In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, the companies that win aren’t necessarily those with the biggest R&D budgets or the most brilliant internal teams – they’re the ones who know when to look beyond their own walls.
As a solution to these challenges, more organizations are complementing their internal intelligence with external sources of innovation. This open innovation approach can take many forms, from crowdsourcing to broadcast and pyramid search, involving several different external sources.
Amongst these external sources, suppliers are shown to have a high potential for impacting innovation due to their existing relationship with the company – that is, their customer. With an intimate understanding of the company’s needs and supply chain and with mechanisms for collaborating already in place, suppliers are well-positioned to contribute to a company’s innovation success.
In this article, we provide an overview of supplier innovation, tips for how to get started, and a best-practice example from one of Germany’s largest manufacturing firms. Read on to learn how to put this strategy into practice and turn your suppliers’ creativity, expertise, and resources into promising new solutions.
