The Global Brain: Tailored Roadmaps For Network-Centric Innovation

As companies increasingly recognize the importance of reaching beyond their four walls, there’s an urgent need for implementation roadmaps in this area. Two world-renowned business innovation experts address this “execution gap” in their new book The Global Brain, and help you identify and implement the best network-centric innovation strategy for your company. An inspiring interview with Satish Nambisan, one of the book’s authors and a global thought leader in the field of innovation:

1) What’s the key message or take-away for practitioners?

The key message is that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to network-centric innovation is a sure prescription to failure (in other words, copying what a P&G or an IBM does in open innovation is not necessarily going to be a successful strategy for your company). There are different forms or models of network-centric innovation. Each company has to identify the approach or model that best fits their particular industry/market context. In this book, we structure the landscape of network-centric innovation (i.e. define the different models of network-centric innovation) and explain how companies can identify the model or approach that is most suitable for them and then prepare for those collaboration opportunities by developing the appropriate portfolio of organizational competencies and capabilities. In sum, companies that invest in processes to systematically identify the right network-centric innovation approach and the requisite organizational capabilities are more likely to benefit from such initiatives than those who blindly follow the latest high-visibility example of network-centric innovation.

2) What are the new, important jobs that will arise from this shift taking place?

Several new entities or roles have emerged in this space – each of which implies a new job or a new type of firm.

For example, my book describes a new type of innovation intermediary called ‘Innovation Capitalist’ – a firm that seeks out innovative ideas from independent inventors, invests in those ideas and transforms them to a stage where their market and technical feasibility are clear, and then sells the related licenses and/or patents to large client firms who can take those ideas to market. We are already seeing several such firms all over the world – in US, in Europe, and in Asian countries such as India and Singapore.

Within large multi-divisional firms such as Henkel, 3M and DuPont, new roles have been created to provide leadership and to bring coherence to their global collaborative innovation initiatives. Similarly, new roles would also be required for companies to interface with or manage their relationship with diverse types of external innovation networks and partners (independent inventor networks, academic research communities, small specialist firms, etc.).

3) In his book, Thomas Friedman describes 3 stages of globalization: countries > organizations > individuals. Gary Hamel, author of The Future Of Management, talks about a slow evolution towards the post-managerial society, where decision-making in organizations is more peer-based, and power will be a function of competence rather than of position. Do you agree that we are evolving towards a new model to organize the share of labor, where hierarchies are increasingly less important, and networked individuals are the central actors? Or do you have a different view on this?

I agree with them but only to certain extent! I think in certain areas or domains we are moving towards such peer-based, networked systems but hierarchy-based networks too will retain their relevance in certain other areas. In fact, that is what my book emphasizes – there are certain types of innovation contexts where networks with a dominant firm are appropriate and there are certain other innovation contexts where more diffused leadership structures are appropriate. In other words, it is not an ‘either or’ issue – both types would co-exist, albeit each assuming prominence under different conditions and in different markets.

4) What would you say has been the biggest surprise or learning for you in this field?

I think the major element of surprise for me has been to know the state of confusion that many companies (especially the large companies) are in, at this point in time, with regard to how to approach collaborative, global, networked innovation. I would say most companies realize the need to ‘look outside’ for innovative ideas but few have any real clue as to how to do it. My conversations with managers in many large and small companies indicate that advancing beyond mere awareness of the opportunities presented by the Global Brain will require addressing critical organizational challenges – and I hope that my book will assist companies in this regard.

Satish Nambisan is professor in technology management and strategy at the Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He is a globally recognized researcher and business consultant in the areas of innovation management and technology strategy, recently focused on customer co-innovation, and network-centric innovation.

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