Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation

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Creating Employee
Networks That Deliver
Open Innovation
FALL 2011 VOL.53 NO.1
REPRINT NUMBER 53108
Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk and
Rick Aalbers
Please note that gray areas reflect artwork that has been
intentionally removed. The substantive content of the ar-
ticle appears as originally published.

FALL 2011 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 37
COMPANIES SUCH AS Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems, Genzyme, General Electric and
Intel are often credited with having attained market leadership through open innovation strategies.
That is, by tapping into and exploiting technological knowledge that resided beyond their own re-
search and development structures, these companies outmaneuvered rivals that relied largely on
in-house approaches to innovation. But while other organizations try to follow the example set by
these trailblazers, our research shows that many are failing because they neglect to ensure that the
outside ideas reach the people best equipped to exploit them. (See “About the Research,” p. 38.)
There is a way to change this path for the better. By understanding the roles of two types of in-
novation brokers — “idea scouts” and “idea connectors” — in the open innovation process, and by
Creating Employee
Networks That Deliver
Open Innovation
A small number of “idea scouts” and “idea connectors” are dispro-
portionately influential in producing successful open innovation
outcomes. Smart companies make sure they are linked.
BY EOIN WHELAN, SALVATORE PARISE, JASPER DE VALK AND RICK AALBERS
THE LEADING
QUESTION
What kinds
of capabilities
facilitate a
company’s
success at
incorporating
outside
knowledge?
FINDINGS
Combing the
outside world
for potentially
useful ideas is
necessary but
not sufficient.
Management must
ensure that the
new ideas reach
the people best able
to exploit them.
The skills of “idea
scouts” and “idea
connectors” are
complementary.
INNOVATION
Marissa Mayer, a vice
president at Google,
exemplifies the “idea
connector.”
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU

38 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW FALL 2011 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
INNOVATION
utilizing their talents effectively, managers can pre-
side over major improvements in the conversion of
external knowledge into innovative outcomes.
Consider the case of a software company that
specialized in developing solutions for multimedia
customer-contact centers. Because the pace of tech-
nological change in this particular field is extremely
rapid, competitors need to continuously identify
and integrate emerging advances in communica-
tion technologies from the outside world. This
particular company lost a major client contract to a
rival primarily because the rival’s product featured
more advanced voice-recognition capabilities. Dur-
ing the course of our work with the company, we
discovered that the very voice-recognition technol-
ogy displayed in the rival’s product was actually
identified by one of the company’s software engi-
neers almost a year earlier. The engineer in question
had learned of the new technology from a working
paper published on a university lab’s website. Real-
izing its potential, she immediately brought the new
development to the attention of her team leader.
However, this opportunity developed no further.
To determine why this idea came to naught
within the company’s internal R&D network, we
used organizational network analysis, or ONA,
which revealed the team leader to be a peripheral
player in the network structure. (See “ONA: A Tool
Adapted From the Social Sciences.”) Even if he had
genuinely wanted to incorporate the new voice-
recognition capability, he lacked the trusted
personal connections to see it through. Where this
company failed was where its rival obviously suc-
ceeded — in ensuring that an outside idea got to
the right point in the network, where it could be as-
sessed and ultimately exploited.
Idea Scouts and Idea Connectors
R&D leaders need to think not only about combing
the outside world for new and potentially applicable
ideas but also about how to ensure that those ideas
reach the people able to develop them in innovative
ways. Organizations that are smart in this regard in-
vest in both the idea scout and the idea connector.
Another company we worked with was a leading
player in the medical-devices industry — in partic-
ular, our client was an R&D unit assigned to
advance the company’s stent-delivery technology.
To maintain its leadership position in this arena,
the management team understood the importance
of identifying and exploiting emerging ideas from
industries as diverse as electronics, pharmaceuticals
and plastics. Yet it lacked a coherent structure for
doing so. In the words of the R&D director, “Knowl-
edge flow is the lifeblood of our division, but it is
invisible to us. [I]t all happens informally.”
