On one of my recent trips abroad, I was walking back to my hotel when I had a moment of reckoning. In a sensory overload, a smorgasbord of imagery, I noticed the mosaic of globalization in one scene. Here I was in one of the Continent’s great cities, watching people walk-by with their iPod buds plugged-in, talking on Nokia mobile phones, jumping into Toyota taxicabs and emailing on their Blackberries. Puma, Burberry and Gucci sported about – welcome to the world market.

This scenario could have played itself out just about anywhere on earth. Because unless you find yourself at a historical revival show, a cultural exhibit or a themed  restaurant, gone are the good old days when one saw lederhosen in Germany, wooden clogs in Holland or kimonos in Japan. Perhaps more noticeably than any other prompt and arguably the first to mobilize and institutionalize global innovation resources, fashion could be looked at as the bellwether of the global innovation phenomenon that now affects everyday items around our orb; one simply has think of their favorite Nike item and where it was designed, made and purchased.

Now for this globalization to create best-of-breed products, innovation has to play a central role – after all, when faced with the choice of buying two products of equal merit, national pride would naturally drive the purchase decision to the brand of one’s own country first; however, if things are not equal, the better product wins regardless of origin.

This dynamic, of course, did not happen on its own and certainly didn’t germinate in the vacuum of nationalistic fervor, restrictive borders or the insular confines of corporate R&D departments – this great innovative expansion required alternate talent and different perspectives; or what I like to call innovation diversity. Our organizations have increasingly diversified their make-up, expanded into new regions and are catering to further-away markets. But the question now is: have we diversified our innovation process? To answer that question intelligibly, we need to look at our innovation bio-sphere and assess its diverse purpose, functions and participants. If we are still doing the same things but with a new group of people, are we getting the maximum mileage from our innovation fuel? Are we engaging people in new and different formats to go beyond mere conversation in order to create measurable value? Are we taking advantage of desires, affinities and availability to leverage our own innovation process?

There is always room for improvement – in the case of Open Innovation, the payoff is exponential. Season’s Greetings to all our readers – here’s wishing you all a safe and prosperous 2010 !!