Culture. • Kraft’s culture has had possibly the most significant
change. Despite their former culture of ignoring outside assis-
tance with innovation, they’ve now gone as far as embedding
Open Innovation into their corporate innovation framework
and focusing on behavior change as a number one priority.
The team also learned quickly that senior-level support and
advocacy was critical in the process.
Today Kraft is harnessing the power of internal innovation net-
works of more than 2,000 scientists/engineers and 98,000 employ-
ees complemented with leveraging external innovation networks to
expand innovation capacity and capability. According to Abraham,
their success is deeply rooted in “knowing what we know.”
“ ‘Knowing what we know’ is a critical enabler for our orga-
nization to become even more efficient in delivering our project
objectives,” said Abraham.
And once the company knew what it knew, Kraft spent time
discovering what others knew so they could leverage external
solutions and capabilities. Since then, supplier innovations have
been helping fuel Kraft’s growth worldwide. For example, Kraft
discovered that reusability of packaging was the number one
consumer suggestion for their biscuits, such as Chips Ahoy! and
Oreo. With supplier collaboration, Kraft was given access to a
proprietary technology that gave consumers a new way to access
biscuits—via a re-sealable tab on the top of a package instead of
from the sides. In a recent study, 70 percent of consumers said they
“definitely would buy” versus 51 percent for the former package.
At the end of the presentation, Abraham stressed that to gain the
successes they’ve had, like the enhanced user-experience for their
biscuit packaging, they always ask three high-level questions for
every innovation project:
What do we already know internally? 1.
How can we leverage external knowledge and innovation? 2.
How can we create or access an invention and operate freely? 3.
Networking and the active exhibit area
Peer-to-peer networking at CoDev conferences is always one of the
primary opportunities for participants, and this year was no exception.
With networking receptions on both Monday and Tuesday evening,
multiple interactive content integration sessions, and refreshment
breaks and luncheons, participants had a variety of forums in which
they could meet and connect with potential partners. In addition, the
Open Innovation mentoring program was once again offered to all
those participants new to Open Innovation. Participants signed up
on-site to be matched with an Open Innovation expert who would be
available after the conference to discuss conference learnings, how to
apply what they’ve learned, and how to avoid potential pitfalls when
starting an Open Innovation initiative at their organization.
Also, if participants were interested in hearing what tools and
services are available to enhance and support their Open Innova-tion initiatives, they needed only to stop and visit the exhibit hall.
Ten of the top Open Innovation tools and service providers were
on hand to describe and demonstrate their technologies, offer new
insights on the changing Open Innovation landscape, and take
feedback on what companies see as future needs.
2011 will be a 10-year milestone
The 10th Annual Open Innovation and Co-Development con-
ference will be an important milestone. We are adding one more
day to the program—to expand our ability to provide information
CoDev 2010 Was a Great Place for
Practitioners to Network and Learn
both to “beginners” in the field of Open Innovation and those who
already have sophisticated processes in place.
The conference will once again take place in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
from January 24 to 27, 2011, at the brand-new Talking Stick
Resort. You can expect to hear from, and network with, top Open
Innovation thought leaders and advanced practitioners across
multiple industries on questions that are challenging early Open
Innovation adopters. Topics might include: what is the best orga-
nizational design structure to support and grow Open Innovation
capabilities, how do organizations evolve company culture to
support and embrace Open Innovation, what types of rewards and
incentives are needed to drive Open Innovation performance, and
how do organizations advance Open Innovation efforts through
early supplier involvement?
We hope to see you—and perhaps even your entire team—at
this event. If you’re interested in taking your Open Innovation
initiatives to the next level, plan on attending CoDev 2011. See
you there!
