Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

16 O P E N I N N O V A T I O N 2 0 1 3
SME funding has been discussed thoroughly. One
of the issues is to see clearly that one size does
not fit all: the focus needs to be on growth-hungry
and even on atypical SMEs and entrepreneurs.
SME-enablers are critical also from the perspective
that SMEs are often very dynamic and knowledgeable
players in business ecosystems and bring agility
and focused solutions to specific problems. It is
important to realise that the (ICT-oriented) SMEs do
not have ‘children’s’ tickets as they are immediately
exposed to global competition. This is especially
true for the new generation of web entrepreneurs.
It is very important that a European dimension is
maintained in the SME actions in Horizon 2020. One
possible approach could be to adapt the US-based
SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) approach
to the European context. Further details of the SME
instrument are still open when writing this text, but
I am sure that the new approaches will be welcomed
among the most dynamic innovation actors.
Organisational changes
to fit the challenge
Reflecting this new approach of the European Commission’s
Directorate-General for Communications
Networks, Content and Technology, the organisation
is also well tuned with its Net Innovation Unit focusing
on Internet entrepreneurship — the Innovation Unit
is focusing on modern innovation methods and their
implementation in the new Horizon 2020 programme.
Likewise, the new Stakeholders Unit has a significant
role: to discuss with our constituency the strategy and
operations to foster innovation in a more holistic manner.
It is also important that, in this context, there is
a widened stakeholder debate, more than that seen in
the more focused programming approach.
All these activities aim at more fluid innovation interaction
ranging from ideation to experimentation and
execution. Hence, it is also important to see how, at
the actors’ level, all these instruments are used to
create a meaningful integrated approach: one could
say innovation ecosystem and action within. The isolated
non-interacting projects based on sequential
innovation models are likely not to be mainstream.
Innovation ecosystem thinking —
for full impact
Successful innovation ecosystems seem to have the
following drivers already in the design phase, based
on the observations of the expert group advising
the Directorate-General for Communications Networks,
Content and Technology on innovation [8]:
• success rate and speed are the keys;
• freedom is prerequisite for creativity;
• courage leads to strong commitment and further
engagement;
• wealth/well-being creation is the value driver
instead of cost minimising;
• openness of the ecosystem attracts inwards
investment (intellectual, capital).
Services and concepts require a good knowledge
of the local market; hence, the ecosystems need
to have a strong local presence in real-world settings.
The local setting means, in turn, that the role
of the individual, the citizen, becomes increasingly
important.
When the dynamics of market creation is achieved,
the local ecosystems become a source for highly
reliable market evaluations for companies, and
are thus tempting to both intellectual and capital
investment locally. In turn, the involvement of users
leads to a significant reduction in societal, technological
and business risks.
For SMEs and start-ups, the greatest benefit is that
they will be able to assess the market attitude to
their ideas, concepts, products or services at a very
early stage. For large companies, the experimentation
on new business models and, thus, business
model innovation is both faster and easier.
Conclusions
The design of new innovation ecosystems, such as
further development of the Living Labs, requires
a strong vision as to how to get all the stakeholders
more actively involved. User-centricity is not
enough, as we need to have user-driven innovation
more firmly in place. The users turn from
objects to active subjects, where they are involved
in all stages, including very early ideation and
prototyping.
This approach, together with open platforms, open
data and open processes, makes it possible to bring
technology closer to people and organisational
needs and, at the same time, to shape future market
development.
In these ‘next-generation’ Living Labs, open platforms
also enable new types of entrepreneurship,
such as micro-multinationals, and even social
enterprises beyond the traditional business models.
Challenges for these open innovation ecosystems
are leadership and the common desire to be attractive
to all kinds of players from large to small, in
strong and trusted interrelationships. They need
to provide high connectivity across the ecosystem
(including society) and to openly foster interaction