Where is the place to go to if you want to be on the forefront of open innovation in Asia? Well, that place does not exist. OK, but what are the top 5 countries to look out for if you are interested in open innovation in Asia?
This is a tough call as there is not that much open innovation activity in Asia. However, here you get my picks based on my insights and interactions in this region. It is a quick-and-dirty list, but let’s use it as a discussion starter on open innovation activities in Asia.
My top 5 open innovation countries in Asia:
1. Malaysia: This is a controversial choice as Malaysia is not known for open innovation activities at all. However, I think the country has the potential to become the open innovation hub in Asia. Imagine a place where the best conferences happen, universities that encourage research on open innovation practices, service providers that choose Malaysia as their Asian HQ, small companies that huddle up in clusters while they innovate together with larger companies in Malaysia and globally.
This can happen in 2015 if the Malaysian government – and more importantly Malaysian companies – decide to make this a priority. Why? Malaysia has an increasingly high number of knowledge workers, the English fluency is high, the infrastructure – logistics as well as IT – is well-developed, there seems to be a good balanced understanding of Western and Asian business practices and it is simply put a nice place to mix business and pleasure.
2. South Korea: This is the place with the most open innovation activity in my opinion. LG in particular is active and you also have a leading service provider in KnowledgeWorks that works hard to promote open innovation in South Korea. However, there has been little progress over the last couple of years even though many South Korean companies are global market leaders. I expect to see more open innovation activity in the near future.
3. Singapore: Even though open innovation is different/difficult in some of the key industries in Singapore such as biotech and services, their relentless focus on innovation in general will help them become a leading country on open innovation. No wonder why one of the top innovation guru’s of our time – in my humble opinion – Scott D. Anthony of Innosight decided to relocate to Singapore a few years back.
4. China: You cannot get around China even though especially Chinese-based companies still seem to be in the process of developing an international innovation mindset. However, the large quantity of multi-nationals with strong R&D and innovation efforts in the country continue to infuse insights on innovation management and I expect this will result in more open innovation activity in the coming years. This will happen despite hindrances in the Chinese culture and the approach to intellectual property in China.
5. Japan: I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting Japan, but I hear mixed things when it comes to open innovation. Yes, this is a big economy with lots of R&D and innovation. But is it an open economy that embraces open innovation? It does not seem like that. Processes need to be adapted to Japanese customs which signals that it will be difficult to reap global benefits of open innovation.
Hey, I put my head out on this. What do you think? What countries do you see as open innovation leaders in Asia?
