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Strict rules for strategy and (open) innovation

2012 May 18
Of course there are none, but I often find myself in discussions where the point is made that these rules do exist. Hence I thought it would make a nice contribution as a topic for a lecture to students, who are about the endeavor on a research project.


On Strategy
Basically an introduction to the different schools of strategy (Mintzberg) with special attention to the Deliberate vs Emergent part of Realized Strategies. Good remark from the audience: that may very well resemble a thesis project. My main point: see strategy as a mashup of strategies and recognize these different schools.


On (open) innovation
First I gave an introduction to innovation, what it is and what it is not, who has which role to play in innovation, who benefits from innovation, … Then I put ideas.arcgis.com in an open innovation perspective. My main message was that the relevance of your role in innovation (as organisations are becoming more poreus) has increased, so claim that role!


I did shared a few tips as well (observe strategy from firms by their actions, not their words – who said that?; discussions on open innovation are best started with stating where you are closed) and in return received some good questions (is it smarter to be a second mover instead of a first mover? What do you recommend we study? How does Esri take decisions to go e.g. from AML to Python)?


Always interesting to discuss and present on the topics of strategy and open innovation. Looking forward to read a few thesis’s in a few months time!
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