Leveraging Outside-In and Inside-Out Innovation for Breakthrough Results
Innovation is usually pictured as a lone genius inventing brilliant ideas in total isolation. But some of the biggest gains happen when organizations open up—bringing in what others have already figured out or letting unused inventions benefit someone new. When a consumer goods giant realized its product teams couldn’t cover every field, it began scouting for external startups and inventors. Some of the most popular items on shelves today are co-developed with these partners, not dreamed up in a conference room.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies found that patenting drugs for rare diseases often left innovations unused. By pooling unused patents and inviting researchers worldwide to work on them, new treatments emerged. Sometimes, sharing value in or out brings breakthroughs not possible solo.
Open innovation frameworks, built on behavioral economics and information theory, show that networks out-innovate isolated efforts. By leveraging outside-in and inside-out flows, organizations increase productivity, discover new revenue, and solve complex challenges faster than by hoarding IP behind closed doors.
Take time to scout the world outside your bubble for ideas or technologies you can bring in to multiply your impact—think research partnerships, open calls, or licensing. Review your own assets for underused insights, patents, or data that might help others and create value in return. Establish clear pathways or agreements for both borrowing and sharing, always ensuring you align with your goals and safeguard what must remain unique. Experiment with this dual approach in your next project and watch for new collaborations or streams of value.
What You'll Achieve
Boost creativity, leverage unused assets, and discover unexpected breakthroughs by integrating external and internal innovation flows strategically.
Integrate External Ideas and Share Unused Assets
Review external sources for fresh ideas or solutions.
Actively seek technology, practices, or IP from outside your organization—through partnerships, licensing, or open calls—to supplement internal R&D.
Identify your own unused innovations or data.
Audit your patents, processes, or creative work for assets that could benefit others if shared or licensed.
Build pathways for sharing both ways.
Set up processes, agreements, or platforms that allow for both “outside-in” innovation adoption and “inside-out” monetization or partnering.
Balance sharing with protection and strategic goals.
Clarify which assets should remain proprietary and which can be leveraged through open, collaborative, or external channels.
Reflection Questions
- Where are you overly dependent on internal resources or ideas?
- What outside resources or partnerships could speed up your progress?
- Which of your unused innovations might become valuable to others?
- How will you balance sharing and protection to align with your mission?
Personalization Tips
- A school district licenses popular digital resources created by its teachers to other schools, earning new revenue.
- A tech company partners with a university to combine their R&D, resulting in a product neither could have created alone.
- A family business shares an unused property for community events, exchanging exposure for goodwill and new leads.
Business Model Generation
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