideas. An intricacy of

group creativity has beenthe difficulty of

coordinating the agendas

of innovative people. If

you want good people at

a creative session, you have to get all

of them to the same place and at the

same time. With collective creativity it

has also been difficult to ensure the

spread and width of relevant

competence at the moment of the

activity. You want as muchaggregated competence at the

session as possible, but there is

limited space in a room, and the more

people you summon the more difficult

the session will be to coordinate.


June 2009

The paramountstrength of onlineservices is their

ubiquitousaccessibility.


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The major evolution in innovation is

the accessibility to collaborative

activities regarding innovation. Even

though conventional real-time

activities such as brainstorms and

focus group workshops are difficult to

surpass in the sense of qualitativeoutcome, there are other factors

regarding electronic collaboration

that has the potential of improving

innovation altogether.

Improvement factors due to online

collaboration

In summary, there are four, closely

intertwined, primary factors that are

improved by online collaboration,

where the second two are derived

from the first two.

1. Time

The paramount strength of online

services is their ubiquitous

accessibility. Hence, electronic

collaboration becomes less

constrained to the specific moment

where all invited participants have

simultaneous spare time in their

agendas. Instead, with online

collaboration, activities can be more

flexible, or even asynchronous, so

that participants can collaborate when

THEY (individually) have the time to

do so. As a consequence, innovation

becomes on-demand, user-driven, and

as ubiquitous as the Internet itself.

2. Place

It is both time consuming and

problematic to bring many people tothe same location, especially if they

are geographically dispersed. There

are two major drawbacks of involving

long-distance collaborators that

negatively influence the cost-

efficiency of group creativity sessions;

1) time-loss due to travel times, 2)

increased costs due to

disproportionate travel expenses. On

the other hand, if we choose to

reduce travel time-loss and costs by

only inviting nearby innovators, we

take a substantial risk of losing

momentous competence in the

creativity loop and thereby miss out

on potent and creative feedback and

ideas.

Reversely, with online collaboration

people can communicate using the

same medium, regardless of their

physical location. Hence, accessibility

will be location neutral and

participants can be given the

opportunity to collaborate at the

place of their own choice.


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3. Availability

With the diminishment of the time

and place barriers, there are two

important gains; one being time spent

on creative innovation instead of

travel, the second being the total

amount of people [competence] being

able to participate in the innovationdialog. As in the case of TRIZ

methodology, it is said that

somebody, someplace,

has already solved this problem (or

one very similar to it), creativity is

now finding that solution and

adapting it to this particular

problem.

The increase in connectivity brings

more people to the problem, and with

varied backgrounds and more

accumulated experiences, the

likeliness of finding that solution rise

immensely.

4. Continuity

Another disadvantage of participants

having to be at the same spot

simultaneously is that it restricts the

amount of occasions when creativity

can take place. If participants are

required to attend physically at every

session, only so many sessions will be

able to take place per year. With the

right mix of tools for online

collaboration creativity can be both

synchronous and asynchronous. If

they want to collaborate in real-time

they can simply log on to an instant

communications service. If they do

not, they can chose to participate

solely at times when they are inspired

to do so and when they have

constructive ideas to propose.Regardless of synchronicity

innovation becomes an ongoing

process that is continuous instead of

event based.

The improvement factors of onlinecollaboration.

A friend once described his home

cleaning philosophy to me. He said;I clean my home

continuously. I mean, at least once a

year...

INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE

COLLABORATIONHkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009


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If innovation is to be handled in the

same way, you can be certain that the

innovation floors of your organization

will also be continuously dirty. On the

other hand, at this point in time there

are early mover opportunities of open

innovation pioneers, especially since

most companies have not evenestablished a strategy for how to

integrate online collaboration as part

of their innovation process.

Summary

Even though non-continuous, the

pace and quality of communication is

superior in physical sessions since

complementary communication

channels such as body language and

tone of voice tend to vanish in

electronic environments. Furthermore,

even though keyboard communication

gives the author more time for

reflection than does live

communication, a lot of spontaneous

communication that occurs in live

environments may be lost. And many

times the least expected events give

birth to the greatest ideas.

Altogether, the conclusion is that

online collaboration is an

extraordinary complement to

qualitative group sessions. Online

collaboration activities may, if

managed correctly, increase

companies innovation outcomes

considerably, even though they can

not yet be considered a full substitute

for interpersonal creative activities.


June 2009


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Open InnovationFrom the Open Innovation Forums perspective open innovation involves all aspects ofcreating new business opportunities by engaging end-users in co-creative activities. Web

2.0 technologies has caused electronic collaboration to evolve, hence paving the way forcompanies to invite customers and employees to be involved in the refinement of theirofferings. Ideally open innovation will create win-win situations where users get servicesthat are more oriented to their needs and organizations will offer services that are moredesired by the market.

The Open Innovation ForumThe Open Innovation Forum aims at being a knowledge hub and rallying point for user-oriented open innovation, where innovation experts and researchers can collaborate onimproving theories and practices, while open innovation novices are invited to follow, ortake active part, in the development of the area.

www.openinnovationforum.com

INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINECOLLABORATION

Hkan Ozan, CSCHkan Ozan is a strategic management consultant at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) who isspecialized in IT strategy and innovation management. He is the Innovation Manager of CSC Swedenand has an M.Sc in Computer Science and a B.Sc. in Economics. He has been working with, andresearching, practical open innovation for several years and is currently the project manager of theAirport Living Lab at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport and the project manager of the Open InnovationFrameworks research project.

Further reading

Altschuller, G., Shulyak, L. (1998). 40 principles: Triz Keys to Technical Innovation. TecnicalInnovation Center INC.

De Bono, E. (1973). Lateral thinking: creativity step by step. Harper Colophon.

Wainfan, L., Davis, P. (2004). Challenges in Virtual Collaboration. RAND Corporation.

The content in this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribute 3.0 License, which allows the materialto freely be copied, distributed, transmitted and remixed as long as the work is attributed to the original authors.

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Ozan, H. (2009) Innovation Factors Improved by Online Collaboration