Arguably, the principle of open innovation was first utilized by Professor James Murray in 19th century Oxford, England. Since then, the concept has become far easier to implement thanks to advances in innovation management technology. Many leading organizations now use an open innovation tool to capture ideas, collaborate with external stakeholders, and bring solutions to market faster, although some companies still underuse its full potential.
Today, businesses rely on open innovation tools to help them:
- Gather ideas from customers, partners, and external experts.
- Evaluate opportunities faster through structured workflows and data.
- Turn promising concepts into measurable business results.
In this article, we will explore open innovation case studies and what they can teach us about generating, evaluating, and implementing ideas efficiently with the right open innovation tool.
Open Innovation Case Studies – A History
While the term ‘open innovation‘ was coined in 2003, in a book of the same name by Henry Chesbrough, its conceptual origins are more difficult to trace. People have technically ‘crowd-sourced’ information for thousands of years, however when Professor Murray requested that volunteers submit words for a dictionary that he was compiling 150 years ago, he was potentially the first person to use this concept commercially.
Murray received millions of submissions, and it took over 50 years for him to compile them, but the resulting Oxford English Dictionary is arguably the first product that utilized the collective intelligence of external stakeholders. (Mugglestone, 2005) Now if this task were to be attempted using a contemporary Idea Management platform, it could be completed in days rather than decades.
The Innovation Gamble
Open Innovation was defined by Chesbrough (2006) as “the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively.” Today, open innovation tools have evolved far beyond idea collection, allowing external contributors to support every stage of the product delivery chain. This ongoing collaboration helps organizations align final products more closely with market needs.
Who Contributes Through an Open Innovation Tool?
Modern organizations often use an open innovation tool to engage:
- Customers and user communities.
- Startup partners.
- Suppliers and strategic vendors.
- Academic and research institutions.
- Industry experts and specialist networks.
It can be argued that innovation is essential to growth and long-term competitiveness. However, innovation can also create setbacks when products or services are launched without enough communication with the people they are designed to serve. When customer needs are misunderstood, the desired results are less likely to be achieved.
Innovation is not automatically positive, but it is inherently risky because it involves change. If an organization is already successful, change can create as much downside as upside. That risk is often worth taking, but stronger communication with external stakeholders reduces uncertainty. A well-managed open innovation tool helps organizations make smarter decisions through better insight, faster validation, and stronger market alignment.
Open Innovation Tools: Lego
Lego, the Danish producer of construction toys, is an organization that understands the value of open innovation challenges. In the 1990s, the company came close to bankruptcy due to the rise of digital entertainment such as video games. To recover, Lego needed new ways to excite customers and remain commercially relevant.
While Lego products have always encouraged creativity, the Lego Mindstorms series launched in 1998 took this further by adding electronic functionality to constructions. This helped the company reach a more mature audience, many of whom began adapting and expanding the products in unforeseen ways. What first appeared to be a challenge soon became a valuable source of insight.
Lego’s response delivered several important advantages:
- Access to real customer creativity and experimentation.
- Stronger engagement with a new audience segment.
- Fresh ideas for future product development.
Initially, Lego considered preventative measures. Instead, the company recognized the value of customer creativity and began incorporating community-generated ideas into future releases. By harnessing collective intelligence, Lego was able to strengthen customer loyalty and rebuild its innovation momentum.
How Lego Turned Community Ideas Into an Open Innovation Tool
Lego continued to build on this model through Lego Ideas, an open innovation tool that allows users to submit proposals for new construction sets. Community members vote on submissions, and successful concepts move to expert review before potential commercial launch. This creates a structured path from customer idea to market-ready product.
The platform helps Lego achieve several strategic benefits:
- Capture product ideas directly from passionate customers.
- Validate demand before committing development resources.
- Build stronger engagement through community participation.
Successful sets have included concepts linked to popular franchises such as Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Big Bang Theory. This demonstrates how an open innovation tool can connect brand enthusiasm with measurable commercial outcomes.
Lego has applied this principle with consistent success, helping maintain its strong market position over time. As long as the company continues to involve customers in its innovation process, it is likely to remain relevant and resilient for many years to come.
