Press Release: The Father of Open Innovation Outlines New Route to Prosperity in Services Era

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The latest book from award-winning author Professor Henry Chesbrough is here – an essential investigation into how open innovation models can transform product- and technology-based companies into more customer-focused, differentiated and sustainable service and solution businesses.

In “Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era” (Jossey-Bass, January 2011), Prof. Chesbrough asserts that globalization and commoditization make companies unable to sustain themselves on product innovation alone. Instead, the new route to prosperity lies in open services innovation. His book describes how openness – with its ability to deliver improved choices for customers and better economics for corporations – is the path that can turn commodity companies into trailblazers, enabling them to compete effectively both in the United States and around the world.

Through an examination of best practices of large and small companies from an array of industries and geographies, Prof. Chesbrough maps out a strategic approach for combining open innovation with a services approach to business. “Open Services Innovation” contains critical steps for any individual, business unit, company or industry to make the critical shift from product- to service-centric thinking and from closed to open innovation. Prof. Chesbrough presents an effective and powerful way to grow and compete in our increasingly services-based economy by creating sustainable business models that drive continuous value creation for customers and achieve renewed growth and profits for companies.

Prof. Chesbrough is an adjunct professor and Executive Director of the Center for Open Innovation at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Wikipedia credits Chesbrough for originating the open innovation concept. “Open Services Innovation” is the latest installment documenting his research in open innovation, including his seminal work, “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology” (Harvard Business Press, 2003),” which transformed how people think about innovation strategy and restructured the world of R&D, and his subsequent work, “Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape” (Harvard Business Press, 2006), which connected open R&D to open intellectual property and business models.

Prof. Chesbrough recently launched and actively contributes to www.openinnovation.net, a portal where innovators meet for the latest news, research, discussions and applications of open innovation. Follow him on Twitter at @openinno.