Introduction to Innovation Networks and Their Roles

Introduction

In recent decades, rapid changes in products, markets, and economies have given rise to a more refined (rather than entirely new) innovation management method: the innovation network. When an organization understands the requirements of an innovation network, the roles it can obtain from its ecosystem, and how to integrate the network, it can implement sustainable innovation that yields greater business returns than isolated similar efforts.

Roles that compose an innovation network

The four professional roles that make up an innovation network are:

1] Inventor

2] Transformer

3] Financier

4] Broker

See the figure below

Innovation ecosystem

Each organization is part of a broader business ecosystem composed of interrelated participants. Continuously emerging new technologies and the innovations they bring strengthen potential relationships among these participants, turning them into an innovation ecosystem that provides multiple pathways for each role, ideally reconfiguring the innovation network on the basis of innovation to best develop available talent and maximize the time to value realization.

Connecting the network

To make an innovation network thrive, participants must share more than capabilities. Participants in the network must share goals, motivations, and culture.

To achieve this, perform the following actions:

1] Align values

Political values – potential conflicts between other products offered by participants may prevent close cooperation between companies, thereby providing commercial value to both participants.

Motivational values – relationships among participants in an innovation network change over time as motivations shift.

Economic factors – economic imbalance between parties may hinder one side’s continued participation and cause significant loss to the other after partnership termination.

Contractual terms – clearly understanding each side’s expected responsibilities, defining appropriate service levels, and establishing escalation paths for issues can eliminate mutual blame and technical dead‑ends.

Process considerations – capabilities in the innovation process need to work collaboratively; each capability has defined inputs, rules for managing internal activities, and defined outputs.

2] Understand organizational capabilities

Organizations face the challenge of realistically identifying internal skills and capabilities available, as well as those that must be sourced externally. Part of this process is also to determine integration and negotiation points that must exist between capabilities to enable effective contracting and management.

Mapping metrics to roles to improve innovation network delivery

An innovation network requires close coordination among the four roles and the innovation itself. Because each role and capability may be filled by an internal or external entity, poor performance of any role or capability can delay or completely derail a project. By using appropriate metrics for each role and capability, you can measure the overall performance of the innovation network and help identify opportunities for further improvement. When developing your own innovation plan, processes, and network, use key indicators to guide the behavior of all participants.

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