Twentieth-century thinking and practices may be holding back the effective use of open innovation, Professor Terri Griffith told the CIMS Fall 2015 Meeting. “This is a problem given that more open practices are at the heart of growth in the 21st century,” said Griffith, who is professor of management and associate dean at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

“Organizations will struggle to keep pace with the changing needs of their customers and clients if they don’t find ways to let go of practices that hamper the flow of knowledge needed to fuel innovation,” she added. Here’s her argument:

The idea of open innovation is very 21st century in that there is a definitional acknowledgment that innovations flow in and out of formal organizational boundaries.