The future winners of the innovation wars are those companies that get their innovation communities and ecosystems to work at the best.
GE Global Research provides us with an interesting take on this with their recently launched Ultrasound Innovation Circle.
In a press release, Michael Idelchik, Vice President of Advanced Technology Programs at GE Global Research, said, “To spur innovation in health, traditional players must act in non-traditional ways, especially by working together in new ways to improve outcomes. Innovation doesn’t live within borders; it can’t be controlled and confined. We need to be more open in how we collaborate. In Ultrasound, we see dozens of promising applications under development by independent researchers. Through the Ultrasound Innovation Circle, we are seeking to connect with this community and collaborate with them to enhance development of these technologies.”
This new open collaboration platform gives independent researchers access to GE technology and expertise to integrate, test and validate their ideas. This may involve:
• Resources to accelerate the development of new research protocols;
• GE scientific expertise in ultrasound tools to support evolving research programs; and
• Access to GE technical resources, including collaboration with GE for equipment, data analysis and other tools to facilitate the research.
I like how the Ultrasound Innovation Cirlce resembles the SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) in which SAP has teamed up with official sponsors such as Intel, Cisco and VWware. The idea behind COIL is to provide SAP’s partners with access to world-wide expertise, and best-in-class technologies and platforms and thus enable all involved to connect the innovation of today with the future.
We are going to see many more of such initiatives in the future, but let me know if you can share similar cases already now.
