2022

German University

Why?

Through education at the university-level, an Open Innovation Mindset can be brought into the companies. The university’s mission was to prepare students to enter the disrupted and fast changing markets. A performance indicator was required to measure project success.

What?

OMIND consulting implemented an Open Innovation Mindset evaluation tool to assess the Open Innovation Mindset of the students at the beginning and at the end of the semester. This way, the development over time could be assessed. This was used as a performance indicator of whether the study course enabled the students to open up their mindset and strengthen their innovation readiness. Moreover, during the semester, the knowledge exchange among the students was quantified with the help of a real-time measurement tool. This provided the students and lecturers with the opportunity to continuously track the development of their knowledge exchange performance and receive visual preparation. The indication of outliers allowed lecturers to implement actions for improvement right at the moment.

How?

  • Questions tailored to learning goals of each study course

  • Introductory video distributed to students

  • Roll out of OMIND App in four study courses over one semester

  • Allocation of administrator rights to lecturers to continuously access the anonymous visual preparation of the knowledge exchange among students

  • Distribution of Open Innovation Mindset development at the end of the semester to all students

2021

French Automotive Supplier

Why?

Our client wanted to set the foundation for successful Open Innovation processes across their subsidiaries. According to the Open Innovation Manager, an open mindset and an open culture are among the most important success factors for an open innovation strategy as a basis for an innovation push. The goal of this project was to create awareness for the benefits of Open Innovation and establish an Open Innovation Mindset among the employees.

What?

OMIND consulting set the scene with an impulse speech targeting 70 managers and employees globally. Thereby, the main knowledge exchange barriers, drivers to participate in open innovation, and enabling practices were identified among the different departments and subsidiaries. Building on the status quo, three workshops were delivered remotely on how to overcome the identified main barriers to create an Open Innovation Mindset. The participants at each event ranged from 10 to 20 employees. The participation was voluntary but exclusive for module 1-3. The aim of this project was to implement an Open Innovation Mindset strategy along with tailored human resources practices.

How?

  • Keynote speech on what is Open Innovation and why it is relevant

  • Discussion of challenges in implementing OI

  • Focus on the employee’s perspective

  • Presentation of use-cases along with discussion of pitfalls and obstacles

  • Moderation of knowledge and experience exchange among participants

  • Interactive tasks to identify barriers that block OI at the individual-, team- and organisational level

  • Discussion of challenges in creating an Open Innovation Mindset among employees

  • Interactive tasks to develop enablers for OI

  • Development of work packages, distributing responsibilities and defining milestones

  • Providing next steps to create benefits for employees

  • Implementation of performance measurement tools

2019

German Fashion House

Why?

To lay the groundwork for the digital transformation of its product development and to actively move forward the digital transformation in the fashion industry, the German fashion house created a team that specifically focuses on 3D product development in 2017. To accelerate the digitalization process, this team had the mission to engage in Open Innovation, collaboration and co-creation. It was a cross-functional team consisting of team members with different cultural backgrounds and a diverse set of skills and experiences. The aim of this project was to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange between the team members and other internal departments as well as external collaboration partners. The foundation for successful knowledge flow among teams is to start within the own team first and overcome negative attitudes towards knowledge exchange, fears and doubts as well as communication barriers that hinder knowledge exchange.

What?

OMIND consulting has interviewed all team members (3x over the course of three months) to identify the status quo along with current challenges. Based on a thorough data analysis, for each identified challenge solutions and recommendations for actions were derived. During a team workshop, the results were presented by OMIND consulting and the solutions were collectively discussed. OMIND consulting moderated the decision-making process on how to move forward and which next steps to take.

  • Longitudinal observations to capture the development of team dynamics over time

  • Analysis of team dynamics and relationships between team members and their influence on knowledge exchange behaviour

  • Identification of communication and interaction patterns

  • Analysis of attitudes toward knowledge sharing and sourcing inside and outside the boundaries of the company

  • Exploring challenges and opportunities across internal and external knowledge exchange partners

  • Focus on non-hierarchical leadership and observe how leadership is formed

  • Explore collective decision making processes

  • Identify barriers and enablers of Open Innovation and collaboration from the employee’s perspective

  • Individual coaching and feedback sessions for each team member to facilitate the development of an Open Innovation Mindset

The results of our Open Innovation Mindset Strategy generated for our clients in a nutshell:

The results:

  • Increased mindfulness by highlighting what is going well, creating an appreciation of previous progress and acknowledging achievements

  • Raised awareness by recapping the hurdles and obstacles along the way

  • Provided an action plan by identifying challenges and offering tailored solutions

  • Re-defining the purpose of the project by collectively creating goals, sub-goals and guiding stars

  • Clarifying the role distribution by collectively revisiting the role purpose descriptions

  • Creating a common understanding of leadership by discussing and re-defining the leadership role within the team

  • Increased motivation by zooming out and seeing the big picture (reason to join, individual benefits, personal expectations and goals)

  • Creating transparency between the project team and the rest of the company by identifying actions steps for an improved communication

  • Increased efficiency by developing and prioritizing work packages aligned to the overall goal (think big, plan small)

  • Accelerated decision making process by reflecting benefits and obstacles of collective decision-making

  • Strengthening the Open Innovation Mindset among team members by creating room and appreciation for innovation

  • Improved conflict management by creating room for feedback and developing fixed routines

  • Enabling acknowledgement by measuring knowledge exchange, tracking OI performance and rewarding achievement