While in their yearning for better methods of supply chain management, the companies in surge of better sources of creativity are now looking for talent beyond their customized Research & Development labs. They have started seeking and sharing information with networks of independent investors, scientists, academic researchers and intermediaries who work as contact person between researcher and companies. This pool of talent is known as supply chain innovation networks.
These networks as an intellectual asset work as linking with companies to solve problems and find ideas thus becomes an integral part of the organization to bring about new thought and product ideas into the market.
There are many reasons fo
r the companies to go for outsourcing intellectual pool for the purpose of research and new growth ideas and seek assistance from pool of networks. One of the most exciting trends which have been witnessed recently is that 35% of the patents in the world are now attributed to small entrepreneurs. This means that small group of researcher and scientist are now getting due recognition after collaborating with small group of companies.
However, a company needs to follow a certain steps and measures to design, develop and run a participatory innovation network. First answer for the question why a company is looking for external participation and collaboration form an external research firm could be for seeking answer to a problem or to build an idea or to develop new innovative ideas.
After seeking answer to the problem why a company is looking for the intellectual pool of network, the next step is to reconstruct and design architecture to tap the potential of these intellectuals. The design architecture depends on a companies need for searching for strategic intent of the company and the level of control that it seeks over an outsider pool of intellectuals.
Here a company can adopt for any of the models for control like highly centralized network, a community oriented network or a democratic type of network. After the control model, the next important step in this system is infrastructure model. It includes the clear budgets for commercializing those ideas, which come through tying up with pool of intellectuals to bring about new ideas in productivity and world culture.
Thus supply chain innovation networks are emerging as very successful pattern for new ideas in industrial growth.