How to make co-innovation work for your business
May 24, 2022
By Athina Kanioura, PepsiCo
Like innovation before it, co-innovation is quickly becoming both corporate buzzword and gospel. By partnering with tech companies to harness the power of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and big data, co-innovation has been heralded as essential to future success – especially for businesses that exist outside of the digital realm.
But before companies rush to embrace this growing trend in corporate America, they would be well served to keep a few key principles in mind when it comes to co-innovation, lest they fall prey to shiny, new capabilities that look great on paper but can’t be implemented or scaled in reality.
As the chief strategy and transformation officer at PepsiCo, I oversee our digitalization strategy so I recognize the power of new technologies – we’re already using machine learning and data analytics to improve existing systems, processes and products. But I also recognize the limits of “one size fits all” solutions and the need to co-innovate with external partners. However, co-innovation has its limits, too, and its success depends on creating a specific set of conditions.