INSEAD

Open Innovation That Actually Scales | Vibha Gaba, Benjamin N. Haddad, Giacomo Silvestri

The panel, featuring ENI’s Jakub Silvestri, Accenture’s Benjamin Haddad, and INSEAD professor Vibha Gaba, explored why open innovation must evolve from a peripheral experiment to a scalable, core capability for modern enterprises. They framed open innovation as the new default R&D model, emphasizing that ideas now flow across corporate borders, universities, startups, and even competitors. Key insights highlighted a persistent bottleneck: most initiatives stall when firms attempt to embed external solutions into their core operating units. A live poll confirmed that integration, governance, and performance measurement are the top challenges, while pilot‑stage drop‑outs remain a minority. The speakers described a shift toward disciplined “factory” approaches—such as Accenture’s AI refinery and ENI’s dual‑innovation model—that treat every external partnership as a production‑grade asset rather than a one‑off experiment. Notable quotes underscored this maturity. Silvestri asserted, “Innovation is open innovation; we cannot succeed without it,” while Haddad warned that earlier “open‑door parties” often led to a “death valley” where proofs of concept vanished. Their discussion illustrated how structured governance, clear metrics, and a venture‑client mindset transform fleeting collaborations into repeatable value streams. The implication for business leaders is clear: to reap the speed, risk‑sharing, and market intelligence promised by open innovation, firms must institutionalize it with robust governance, integrate outcomes into core processes, and adopt factory‑like models that turn startup ideas into scalable solutions. Those that do will accelerate product cycles and protect competitive advantage in an era of rapid AI and digital disruption.