With the aid of ONA, we proceeded to ascertain
the R&D unit’s network connections that facilitate
open innovation. (See “The Connector’s Critical
Role,” p. 40.) Highlighted in the diagram are Tom and
Mike (idea scouts) and Helen (an idea connector).
Idea scouts such as Tom and Mike are integral to the
open innovation process. They act as the R&D unit’s
antennae, tuned to emerging scientific and techno-
logical developments that are broadcast from around
the globe. But while idea scouts are very well con-
nected to knowledge sources outside the company,
we have found that they tend to possess very few
strong connections internally.
1
Without this effective
internal distribution network, their contributions to
an open innovation strategy are limited.
This was exactly the situation that faced Tom. In
an interview, he explained that through his scout-
ing activities he often becomes aware of emerging
technological developments that have potential
value for the company. While he attempts to dis-
tribute such information throughout the internal
network himself, he acknowledged that his efforts
often fail: The opportunities he identifies are not
considered, let alone exploited, by the R&D unit.
Tom’s distribution efforts usually involve his send-
ing out a blanket e-mail to 20 or so colleagues.
However, his R&D colleagues explained to us that
because they suffer from “inbox overload,” if an
e-mail does not appear to be directly relevant to
them, it is usually deleted. Thus Tom’s idea-scout-
ing abilities, though vital to the company’s
innovation objectives, are largely wasted, as he lacks
an effective distribution channel.
Contrast Tom’s case with that of Mike. Like Tom,
Mike is an idea scout who has few strong connec-
tions internally. However, a major difference
between the two is that Mike is linked to Helen —
an idea connector who does have an extensive
network together with the know-how needed to
distribute the technological information that Mike
ABOUT THE
RESEARCH
The insights presented in
this article are based on our
research and consulting
work over the past five
years with a number of lead-
ing companies in a variety of
industries. These industries
include high-tech engineer-
ing (Siemens, Boston
Scientific, Creganna), infor-
mation and communication
technology (Microsoft, Intel,
Atos Origin, TED), energy
(Royal Dutch Shell, Chev-
ron), management
consulting (Deloitte) and
financial services (Equens).
Our work has centered on
understanding how oppor-
tunities for innovation
diffuse throughout interper-
sonal networks. To examine
this process, we used ONA
techniques (see “ONA: A
Tool Adapted From the So-
cial Sciences”) to visualize
networks, identify the key
innovation brokers and dis-
cover any underutilized
potential. We then con-
ducted interviews with over
80 innovation brokers to get
a deeper appreciation of
their attributes and the roles
they perform. We also took
measures of personal inno-
vation and correlated them
with network position,
sources of knowledge used
and personal factors such
as tenure and area of exper-
tise. Finally, we studied the
use of social media and
Web 2.0 technologies in the
innovation process in over
30 organizations by using
interviews, surveys and net-
work-analysis techniques.

FALL 2011 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 39SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
acquires. Connectors such as Helen are the hub of
the company’s social network, the go-to people of
the organization.
2
Much of their expertise lies in
knowing who is doing what. When they are made
aware of an opportunity for innovation, connec-
tors not only know who in the company is best
equipped to exploit that idea but also possess the
social capital needed to rapidly deploy the network
to meet that particular challenge.
Indeed, Helen was able to provide us with a re-
cent example of network-based open innovation in
practice. Through his scouting activities, Mike had
learned of a new development in ultrasonics that
was being used in the aerospace industry. He dis-
cussed this technology with Helen, and after
considering how the R&D unit might profit from it,
she informed two other colleagues who she knew
were trying to solve a particularly complex prob-
lem: how to bond certain medical plastics without
using the traditional methods of heat or adhesives.
After considering and ultimately modifying the
new ultrasonics technology, they were able to de-
velop a solution and have even applied for a patent
to protect their innovation.
Today’s Idea Scouts Especially
Need Complementing
While the importance of network brokers to the
innovation process has long been recognized, our
research shows that their profile is evolving as a
result of advances in Web-based communication
technologies. Let’s consider how the innovation
broker looked 30 years ago. In a series of influen-
tial studies conducted with the leading R&D
powerhouses of the day, MIT Sloan School of
Management professor Tom Allen discovered the
existence of a small number of R&D professionals
who were exceptional networkers both inside and
outside their companies.
