Leading Open Innovation: Creating Centripetal Innovation Capacity

Innovation research and organizational practice often focuses on R&D investments and activitiescarried out in designated departments and controlled processes. Anecdotal evidence tells us,however, that this centralized and formalistic approach to innovation is often insufficient. Asignificant number of radical but profitable innovations have their origin outside of R&Ddepartments, and a significant number are created in later stages of value creation that were notintended to produce innovations. Only a few successful companies seem to be able to identify andbuild upon these “peripheral” innovation activities from unexpected loci, but in an increasinglycompetitive world it is more and more important to learn how to manage innovations from manysources.This symposium emphasizes the entrepreneurial leadership requirements for increasingCentripetal Innovation Capacity (CIC) – the ability to draw innovation from many sources intothe organizational pipeline. The speakers in the symposium will consider 4 specific aspects of thisproblem: 1) Local leadership of innovation, 2) Corporate leadership systems, 3) Absorptivecapacity, 4) Models of cooperation. We hope the symposium will spur conversation about openinnovation across the BPS, ENT & TIM divisions, and more specifically encourage additionalempirical research on how organizations can marshal centripetal forces to utilize the enormouspotential of open innovation.