Fort Knox

Why we need a democratization of innovation

Increasing competitive pressure due to globalization, shorter product life cycles and the resulting higher pressure to innovate contribute significantly to the need to optimize and open up the innovation process. Many players simply lack the necessary financial resources for groundbreaking new developments, but also the internal expertise. For the purpose of risk minimization, the need to join forces with partners, suppliers or even other providers develops almost automatically.

This trend toward coopetition, i.e., cooperation between competitors, is by no means selfless, but is due to the clear realization that market share can only be achieved and maintained in the long term if companies break new ground. This saves high investments in technologies that are not part of the actual core business and ensures that software developers, who are in high demand anyway, can focus their work on what makes the difference in competition with customers. However, the platform economy is not only more economical, but also more ecologically sound. In times of rising pollution, raw material scarcity and regulatory pressure, cross-company collaboration can save valuable resources. It is thus the key to greater sustainability.

The fact is, the so-called innovation threshold is very high. Whether you call it open innovation, platform economy or information economy - the idea behind it is always the same: Why reinvent the wheel every time when someone else with probably more know-how has already done it? Digital ecosystems and platforms, which are also the basic idea behind open source, are the basis for innovation today. Instead of spending a lot of money and resources on the completely new development of products and solutions, companies can fall back on existing technologies and "refine" them with their own ideas. Especially in times of crisis, when budgets for new projects are held back, the platform idea significantly lowers the innovation threshold for companies. And we urgently need this democratization.