Every domain of human endeavor needs its own Hollywood film. Boxers have Rocky, lawyers have A Few Good Men, American football players have Any Given Sunday, doctors have Awakenings, generals have Patton, and physicists have Oppenheimer.
And us – open innovation experts – have The Professor and the Madman.
The Professor and the Madman, directed by Farhad Safinia and starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, and Natalie Dormer, is based on true story behind the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary. And it perfectly presents the key elements of open innovation:
• There are problems which can only be solved with open innovation, and without open innovation many problems will never be solved,
• Open innovation is often in conflict with entrenched closed methods, but is welcomed when all other options were exhausted,
• Open innovation will get results from unexpected places (expect the unexpected).
• External innovators want to solve your problem not only for pecuniary but also non-pecuniary benefits (Henry Chesbrough).
I strongly recommend watching The Professor and the Madman. This movie, in somewhat overambitious chaotic storytelling, presents us well.
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