User:Lesliegadman

Open Source Leadership

In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in emphasis concerning the practice of strategic innovation. Not too long ago businesses preferred “closed source adaptation,” where their efforts largely focused on doing the same things a little differently. Consequently, this emphasis on sameness and control meant that any strategic partnering was predominantly closed or internally focused. For example, Dell operated in the highly commoditized PC market where there is little to differentiate one PC from another. Its business model aimed to serve markets where standards had already been established and where innovation focused on its internal business processes. Over time, an emerging strategic inflection has occurred among a whole host of activities, both business and none business related, where people are coming together to introduce innovative products and serivces into existing and new markets. This “open source innovation” emphasizes creative experimentation as a natural and spontaneous way of working. This is quite different to closed source adaptation, with its emphasis on a more planned and controlled approach.

The accounts of open source communities and their leaders are too numerous to mention, but suffice it to say, the indomitable human spirit has so much to offer and open source leadership is the key to unlocking this vast pool of pure human potential. Whether applied to the Obama campaign or to a Grameen Bank project in Bangladesh, these stories can be added to a rapidly increasing number of community, philanthropic as well as business models which are supporting a new wave of democratization. The strategic inflection point is approaching and as governments and companies like Intel, 3M, LEGO, Google, Apple and GE follow suite, the need to balance open source innovation with closed source adaptation has never been more pressing. Open Source Leadership is at the heart of this challenge, harnessing learning and innovation through natural and spontaneous experimentation.

References

Allen, B. (2005) Tocqueville, Covenant, and the Democratic Revolution: Harmonizing Earth with Heaven, Lexington Books: Lanham, MA.

Berners-Lee, T. and Fischetti, M. (1999) Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web, HarperCollins: New York.

Gadman, L. (1996) Power Partnering: A Strategy for Business Excellence in the 21st Century, Butterworth Heinemann: Boston, MA.

Gadman, L. Cooper, C.(2009) Open Source Leadership, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Ghosn, C. (2002) “Saving the business without losing the company”, Harvard Business Review, 80(1): 37–45.