In today’s rapidly shifting business landscape, innovation is no longer a solitary pursuit. Complex challenges, from digital transformation to sustainability transitions, require more than internal expertise and traditional R&D processes. They demand a new approach, one that recognizes that valuable ideas can come from anywhere.
This is the essence of open innovation, a concept that has matured from a theoretical framework into a widely adopted way of thinking across industries. From manufacturing and mobility to hospitality and the luxury industry, organizations increasingly engage with external actors to source, develop, and commercialize innovation. As Chesbrough et al. (2024) note, open innovation is a “holistic approach to innovation management that systematically encourages the exploration of internal and external sources for innovation opportunities, integrating this exploration with firm capabilities and resources to exploit those opportunities through multiple channels.”
This article presents the concept of open innovation, outlines its foundational principals, and explores its practical implications, drawing on insights from both research and global best practices.
What is Open Innovation is and Why does it Matter?
Traditionally, innovation was considered an internal process where firms generated ideas, developed them in-house, and brought them to market. This closed innovation model emphasized secrecy, long development cycles, and control over intellectual property.
In contrast, open innovation recognizes that valuable knowledge and ideas frequently reside outside organizational boundaries. It encourages companies to actively seek and integrate external knowledge, whether from customers, startups, academic institutions, suppliers, or even competitors, into their innovation processes.
Rather than relying solely on internal capabilities, open innovation promotes collaboration, iterative development, and selective sharing of intellectual property under clearly defined agreements. This approach enables organizations to diversify their knowledge base, accelerate time to market, and reduce the risks and costs associated with innovation.
As a result, open innovation is particularly well suited to dynamic environments and complex challenges, where agility, creativity and novel problem-solving approaches are essential.
Across industries, the pressures to innovate faster, more sustainably, and in more human-centric ways are intensifying. In fields such as energy, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and yes—even hospitality—open innovation provides a mechanism for tapping into the distributed intelligence of innovation ecosystems.
Consider:
The automotive industry, where companies like BMW and Toyota co-develop technologies with suppliers and tech startups.
The life sciences sector, where pharmaceutical firms engage in pre-competitive research consortia with universities and biotech firms.
Hospitality, where platforms like Airbnb have integrated guest feedback loops and community co-creation into their design processes.
The common denominator? A willingness to look outward, to collaborate, and to test ideas that originate beyond an organization’s boundaries.
The Three Phases of the Open Innovation Process
Although open innovation is not always linear, its implementation typically involves three interrelated phases.
1. Sourcing Innovations
This phase focuses on identifying promising ideas and capabilities beyond the organization. Mechanisms include:
Crowdsourcing platforms (e.g., Innocentive, Kaggle)
Open calls for innovation (e.g., NASA’s open innovation challenges)
Strategic alliances with startups, universities, or NGOs
Employee ideation programs (intrapreneurship)
2. Integrating Innovations
Integrating external ideas into internal processes is both critical and challenging. Success depends on:
Clear alignment with internal strategies
Strong coordination mechanisms (steering committees, co-development teams)
Addressing cultural resistance, such as the “not-invented-here” syndrome
3. Commercializing Innovations
The final phase involves bringing innovations to market, either within existing organzations or through new business models. Organizations may:
Launch spin-offs or new service lines
License technologies or business methods
Co-develop solutions with external commercialization partners
A hotel chain, for instance, might co-create a sustainability tracking tool with an environmental startup, then offer it to other industry players via a licensing model.
Overcoming the Challenges of Openness
While the benefits of open innovation are widely recognized, its implementation is often fraught with organizational, cultural, and strategic challenges.
One of the most prominent concerns involves the protection of intellectual property and sensitive information. Organizations may fear that engaging external partners could compromise proprietary knowledge or expose them to competitive risks. To mitigate this, it is essential to establish clear contractual frameworks that define ownership, licensing terms, and boundaries for knowledge exchange.
Equally critical is the issue of trust and coordination. Successful collaboration requires transparent communication, clearly defined roles, and structured interaction mechanisms that allow all parties to align expectations and work toward shared goals.
Cultural resistance within organizations can also pose significant barriers, particularly when external ideas are perceived as threats to internal expertise. Addressing this requires a cultural shift, framing openness as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, in-house capabilities, and fostering incentives that reward collaboration.
Finally, the lack of integration capacity can hinder the effective use of external knowledge. To overcome this, organizations should adopt mechanisms such as steering committees, agile pilots, and strategic alignment processes that ensure external innovations are meaningfully connected to internal strategic roadmaps and innovation processes.
Ultimately, these challenges underscore that open innovation is not a “plug-and-play” model but requires strategic intent, cultural commitment, and managerial sophistication.
A Future Built on Collaboration
In a world defined by complexity and volatility, the lone genius model of innovation is no longer sufficient. Whether the challenge is rethinking global food systems, designing regenerative hospitality practices, or redefining the meaning of luxury, the solution lies in shared intelligence and cross-sector collaboration.
Open innovation offers not merely a toolkit, but a mindset—one that values co-creation over isolation, connection over control. It allows organizations to tap into broader idea ecosystems, accelerate experimentation, and co-develop solutions that are not only competitive, but also meaningful and resilient.
Yet the responsibility does not lie with institutions alone. As individuals—whether entrepreneurs, hoteliers, chefs, designers or researchers—we each have a role to play by cultivating an open mindset, fostering curiosity, and actively seeking collaboration beyond traditional organizational boundaries. Open innovation begins when we choose to listen, share, and build together.
This spirit of openness and co-creation is at the heart of the Open Innovation Summit taking place at the EHL on May 20th and 21st, 2025. With tracks dedicated to The Future of Food, Regenerative Economies, and Luxury with Impact, the Summit will showcase how open innovation approaches and ecosystems help to foster transparency, renewal, and stewardship. From AI-enhanced food experiences and circular gastronomy to nature-rooted luxury and community-based regeneration, the future is not just open—it is collaborative, conscious, and catalytic.
Sources:Chesbrough, H., Radziwon, A., Vanhaverbeke, W., & West, J. (Eds.). (2024).The Oxford Handbook of Open Innovation. Oxford University Press.