3
These rare individuals
acted as the gate — hence Allen’s term “techno-
logical gatekeeper” — through which knowledge
of emerging scientific and technological develop-
ments flowed into and throughout the R&D
department. That is, they performed the roles of
both the idea scout and the idea connector.
Fast-forward to today, when much of the needed
information can be acquired from the Web. The 40
or so idea scouts we have interviewed explained
that Web resources — such as online forums, RSS
feeds, industry blogs and search engine inquiries —
are the primary means through which they keep
abreast of emerging technologies and industry
trends. Indeed, we found that idea scouts are
roughly three times more likely to learn of such de-
velopments through the Web than through a
personal extramural contact. This easy access to an
abundance of information has led the traditional
gatekeepers to have to undergo specialization as
well as a division of labor. With so much “smog” on
the Web, identifying the truly novel ideas is a time-
consuming and complex process that requires the
attention of a specialist idea scout.
Yet while the Web and the specialist idea scout
are necessary for open innovation, they are not suf-
ficient. More than ever, in-house connectors are
also needed to complete the circuit.
For example, an apparel company we worked
with had started soliciting fashion and product ideas
through “crowdsourcing” — allowing consumers to
post ideas, and rate the ideas of others, on the com-
pany website. A marketing associate acted as scout
by asking the consumers specific questions and then
analyzing their answers, as well as their comments
and ratings, over time. Initially, the company viewed
this effort as a huge success, based simply on the
thousands of comments it received within a short
period. And the marketing associate was seen as
doing a fine job at summarizing emerging themes in
the fashion industry, identifying likes and dislikes
regarding the company’s apparel line and making
product recommendations based on consumer sen-
ONA: A TOOL ADAPTED FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Organizational network analysis (ONA) is a systematic approach and set of tech-
niques for studying the connections and resource flows between people, teams,
departments and even whole organizations. With ONA, social relationships are
viewed as nodes and links that can be illustrated visually and mathematically.
Using these methods, managers gain a bird’s-eye view of existing network struc-
tures and communication patterns, which are often in stark contrast to what they
believe them to be or how they would like them to function.
While the application of ONA to the discipline of management is relatively
new, it has enjoyed a long and rich tradition, particularly in the fields of sociology
and anthropology. Much of what we know today as ONA is built upon the work
of psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno, who began developing “sociometry” in
the 1930s to reveal the hidden group structures that affect psychological well-
being. In management settings, ONA has been effective at providing leaders
with insights to help diagnose and solve the problems that often hamper impor-
tant collective-process outcomes such as organizational structure, decision
making, performance and innovation.

40 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW FALL 2011 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
INNOVATION
timent. However, there was little or no connection
between that marketing associate and the key influ-
encers and decision makers across the different
product divisions.
As a result, several problems emerged. Because
the specialized scout had little knowledge of the
company’s overall strategic directions and visions,
she often asked the wrong questions and looked for
information and solutions that were not aligned
with the company’s intentions. Second, many of the
recommendations that the scout made (e.g., faster
introduction of new fashion lines) were simply not
feasible based on the company’s operations and the
logistics that pertained to its suppliers. Finally, much
time was wasted, as the valuable information did
not make it to the right decision makers.
The scout was communicating to people based
on their organizational titles and not on their
ability to make product decisions, with the result
that many good ideas were never acted on and
opportunities were lost. It wasn’t until she was
complemented by a connector (a product-strat-
egy manager who had been with the company for
many years) in the crowdsourcing initiative
that useful information found the appropriate
decision makers, with the result that many crowd-
sourced ideas were actually implemented.
Tackling the NIH Syndrome
Innovation leaders must remember that importing
outside ideas is only part of the open innovation
challenge. Because new ideas will always encounter
internal barriers, leveraging the internal network to
actually adopt those ideas is where the idea connec-
tor is crucial.
