Innovative organisations

The Work Foundation is launching a major new initiative in 2012 to examine the effectiveness of innovation ecosystems in organisations.

One of its key areas of focus is how the UK develops a strategy for open innovation - the sourcing and involvement of external organisations and stakeholders in the innovation process. If open innovation is changing the way organisations reinvent themselves, it is also radically changing how organisations manage and lead themselves – and therefore what they require from their workforce in order to build robust innovation ecosystems in their organisations. So, at the heart of the shift to open innovation are new and innovative ways of managing people and talent.

Drawing on decades of experience supporting organisations to develop robust, resilient and innovative systems, The Work Foundation is creating a new programme that will map the implications of open innovation for people and workforces.

The research will build on the groundbreaking work of The Work Foundation’s major new centre, the Big Innovation Centre, which is developing the national-level policy priorities required to boost the UK’s innovation ecosystem.

It will provide evidence-based insight into two key questions:

• How is the shift to open innovation affecting organisations’ ability to manage people effectively?
• What strategies do organisations need to adopt to manage people successfully in an open innovation era?