![]() ![]() If you do, then you are giving yourselves a fallback, and that can dramatically reduce the commitment from the stakeholders. Do not continue to work on the project internally while the OI project is underway.To do this, you need to do these two scary, but important things: If you want your open innovation endeavor to be successful, you need to remove the lifeline. I think that people cling to the idea because it’s evocative nevertheless, the message is still the same: This is a misconception that has made its way into history due to a reference made by the Spanish writer Cervantes de Salazar in 1546. Many people think that Cortez actually burned his ships – he didn’t – he sank them. Although you are not conquering the Aztecs, open innovation projects can still be challenging – it takes vision, leadership, buy-in and most of all commitment from ALL of the stakeholders to make it through. When failure is an option, there is a lack of commitment. It could be the legal department, or the technical people, or a manager. What are the risks? What haven’t we thought of? There certainly isn’t a template contract for this thing that this radical business unit wants to do.Īs I stated in the first paragraph, a common thread that I see in failed open innovation projects is that at least one stakeholder is convinced right from the outset that it will fail. Think about your legal people – open innovation can be frightening. Think about your technical people – if open innovation succeeds, what does it say about them? That someone else could solve the problem where they couldn’t? That they really aren’t the best in the world? There are always going to be people at your company who are, at best unconvinced. This very same element is essential to success in open innovation. By focusing on commitment, we forge our own future. Commitment is critical to success – Nothing of significance can be achieved without it. This story of the Spanish Conquistador beating the odds is really a story about commitment. Ponder that for a while – I certainly did. Retreat is easy when you let yourself have the option. They were able to do it simply because there was no choice, no fallback – the ships were gone, the only alternative was death. In six hundred years, no one else had been able to conquer the Aztecs and plunder their riches. Incredibly, they succeeded in this unlikely feat. ![]() By doing this, the level of commitment of the men was raised to an extreme level, much higher than anyone could have imagined. The ships were sunk – He kept a single ship to send back the “royal fifth” (the king of Spain claimed 20% of all treasures). The option of failure was gone – Conquer as heroes, or die. The path forward was clear for Cortez – All or nothing, 100% commitment. His men resisted, wondering how they would even get home, and his answer was: “If we are going home, we are going home in their ships!” ![]() He wanted to make sure that the remainder of his men were completely committed to his mission and quest for riches, so he did something that seemed completely insane to his people: Cortez gave the order to scuttle his own ships. Cortez got wind of the plot, and captured the ringleaders. Some of his men were unconvinced of success, and being loyal to Cuba, they tried to seize some ships to escape to there. Despite the large army under his command, he was still vastly outnumbered by a huge and powerful empire that had been around for 600 years. He took 500 soldiers and 100 sailors and landed his 11 ships on the shores of the Yucatan. ![]() In 1519, the Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando Cortez decided that he wanted to seize the treasure that the Aztecs had been hoarding. But some fail – and one of the biggest reasons for failure is a lack of full commitment from the stakeholders in the project. Many of these projects succeed, and help the company push through major obstacles to be able to release a disruptive new product or technology. I have seen and been involved with hundreds of open innovation projects. In this article, we explore a major obstacle that can impede the success of an open innovation based project, and how to remedy it. ApBy Paul Wagorn Open Innovation, loosely defined as seeking solutions outside your company, can help a company dramatically increase its technology and product pipeline, but it is not without its challenges. ![]()
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