New services arise

Over the last decade, I have seen the birth and growth of a completely new industry sector that hardly existed before. A new service firm that takes (partly) over the responsibility from their client for the organisation of their eco-system and their innovation process. Traditionally there are consultants who will tell you what you should do, what choices to make and how to adapt your strategy. Sometimes this was followed by an interim-manager who would execute this new strategy, mostly in times of crises. The new type of service firm not only suggests new strategies, it also partners in the implementation of the new strategy by taking over share and part in the design and execution of the innovation strategy. Sometimes this include conducting applied research together, developing prototypes and doing the market-introduction together. In other cases it is limited to the finding, selecting and linking to new global partners to include in the new innovation eco-system. This last service is not the generic match-making services as run by many private and public bodies but includes a very specific in-depth knowledge of a typical sector/technology to be able to find and link to partners that can offer true value added.

Both of these services existed only very limited before and probably only available and affordable for large firms. Nowadays with new innovative methods for sharing costs and profits these new services are available for all companies. It will be interesting to see where this development will go in the future...