Cultural Transformation and Open Innovation: a journey of expansion

100 Open Startups
3 min readMay 19, 2022

When we think about the maintenance and expansion of Open Innovation with Startups in Brazil, several corporations raise a common pain: Cultural Transformation

The challenge of implementing cultural transformation in organizations has always been a latent issue, but due to the increasingly exponential changes, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, this issue has gained strength and an important space in companies’ strategy.

As already demonstrated by numerous studies from 100 Open Startups , in recent years we have gone through a true revolution in innovation and entrepreneurship models . We are living in an era where innovation is based on collaboration, business platforms, innovation ecosystems, dynamic capabilities and agile methodologies.

For starters, do you know what culture is?

Specialists Sandro Magaldi and José Salibi Neto, in the book “The new code of culture”, define organizational culture as being “a set of beliefs and values ​​that translate the way the company does things”, that is, the way in which the deliveries are made, as well as how the relationship between employees takes place.

Another interesting definition is the one presented by Qulture.Rocks , which says:

Culture is a system that has as inputs values, examples, rituals, actions, among other factors (deliberate or not) and as output, the way people behave in an organization.

Because it is a very dense topic, there are several types of definitions, but, in general, culture is the result of interactions, behaviors, beliefs and values ​​between individuals in a given environment .

We can see that, regardless of the definition, the culture of an organization depends on how its employees act on a daily basis and the way they relate to each other.

How can cultural transformation help your company to spread the practice of Open Innovation?

For any transformation to succeed, the company culture needs to be shaped to implement change. For example, if a company wants to undergo a digital transformation, it is not enough to just implement the best tool available. It is necessary to link these new processes and tools to the company’s culture, that is, what it believes and expects from its employees, when it comes to behavior.

The same goes for the practice of Open Innovation. For the company to be open to this action, there is a need to align this strategy with its internal culture. This alignment makes it possible to:

>The combination of the internal principles of a company’s culture with the practice of Open Innovation, as a way of disseminating its importance and showing expectations regarding the behavior of employees in the face of innovation;

>Support the company’s adaptation to internal processes to carry out this practice and connection with startups;

>Sustain your Open Innovation strategy in the medium/long term;

Every cultural transformation process requires time and a group of people leading this change. It is never an easy process, as culture is the result of countless actions, processes and communication .

100 Open Startups, understanding this need of corporations, launched, in December 2021, the Open Culture Movement for Innovation , to foster and expand the culture of Open Innovation throughout the Open Corps and Open Startups ecosystem.

Culture is the topic of the moment and, therefore, we have launched a series of content here on the blog for you to delve into the topic and apply the concepts to your business. Check out all the articles in the Culture section !

Call to Collaboration

Throughout 2022, we will be focused on gathering and validating insights on Cultural Transformation and Open Innovation.

Our goal is to collect information on what the innovation culture is like in your company and how you relate to startups. You can help us on this journey by filling out a culture diagnosis, which will be fundamental for the creation of an e-book, the Practical Guide on Open Culture for Innovation . The guide will be made available free of charge to those who complete the survey.

Click on the links below to be part of this transformation:

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