Another company we worked with — a leading
European electronics and engineering business —
was trying to implement open innovation, but it
was being stymied by a condition commonly known
as the “not invented here” (NIH) syndrome. This
syndrome occurs when R&D professionals build up
resistance to an outside idea or technology because
they assume that if they did not come up with it
themselves, it must not be very valuable. In this case,
the NIH syndrome was blocking the company’s
efforts to transform itself from being “product
focused” to offering a “total solutions” package to its
customers. The new strategy required previously
segregated business units to integrate their technical
competencies, as management was convinced that
every unit possessed knowledge that other units
could convert into innovative solutions. However,
when we used ONA to measure the extent to which
interunit collaboration was occurring, it revealed
that the locus of innovation activity continued to
remain at the business unit level. Each unit tended
to hoard its own knowledge and rarely sought ideas
from its counterparts. The new total solutions strat-
egy, which was essential to the company’s future,
was unable to succeed at the scale intended.
But some flow of ideas between business units
was actually occurring, though sporadically, and we
found that where it did occur an idea scout and an
idea connector were at the fore. For example, in
what became a profitable venture for the company,
the sharing of ideas between the transportation unit
and the mobile applications unit resulted in the
ability to offer advanced track-and-trace services to
buyers of its luggage-logistics products. This inno-
vative feature was central to the transportation
unit’s winning of a contract to supply the luggage-
logistics system to a major European airport.
When we traced how this innovation came
about, it was clear that the successful outcome
hinged on a connection between a single idea scout
and an idea connector. Peter, an engineer in the
THE CONNECTOR’S CRITICAL ROLE
Both Tom and Mike are idea scouts who have well-developed knowledge and social
networks outside their company but limited networks within it. Because Mike is
linked to Helen, an idea connector with extensive contacts within the organization,
the outside ideas he identifies have developed much more often than Tom’s into
useful processes, products or services for the company.
Idea
Scouts
R&D
Engineers
Idea
Connector
Knowledge
Sources
Boundary of the Company
Tom
Mike
Helen

SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU FALL 2011 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 41
transportation unit, is the idea scout of the story.
He is inquisitive by nature and is constantly search-
ing for new developments both inside and outside
the company. He explained that other units may
not broadcast what they are working on, but if you
are curious enough you can pull the information
from them. Through his grapevine network he has
access to a number of acquaintances in other busi-
ness units, and his interactions with these colleagues
usually take place around the communal coffee
machine, where they trade what they know for what
they need. He also utilizes more formal initiatives
to secure new insights from around the company;
the initial spark for the luggage-logistics service
feature came from a client lunch he attended that
was organized by the mobile applications unit
to promote its new offerings. When a particular
radio-frequency identification capability was dem-
onstrated, he immediately sensed the potential that
RFID could have if fused with the existing airport
conveyor-belt expertise. However, like many other
idea scouts we studied, Peter himself lacks the in-
fluence and political skills to convert a new idea
into a viable project within his own division.
Enter Hans, an idea connector who has the con-
tacts and influence within the transportation unit
to ensure that an idea he champions has a good
chance of being adopted, thereby helping to break
down the NIH syndrome. Not only do they connect
people; network operators like Hans also often pos-
sess the ability to put different concepts together
into a potential innovation. Indeed, this is what
happened when Peter presented him with the RFID
idea. Hans saw an opportunity to add an extra layer
of service to the unit’s conveyor-belt technology if
RFID could be applied in a certain way. The result-
ing service feature provided baggage handlers and
airport operators with real-time and historical
track-and-trace data, giving them an instant over-
view of the positions of all pieces of luggage.
Insights for R&D Leaders
The innovation brokers identified and analyzed in
our research have tended to emerge informally. In
many cases, the people who wound up as idea
scouts and connectors came as a complete surprise
to management. Nevertheless, innovation is too
important to be left to chance; if innovation bro-
kers do not exist, management is obliged to “invent”
them — i.e., assign people to perform these valu-
able roles. Procter & Gamble, for example, has
formally appointed idea scouts to seek out new
technologies from around the globe.
4
But many R&D leaders pursuing open innova-
tion tend to place an undue emphasis only on idea
scouting, thereby neglecting how the ideas become
meshed with the company’s existing capabilities.
