What is External Innovation and Why is it Important to Your Business?

Innovation occurs either inside or outside of your organization. Internal innovation takes place within your “four walls” and you direct it. Outside your organization is a universe of external innovators that you cannot control and that you cannot clearly see, until it is too late. Complicating matters is the fact that the most disruptive innovation always comes from the outside, never from the inside.

Many organizations run innovation initiatives which concentrate almost entirely on internal innovation. External innovation is challenging because it requires a very different approach — one that can be counterintuitive and even threatening on the surface. The very things that you must do to de-risk external innovation are least understood by your organization.