It’s nice to know that other bloggers are writing about the importance of sharing innovation insights. Chuck Frey over at InnovationTools.com did a nice job capturing the Global Innovation Exchange 2007 event that I keynoted last month. The GIE was a 100 percent virtual event that in itself was a highly innovative online format. We had great participation and I enjoyed the feedback.

Events like GIE highlight the need for companies to focus on enabling open innovation through organizational structures that work. I often counsel clients to organize their companies in such a way to include innovation councils, communities of practice and venture boards.

I championed these measures at Kimberly-Clark, and I’ve seen how these structures work in many other companies. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, leverages communities of practice to share best practices, experiences and processes across business units.

At K-C, we used venture boards to manage the growth portfolio and drive a steady stream of new product and market innovations. The board members—all C-level people—were a combination of internal innovation leaders and external experts, who help the company enter “white space” business opportunities.

Nokia formed a venture group called the Innovent  to identify companies and technologies that could disrupt their business. These disruptors help in developing Nokia’s business plans and go-to-market strategies. By investing in and partnering with them, Nokia is able to prevent itself from being blindsided by the competition.

These organizational structures enable companies to take huge strides in building open innovation models that deliver real growth time and again.