Nobody has the best talent in their building. Not even Google.

An unprecedented sea of talent has moved to start-up tech companies in this networked world. It’s driven by a mobile planet, more information than ever,huge networks, a ubiquitous tech infrastructure, and the fetishism of a start-up culture. Most of all, it’s cheap. You can start a company with a vision , a laptop, and an AWS account.

So what does this mega-trend mean for companies like Eurostar, BMW, IPSOS, RBS, Deloitte and Unilever who want to “do innovation” ? These companies have understood two key things:

You don’t have all the best talent in your building — and nor does anyone else.

Increasingly the best talent is becoming more difficult to hire full time in your company. They are working for themselves.

Somebody somewhere has already solved your problem.

Whether you are trying to make people buy electric cars, move into a new business line, or find ways to make your staff work more productively you know there is tech company who has solved your issue. Already built. De-risked. Done — and ready to use.

In short, a move to Open Innovation is happening. It’s where companies find structures and mechanisms to meaningfully engage with ‘start-up’ tech companies who have already obsessed about your problem, built products, tested these products with customers and basically de-risked the whole thing.

So, if you are a big company that needs to “do innovation” and know adopting tech is important, then perhaps stop and think: “Do I or my Agency need to build anything from scratch?”.

How much of a risk do you need to take? Remember, there is an entrepreneur somewhere who has already solved your problem. Your only problem is finding them……..