Because research has shown that breakthrough in-
novations tend to result from the combination of
new and existing knowledge bases,
5
R&D leaders
must consider the open innovation process in its
entirety. In doing so, they need to recognize that
both the idea scout and the idea connector are criti-
cal for the successful implementation of open
innovation strategies.
How can management be sure it is recruiting and
appointing the right people to these positions? Based
on our study of emergent innovation brokers, we
have described the key characteristics and expertise
of idea scouts and connectors. (See “Innovation-
Broker Profiles,” p. 42.) R&D companies can use our
findings to ensure that these competencies exist
within their talent pools.
In addition, by focusing on the phases of open in-
novation where idea scouts and connectors contribute
most — ideation, selection and diffusion — execu-
tives can optimize the contribution of these
innovation brokers to the innovation process. (See
“Who Shines When,” p. 43.)
Ideation While all employees have the ability to ac-
quire ideas from beyond the company’s boundaries,
our research shows that there tend to be only a hand-
ful of people who possess the technical expertise and
personal interest to perform this task regularly and
at an effective level. Management can harness the
activities of these idea scouts simply by allocating to
them the funds they need to scan the outside world
for new knowledge. But we have found that time is
the most important resource of the idea scout. For
example, one pharmaceutical company we worked
with permitted its newly appointed idea scouts to
devote 100% of their working week to this activity.
In terms of additional resources, all these pros-
pectors need is a computer with an Internet
connection. However, it would be beneficial if idea

42 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW FALL 2011 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
INNOVATION
scouts were also given priority to attend external net-
working events such as conferences or trade shows.
This is not only a way to create alternative channels
for ideation; it also allows management to demon-
strate its commitment to the front-runner role that
these employees play in sparking innovation.
While the Web has always been a place where
scouts could find emerging content, social media
technologies have dramatically expanded scouts’
capabilities in this arena. These new social tools —
applications such as social bookmarking/tagging,
social networking (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), blogs
and wikis — enable them to find and follow sub-
ject-matter experts and practitioners who have
experimented with new ideas and technologies. In
effect, scouts using social media perform “social
navigation” — searching for and finding relevant
people and content — which is positively corre-
lated with personal innovativeness
6
and success in
idea generation. The implication is that organiza-
tions need to train current and future scouts on
how to most effectively exploit the growing num-
ber of social technologies that exist in the business
setting; in so doing, they may complement the more
traditional channels used to acquire knowledge and
ideas from beyond the company’s boundaries.
ONA techniques can also help idea scouts probe
the outside world more effectively. Each idea scout’s
explorations can be analyzed to determine if he or she
is tapping into the right external networks or if im-
portant innovation sources are failing to be leveraged.
In the medical-devices company we studied, univer-
sity labs were an important source of knowledge for
its R&D division. An ONA analysis revealed that its
idea scouts were indeed connected to university labs,
but they tended to be the same three universities from
which these workers had graduated. At least 10 uni-
versity labs globally were conducting state-of-the-art
research important to the company, but most of them
were not being accessed.
To obtain these data, we issued each employee a
network-analysis survey, which asked a variety of
questions about their networking activities. While
we favored this approach in our work, other more
automated methods are also possible. For example,
many employees use websites such as LinkedIn to
INNOVATION-BROKER PROFILES
Because idea scouts and idea connectors have different critical functions to perform in pursuit of open innovation, their desirable traits are different as well.
