Why IT sector's are idea driven
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Ideas are the lifeblood of business. In today’s evolving and highly competitive commercial landscape, industry depends on a steady flow of ideas for better ways to develop products and services, present brands and interact with users. These tasks are not rich in research and development (R&D); they are creative in nature and usually generated by highly skilled solution-led innovative individuals and microenterprises from within the creative industries and academia. In this article, Maxine Horn, CEO of Creative Barcode, explores the challenges confronting innovative thinkers in an economy increasingly focused on open innovation, and explains how open protection mechanisms, such as Creative Barcode®, can support a more efficient and rewarding open innovation environment.
The source of innovation
Innovation generally starts with an individual – a designer, inventor (independent or otherwise), scientist, engineer or entrepreneur. These individuals, however, rarely have the funds or the skills to single-handedly bring their ideas to market. For this, they rely on the expertise and resources of the business community. Their primary interest is to trade their knowledge, co-creating or collaborating with route-to-market partners rather than commercializing it themselves. This might seem to make for a complementary and natural union. In reality, the relationship is often fraught with problems.
The journey to market is full of twists and turns. For new ideas or knowledge to have any chance of commercial success, the individual behind them has to engage with industry early on in the process. However, disclosing early stage ideas to potential industry partners pre-contract can be a risky business. All too often, creators are unceremoniously cut out of the commercial loop as their concepts, ideas and propositions are taken up and used by business investors without permission or recompense.
This is largely attributable to a widespread belief that “ideas” are bountiful, free, and have no value until they are commercialized. In the era of open innovation, professional creators compete with the crowd for work and are feeling under threat. While open innovation and crowd-sourcing create opportunities for professional creators and business, they also raise important issues about models of remuneration in sectors traditionally engaged on a fee-for-services basis.
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For many, the client pitch has given way to a kind of mini-crowd-sourcing, controlled by the client who sees openness as a mechanism for cost reduction. This creates a trust problem. If open innovation is to thrive, business trading models between these two communities must ensure that professional creators are equitably remunerated.
Safe disclosure at an early stage of innovation is crucial to support collaborative engagement with business partners. Professional creators, however, are extremely vulnerable pre-contract, where disclosure of in-depth proposals is a necessary part of new business activity.
Many in the creative industries and academia are looking for a new, more protective open innovation culture that promotes ethical, trust and permission-based trading of professionally produced ideas. Without commercial respect for knowledge-based ideas, experience and the know-how of professional creators, there is little incentive for them to participate in open innovation activities.
Many companies are reluctant to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), fearing a negative impact on their own intellectual property (IP). However, without such a contract, the ideas and concepts of professional creators are essentially unprotected. This leaves them vulnerable to their ideas being misappropriated and risks creating barriers to innovation in the areas of open innovation and crowd-sourcing.