For the launch of the LOIC (Luxembourg Open Innovation Club), on 16th of June 2016, we have interviewed Martin Guérin, CEO at nyuko, who created the club in collaboration with the actors of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. He told us more about the present and the future of the LOIC.
What is open innovation?
Open innovation means opening up both internal and external innovation processes that used to be very confidential and closed. Research and development, as well as access to the market, can be shared between several entities, thus enabling them to take advantage of the specific expertise of each member to benefit the group. Together we’re much stronger and we can do things we couldn't do before. This implies more communication internally between departments and externally with partners to increase complementary and creativity.
Open Innovation is linked to the concepts of know-how trading, mass innovation, distributed innovation, user innovation and cumulative innovation.
The LOIC is a facilitator of exchanges which enables companies to find the right partners...
What is the club’s value in this process?
It’s a network of professionals and opportunities. The LOIC is a facilitator of exchanges which enables companies to find the right partners and to share the best methods and practices. Sometimes it’s difficult to identify the people within companies who want to be part of the open innovation process. This is why our mission is to seek out relevant and willing players in order to make the projects viable. The club identifies the right contacts to join this open innovation process and provides a structured working environment.
The club’s secondary objective is to structure the exchange of ideas, for example ‘How to co-finance a POC (Proof of Concept) or an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)’, ‘How can we continue to evangelise internally and ensure that the teams develop?’ The club aims to exchange ideas about these subjects because sharing good practice enables members to become more competitive without endangering their manufacturing secrets.
We provide the members of the club with the right models and the right technologies so that they don’t have to do this work internally, which saves them a considerable amount of time and money.
What are the club’s main activities?
The club performs a search for startups beyond the members already involved. A selection is required before we connect the different players in the ecosystem at dedicated events.
Which companies are concerned?
All companies for which innovation is important and which have the ability to collaborate with startups. We already have several members like Baloise, Siemens, ING, Arcelor Mittal, etc.
Is there a limited number of members for the club?
At the moment no, and this is because its members share a desire for openness, as much as Luxembourg allows. A future for the LOIC within the Greater Region is also feasible.
We go faster alone but we go further together!
Why are the players in the ecosystem involved?
We built the LOIC in collaboration with Luxinnovation, Lux Future Lab and the Technoport. They got involved in order to make the process more coherent and to build the club on the basis of a solid network: ‘We go faster alone but we go further together!’ So members of the club only have to knock on one door to access all the services and the network that the ecosystem offers. It’s a general offer, but it can be intelligently supplemented by other more advanced and more specific offers that could be provided by other players in the ecosystem.
EDIT : the LOIC has evolved since then! Check out the website here.
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