IDEA SCOUTS IDEA CONNECTORS
Expertise
•Ability to identify useful ideas from outside the company
•Deep knowledge base of a particular technology space
•Strong analytical skills
•High information-technology literacy
•Ability to connect different concepts in a meaningful way
• Wide-ranging knowledge base that facilitates understanding
the context of new information and how it fits with extant
knowledge
• Ability to translate external information into a form
understandable by and relevant to internal colleagues
• Influential — can convince other network members to take
a needed action
Common
Characteristics
•Broad network outside the company
•Short to medium organization tenure
•Attained higher-level degree in specialized technology field
• Genuine interest in keeping abreast of emerging trends in
their specialty
•Broad network inside the company
•Long organization tenure
•Enjoy helping others
• Have a reputation for technical competence among their
colleagues
How to
Facilitate
•Give them time to scan the outside world
•Encourage them to attend external networking events
•Train them in the effective use of social-media technologies
•Use ONA to assess and optimize external network
• Include them in talent-management programs and recognize
their scouting successes
• Encourage their networking activities through involvement
in cross-functional projects and job rotations (particularly for
newly employed connectors)
• Link them to an idea scout to ensure that the newly identi-
fied ideas get disseminated to the right parts of the company
• Use ONA to determine if their internal networks contain
biases or disconnects
• Include them in talent-management programs and recognize
their broker role — e.g., make social graphs publicly available

SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU FALL 2011 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 43
maintain links with their professional contacts.
ONA software applications that can convert such
online profiles (and even e-mail logs) into a social
graph for visual analysis are freely available on the
Web. Of course, the employees would have to agree
to provide such data for analysis. Including idea
scouts in the company’s talent-management pro-
gram is one way to encourage their participation.
It must also be remembered that open innovation
is not just about outside ideas flowing in — compa-
nies also need to consider collaborating with
external partners to liberate internally generated
ideas so that they may flow out. Building external
networks through the idea scouts will increase the
likelihood of connecting with the outside people
and companies best equipped to use the company’s
own ideas that for one reason or another should be
developed elsewhere.
Idea Selection For today’s Web-enabled organiza-
tion, access to new ideas from around the globe is
often just a few mouse clicks away. But while the
great advantage of the Web is that anyone can pub-
lish his or her thoughts on it, this also makes the
task of “separating the wheat from the chaff” a far
more difficult process. In our studies of innovation
units, we find that the interaction between idea
scout and idea connector is crucial not only for en-
suring that the most promising ideas with the best
organizational fit are selected for further consider-
ation; the interaction is also crucial for verifying
that the outside knowledge is reliable and truly
novel — and not just marketing hype, as is often
the case. We can think of the idea scout as providing
the fuel for innovation and of the idea connector as
the engine that converts that fuel into useful out-
puts. Thus, management needs to ensure that
scouts and connectors are linked to each other.
Google is a company that has excelled in turning
nascent ideas into innovative products. Central to
this success has been the role of Marissa Mayer, a
company vice president, who exemplifies the key
traits of an idea connector.
7
The initial concept for
orkut (Google’s social networking site) or for the
company’s desktop search did not originate with
her, but she played a central role in ensuring that
those promising ideas, and many others that bub-
bled up to the surface, were fast-tracked for
investment. One useful mechanism has been May-
er’s tradition of holding three weekly sessions where
she is accessible to all Google employees who want
to pitch a new idea. She brainstorms with these
scout-equivalents and presses them for more de-
tails on the proposed products’ functionality before
deciding whether to champion the ideas to com-
pany leaders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The take-away lesson is that organizations need
to create formalized means through which idea
scouts can reach out to those who have the skills
and influence to select ideas with the most merit
and feasibility and then to help transform them
into innovative products.
Idea Diffusion Once an idea connector recognizes
the potential of a new concept, it needs to be dif-
fused to those with the know-how to exploit it. For
example, on hearing the initial idea for Google
Desktop, Mayer used her knowledge of the internal
network to bring it to the attention of Steve Law-
rence, a skilled programmer with expertise in
information retrieval. Once Lawrence bought into
the idea, a team was assembled to work with him to
develop what ultimately turned out to be one of
Google’s most successful products.
Idea connectors like Mayer have a natural flair
for getting to know others. While they may have
WHO SHINES WHEN
Ideas from inside and outside the company progress through four
stages until a small number of ideas are ultimately exploited in an
innovative way. Scouts are more critical in the earlier phases by
identifying a range of promising ideas, but the emphasis shifts to the
connector in the later phases. Using their knowledge of the internal
network, connectors champion the most promising ideas to those
who are best equipped to convert them into innovative outcomes.
