Open Innovation a Driver in Business Growth

The Upstate Business Journal reported that South Carolina company Techtronics Industries (TTI)’s success paints a detailed picture of open innovation’s benefits. The company developed ION (Innovation Outreach Network), an open innovation program targeting three primary audiences: TTI employees, universities, and inventors or other companies with applicable ideas or technology. “We want to know where the pain is and what problems we can solve for our customers, so it helps to cast a wide net,” said TTI Vice President Porter Whitmire. Encouraging outside voices to chime in on TTI’s creative process was a “leap,” Whitmire said, but “it boils down to being flexible and exploring alternative avenues for new business. Putting more ideas into our funnel can only be a good thing.”

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