Bagels – Innovo Damnosa
In the first quarter of 2013, the largest supplier of bagels in Europe began selling its bestselling original bagels pre-sliced for convenience. At first, this appeared to be a simple product improvement that could appeal to busy consumers and families.
However, problems emerged once the product reached the market. Many customers felt the mechanized slicing process affected freshness and quality, while others preferred to slice the bagels themselves. As complaints increased, the company reverted to selling the product uncut.
At the same time, many customers had grown accustomed to the convenience of the pre-sliced option. Parents in particular valued the fact that children did not need to use a knife to prepare one. Customer feedback quickly appeared across digital channels, with many people calling for the return of the sliced version.
What may seem like a minor product decision became a wider brand and customer experience issue. The company disappointed two separate customer groups, while the reversal created frustration and negative sentiment. Much of the damage came not from the product itself, but from limited stakeholder communication before and after launch.
If the business had engaged customers earlier, it may have discovered demand for both sliced and unsliced products from the start. This is where an open innovation tool can make a measurable difference by gathering market insight before rollout, reducing trial-and-error decisions, and helping companies launch changes with greater confidence.
Collective Intelligence Solutions
Managing public relations and marketing can be challenging, and sometimes a seemingly minor issue can quickly grow into a major business concern. There is no foolproof way to predict the consequences of every commercial decision. However, when organizations gather the collective intelligence of external stakeholders, the resulting data can help create a far more accurate path forward. This can be achieved through several routes in the modern idea management landscape, from forecasting to the use of an open innovation tool.
Some organizations make the mistake of believing that a social media account is the only community channel they need. In practice, a more structured open innovation tool is often required to build a truly valuable relationship with customers, partners, and wider stakeholder groups. Qmarkets helps organizations manage this process through dedicated innovation software that captures feedback, evaluates ideas, and turns external insight into measurable business outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- Customer insight is strongest when captured through structured systems, not scattered channels.
- An open innovation tool helps reduce risk before products or changes reach the market.
- Data-driven evaluation improves decision-making and speeds execution.
Q-ideate, the Qmarkets idea management platform, helps companies collect ideas from employees, customers, and external communities in one secure environment. This gives organizations stronger visibility into demand, trends, and opportunities while enabling fair evaluation and transparent prioritization. In competitive markets, insight like this can be a significant strategic advantage.
These open innovation case studies show how important it is for organizations to involve customers in the innovation process. Stakeholders now have a stronger voice, higher expectations, and more influence than ever before. Companies that embrace this shift and use the right open innovation tool will be better positioned to adapt, grow, and outperform slower competitors.
Open Innovation Tools: Common Questions Answered
How do companies measure success from external idea programs?
Success should be measured through outcomes, not submission volume alone. Useful metrics include ideas implemented, revenue generated, cost savings, time to market, engagement rates, and conversion from concept to launch. Tracking both financial and participation indicators gives a clearer view of long-term program value overall.
Which teams should be involved when managing external innovation?
Strong programs usually involve innovation, product, marketing, procurement, legal, and IT teams. Business units should define priorities, while governance teams manage risk and compliance. Cross-functional ownership helps organizations evaluate opportunities faster and move strong ideas into pilots or implementation without unnecessary internal delays later.
How can businesses attract better quality submissions?
Clear problem statements, relevant incentives, simple submission processes, and visible follow-up all improve participation quality. Contributors are more likely to engage when they understand the challenge and trust the process. Sharing examples of successful outcomes also encourages stronger ideas from qualified participants over time.
What risks should companies manage in collaboration platforms?
Common risks include unclear intellectual property ownership, poor data governance, low participation, weak evaluation processes, and slow decision-making. These issues can damage trust and reduce results. Strong rules, transparent communication, and defined workflows help organizations scale collaboration programs more effectively and with greater confidence.
Can smaller businesses benefit from innovation platforms too?
Yes. Smaller businesses often benefit through faster access to customer insight, specialist expertise, and new opportunities without building large internal teams. Well-run platforms help smaller firms compete more effectively by prioritizing the best ideas, reducing wasted effort, and focusing limited resources where impact is highest.
Find out more about the benefits an open innovation tool can bring to your organization by visiting our product pages.
This article was originally published in 2016 and updated in 2024. It was first posted on innovationmanagement.se.