Connector
Scout
External
Ideas
Internal
Ideas
Other
Network
Members
Innovative
Outcome
Ideation Selection Diffusion Exploitation

44 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW FALL 2011 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
INNOVATION
been hired initially for their expertise in a particular
field, over the years they have evolved into general-
ists whose knowledge and interests embrace
multiple areas. Indeed, connectors’ continuous in-
teractions with others contribute to their growing
knowledge base, making them even more influen-
tial in the innovation process. Thus, connectors
need the opportunity and resources to network;
involving these individuals in multiple projects
throughout the company enables them to build
their set of contacts faster and to become more ef-
fective dissemination hubs. Job rotation also enables
emerging connectors to be exposed to different
organizational functions as well as to the business
roles, processes and cultures associated with them.
ONA can also be of help to idea connectors by
allowing them to grasp if there are parts of the inter-
nal network to which their ties do not extend.
Knowing of such omissions, they can take the neces-
sary steps to remedy them. And because ONA
graphs may be similarly useful to others in the orga-
nization, they can be made intramurally public. In
one company we studied, management informed all
of the knowledge workers in its marketing and new-
product development divisions that ONA graphs
would be used for the sole purpose of helping them
build awareness and identify key decision makers
and subject-matter experts in both divisions. Work-
ers we talked to said they were initially apprehensive
about their names being displayed publicly, but
many found that the ability to recognize the innova-
tion brokers in the network (both in terms of
expertise and number of connections) had helped
them to recognize and implement ideas.
ONA surveys are now performed regularly at
the company as a periodic assessment. In addition,
social media collaboration platforms are increas-
ingly providing the ability to view the social graph
of any given group. For example, users identify who
they are “following” in the organization, and a map
is created and displayed in real time. Again, this
gives users the ability to discover others in the orga-
nization who potentially have influence in creating
and implementing ideas.
Invest in Innovation Brokers
Leaders need to recognize that there is far more to
open innovation than importing new ideas and
technologies into the organization. Promising ideas
will not mature into innovative outcomes unless
they reach the parts of the employee network that
have the expertise and influence to exploit them.
While advances in Web-based communication tech-
nologies have altered how external knowledge is
sourced and distributed, the role of the innovation
broker remains as critical as ever. When manage-
ment invests in the idea scout and the idea connector,
and in the relationships between them, it will be well
on its way to achieving open innovation success.
Eoin Whelan is a lecturer in information manage-
ment at the Kemmy Business School of the Uni-
versity of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland. Salvatore
Parise is an associate professor of information
systems at Babson College in Waltham, Massachu-
setts. Jasper de Valk is a consultant at VODW in
Leusden, the Netherlands. Rick Aalbers is a man-
ager at Deloitte Consulting in Amstelveen and
a researcher at the University of Groningen in
Groningen, the Netherlands. Comment on this
article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/53108, or
contact the authors at smrfeedback@mit.edu.
REFERENCES
1. E. Whelan, R. Teigland, B. Donnellan and W. Golden,
“How Internet Technologies Impact Information Flows in
R&D: Reconsidering the Technological Gatekeeper,” R&D
Management 40, no. 4 (September 2010): 400-413.
2. An overview of the critical role of central connectors is
provided in S. Parise, R. Cross and T.H. Davenport, “Strat-
egies for Preventing a Knowledge-Loss Crisis,” MIT Sloan
Management Review 47, no. 4 (summer 2006): 31-38.
3. T.J. Allen, “Managing the Flow of Technology: Technol-
ogy Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological
Information Within the R&D Organization” (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1977).
4. H.W. Chesbrough, “Open Innovation: The New Imper-
ative for Creating and Profiting From Technology”
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press,
2003).
5. A.B. Hargadon, “How Breakthroughs Happen: The Sur-
prising Truth About How Companies Innovate” (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press, 2003).
6. P.H. Gray, S. Parise and B. Iyer, “Innovation Impacts
of Using Social Bookmarking Systems,” MIS Quarterly
35, no. 3 (September 2011): 629-643.
7. For a profile of Marissa Mayer and an assessment of
her role at Google, see “Managing Google’s Idea Fac-
tory,” BusinessWeek, Oct. 3, 2005.
Reprint 53108.
Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011.
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