The Spring 2013 Berkeley Innovation Forum (BIF) was held on April 23 – 25, 2013, and hosted by Lockheed Martin Innovation Center in Suffolk, Virginia. A special “Thanks” to our hosts at Lockheed, who provided both amazing facilities and interesting innovation content.
The first day of the two-day conference began with a welcome address by Professor Henry Chesbrough. Dr. John Evans, Vice President of Corporate Engineering and Technology at Lockheed Martin, introduced “The Open Innovation Process at Lockheed Martin”. Professor Chesbrough followed with “Open Innovation Adoption Practices”, an in-depth analysis based on a survey of established firms in US and Europe conducted by Fraunhofer Institute in Germany under the direction of Professor Chesbrough. Members then gathered together in small groups to discuss their existing challenges. A special tour of Lockheed Martin’s State-of-the-Art Flight Simulators and Technologies provided insight into current and future innovation.
Henry Chesbrough Speaking at Spring Forum
The BIF members from various industries discussed the best practices, current challenges, and lessons learned from deployment of open innovation. The day continued with a panel discussion “Trends and Challenges in Open Innovation at Lockheed Martin” led by Lockheed Martin’s Senior Management Team from three different functional areas. The team discussed the Open Innovation challenges in their respective departments. Next, Professor Solomon Darwin, Associate Director of the Program in Open Innovation, moderated a panel discussion on “Student Projects: Open Innovation & Business Models”. BIF Members shared benefits derived from student projects as well as suggestions for improvement.