There are times when the walls of our organizations become invisible prisons.
Times when we believe that the light of innovation can only shine from the lamps on our own desks.
Times when we are convinced that we hold the one and only creative truth.
And yet… as Henry Chesbrough, the father of Open Innovation, whispers to us:
“Companies that use only their own ideas will miss out on many opportunities for innovation.”
Our ambition is to professionalize Open Innovation, to industrialize its pillars, and to systematize the mindset it requires.
Innovation is not a fire to be guarded jealously — it is a flame that grows stronger when offered to the wind of ideas coming from elsewhere.
The experiences we have lived in the field, we now turn into shared knowledge, because true knowledge is not measured by what we accumulate, but by the intelligence with which we transmit it.
Bill Joy, the lucid visionary, reminds us of a nearly brutal truth:
“No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.”
So why search for answers in a single mind when the entire horizon is filled with potential allies?
This resounding truth invites us to break free from silos, to open our systems, and to embrace a conviction I hold deeply:
“Everything that lives is a network — a circulation of knowledge, of know-how, of ways of being, and of helping others to do.”
Satya Nadella expresses it with the gentleness of a bridge cast over an abyss:
“Innovation happens when you create bridges, not walls.”
Innovation is no longer a luxury — it is a necessity.
And Open Innovation is its most human form.
It teaches us to build together through uncertainty, with humility, with courage, and with a rare gift:
“The power to create meaning where it once seemed impossible.”
Open Innovation is not just a strategy, as it is too often perceived in many organizations.
As Chesbrough and Bogers remind us:
“It is a mindset that transforms how organizations think, create, and share value.”
It is the awareness that creation belongs to no one — that it is woven in the invisible space between people, in those ecosystems where, as John Hagel writes:
“Everyone gains by contributing, not by protecting their territory.”
The greatest revolutions are not always born in corporate laboratories.
They erupt in the hands of dreamers, passionate users, and forgotten communities.
Eric von Hippel, explorer of these fertile lands, knows it well:
“The most radical innovations often come from users themselves.”
And if we seek breakthroughs that defy imagination, Peter Diamandis offers us one last breath of wisdom:
“Open your challenges to the entire world.”
Thus, Open Innovation is not an option.
It is a declaration of love to collective intelligence,
a promise to our shared future — the promise never to remain alone in the quest for tomorrow.
Because the future cannot be built behind closed doors.
It is woven in the open air,
in the unpredictable dance of ideas that meet and ignite
in the fragrance of a clear and plural intelligence.
Florent Youzan