Open Innovation is no longer a “cool” novelty.

It has become the mainstream way companies innovate and therefore sustain growth and drive value creation.

In a nutshell, this means that a corporation’s ability to innovate no longer resides solely within internal R&D. It increasingly depends on integrating contributions from external players – primarily startups and scaleups.

If Open Innovation is now mainstream, then a new profession is emerging.

A role at the crossroads of internal and external, industry and startup ecosystems, corporate finance and venture capital.

The real question is:

• Who are the professionals doing this job?
• What skills do they need?
• What backgrounds do they come from?
• What prior experience makes them effective?
• And how is their performance measured?

To better understand the Open Innovation profession and its evolving role, over the past year we at Mind the Bridge surveyed hundreds of professionals from leading global corporations.

The result is a comprehensive profile of the Open Innovation Executive — covering educational background, career trajectory, key competencies, and evolving responsibilities.