Sanoj is a visionary leader in technology development for SKF ISEA, aligning the group’s global technological perspective with SKF India’s strategic initiatives. As the CTO of SKF India, he crafts the technological roadmap for ISEA.

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, maintaining industrial leadership demands a shift from traditional innovation approaches. Open innovation, a concept emphasizing collaboration, knowledge sharing, and co-creation, has emerged as a crucial strategy. Engaging with startups and leveraging open innovation frameworks can drive technological advancements and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Open innovation involves integrating external ideas, resources, and expertise into the innovation process. Unlike traditional closed models, it encourages collaboration with external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, universities, startups, and even competitors. This approach can be implemented through various methods, including crowdsourcing, strategic partnerships, and creating innovative communities, or by becoming part of an innovation ecosystem.

Corporations are increasingly adopting open innovation models to accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and access new markets. In India, the open innovation ecosystem boasts over 500 collaborative programs led by academia, investors, corporates, and the government. By tapping into a broad range of external ideas and perspectives, organizations can enhance creativity, efficiency, and the likelihood of achieving breakthrough innovations. This approach also helps reduce the time and costs associated with internal research and development by leveraging external knowledge and capabilities.

Recent studies highlight the positive relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage. It also emphasizes importance of moderating factors such as the type of open innovation activity, industry context, and the firm's absorptive capacity. Organizations must strategically assess and manage these elements to maximize the benefits of their open innovation initiatives.

Corporate-Startup Collaboration: A Strategic Alliance
Corporate-startup collaboration represents a strategic alliance between established corporations and dynamic startups. This symbiotic relationship involves a mutual exchange of resources, expertise, assets, and capabilities aimed at achieving common business objectives such as expansion and exploring new revenue streams.

Startups offer corporations access to cutting-edge technologies, innovative business models, and fresh concepts. In return, corporations provide startups with the necessary funding and resources to accelerate their growth trajectory. This partnership creates a synergistic blend, enabling each entity to pursue its growth aspirations with heightened agility and reduced risk compared to operating independently. Leveraging the external startup ecosystem empowers corporations to future-proof their operations, broaden revenue streams, and maintain a competitive edge in today's volatile marketplace. Each collaborative venture serves as a testing ground, validating new technologies, models, products, and services within controlled environments.

SKF India has taken a significant step in promoting

innovation and sustainability by launching the Open Innovation Initiative in 2023. In 2024, this initiative is gaining momentum with a defined Innovation Platform, which will facilitate collaboration among startups, academia, and industry experts to devise solutions for the industrial and automotive sectors across India and Southeast Asia.

Both partners are driven to collaborate by the potential value derived from commercializing innovation. When startups consider partnerships with corporations, they face a choice: align with those focused on value creation, which prioritize technology and R&D, or those centered on value appropriation, emphasizing marketing and advertising.

Navigating the Performing Paradox: Collaboration vs. Competition
The cooperation versus competition paradox involves the diverse goals and outcomes resulting from various internal and external pressures a company encounters, or tensions arising from stakeholders interpreting organizational outcomes differently. This paradox revolves around the concept of value, its disclosure, and considerations of technological proximity.

Both partners are motivated to collaborate due to the potential value of commercializing innovation. When startups consider collaborating with corporations, they face a choice between partnering with value creation-focused corporations, which prioritize technology and R&D, or those focused on value appropriation, which prioritize marketing and advertising. However, startups may hesitate to enter an equity partnership, particularly if there is limited information about the corporation's intentions, even if it offers substantial technological expertise. This strategic decision could potentially undermine the collaboration from the outset, leading to competing tensions related to performance.