By: Monish Mishra, Head - Service Line Markets & Strategic Engagements, UK and EU

As they say, it takes a village to raise a child. The same is true for companies trying to raise their game and win the race to innovation. With the accelerated pace of change, digital business models, and the shift to the cloud, not to mention the pandemic, the race to innovation is heating up. To win, companies need a thriving innovation ecosystem of partners to bring fresh ideas to life. COVID-19 made companies realize the importance of partners to drive innovation beyond the limitations of their legacy strengths. In the wake of the pandemic, many companies established new and innovative partnerships to expand manufacturing capacity for the necessary COVID-19 equipment, and pharma companies demonstrated the collective power for vaccine development.

But why do companies need an ecosystem to unleash innovation? Innovations are best realized when they’re created through collaboration within and outside of an enterprise. This not only harnesses the collective knowledge of people across sectors but also involves partners in solving business problems. The immense pressure to get to the market first makes it all the more important for enterprises to leverage partners to accelerate time to everything. For example, Airbus translates innovative ideas into aerospace breakthroughs more quickly than ever by working with its partners in open and agile ways.

Earlier, we discussed how to master the modern innovation ecosystem. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most effective ways for strong partnerships to help you achieve your innovation goals. Creating an innovation ecosystem is not easy, but when companies treat suppliers as partners, they naturally create an ecosystem within which innovation thrives. As a result, everybody wins: the company becomes more innovative, partners (previously suppliers) gain a valuable ally, and customers get better products and services. There can be many moving parts when building an innovation ecosystem, but with the right strategy in place, you can create a thriving partner ecosystem that drives innovation and growth for your business. What should this strategy look like? Here are three simple yet powerful steps to success:

• Focus on experience, not products. We all know as consumers that it’s the experience we pay for, and products are a means to an end. For enterprises, it’s about the outcomes, and to realize experience/outcomes, partners and the ecosystem must align to create products that ultimately provide for outcomes/experience. With this shift, partners also align their priorities and efforts to make the ecosystem succeed.
• Design your ecosystem technology strategy. As we highlighted in our earlier post, hybrid clouds can provide a strong foundation for innovation — a technology platform must be put in place to allow companies to orchestrate relationships between multiple partners, enabling all parties to co-invent, sell, and monetize joint offerings seamlessly.
• Explore innovative partnership models. Companies must change their mindsets to explore unique partnership models to reinvent their business models. For example, Ford Motors, Walmart, and Argo AI (a self-driving technology startup) partnered to launch an autonomous vehicle delivery service at scale across urban markets in the US. This collaboration draws on the existing strengths and capabilities of each entity. In another interesting example, Volvo uses the ‘Plug and Play’ platform to identify what is next on the horizon for supply chain and logistics and uses digital technologies for sustainable growth. The platform has grown to over 40 partners worldwide.

So, the next time you experience an innovative new product, service, or idea, take a moment to think about all the partnerships that made it possible. The bottom line is that the success of your innovation ecosystem rests on finding the right mix of partners. Ultimately, partnerships are a key piece of the puzzle in fostering innovation. Without them, it will be much harder, if not impossible, for companies to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing world.