Especially when you’re a startup, there’s nothing more exciting than getting your first product out on the market. But it’s easy to get stuck, focusing all your efforts on selling your first product rather than thinking of what else you could provide for your customers. It can be scary to invest time and resources into creating a new product, especially taking into account that startups have a limited budgets. Yet, by investing your resources and the resources of the third parties into creating something new, that you know will bring value to your community. This move may help you increase your profits and create buzz around you.

Sometimes, you don’t need to create new products. Sometimes, your older service has the potential to be better, has the potential to attract a lot of clients. This is when you need to get a creative team together to improve your idea. One of the benefits of open innovation is that the process never ends. You’re always thinking about how you can make your organization better.

Lego is a great example of how a company can engage their fans on a wide scale by using open innovation. No matter the size of your organization, a great benefit of open innovation is taking the time to get in touch with your fans and your soulmates, news talents. Get to know what your community wants, and then give it to them. In the process, you will find that enthusiastic community members are willing to dedicate their time and ideas to help you create something better. These relationships are key and will help your company build a strong community dedicated to your project.

One of the main sources of employee dissatisfaction is a lack of feeling of ownership of the projects they work on. Sometimes, your team may have some great ideas but might not feel comfortable bringing them forward. By bringing an open innovation initiative to your workplace, your team can get involved in big picture planning, make it their project. When people feel more invested in the bigger goals of the organization, it makes them more excited to come to work in the morning and put their heart and their soul into it.

By keeping your team and your community engaged and on the lookout for new ideas, you make sure that your organisation stays helpful and relevant to your community. Using open innovation can help you find your niche that makes your organisation uniquely valuable to the community.

When you work with other companies, you split the costs. Moreover, you become more efficient because each company, each member works on what he is good at.

Instead of figuring out how to make the desired product, train your people, buy equipment, etc, you just start a collaboration with a company that already has all this, that allows you to bring the product to market faster.

Did you know that some businesses get more revenue from secondary products rather than from the primary ones? Working with other companies will allow you to enter a new market with an idea and product you have.

Any innovation has risks, but if you work with experts you minimize your risk of failure, especially if you agile and get feedback from your target on a regular basis.