BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud, Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. 500 project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already moved to the company's conventional R&D funnel. 34 had been short-listed for further consideration. At least 10, if not more of these projects would receive "landmark" funding running at an average of 1 million Euro each. Beyond selecting the right projects, how could the CEO and CTO ensure that a complex organization such as BASF would encourage such fresh ideas to be developed and nurtured in the future? Was this experiment something that BASF should do again in the future?

Learning Objective

To discuss the rationale for firms to participate in open innovation with internal and external networks. Investigate the impact of a traditional firm going open.

Details

Pub Date: Dec 13, 2016(Revised: Apr 25, 2017)

Discipline: General Management

Subjects: Collaborative innovation, Environmental sustainability, General management, Innovation, Inventions, Knowledge transfer, Strategic innovations, Sustainability

Source: Harvard Business School

Product #: 517073-PDF-ENG

Teaching note: Available

Supplementary case (B): 517074-PDF-ENG

Industry: Chemicals, Retail trade

Geography: Europe

Length: 22 page(s)

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (B)

V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud, Vincent Dessain