According to Piller, open innovation is about finding the "non-obvious others" - not those who are already customers or users. Rather, he says, it's about finding those who are dealing with a problem on their own initiative and have the best ideas for a solution. Such people can be identified through crowdsourcing and integrated into the innovation process. For this to work, companies must prepare the process of open innovation well and accompany it in a structured manner. Piller explains how this works and what the challenges are in the podcast. Spoiler: Companies still find it difficult to open up, and Germany has some catching up to do when it comes to establishing an open innovation platform.

The episode also discusses the role of regional and local networks. Here, Piller sees both advantages and disadvantages: On the one hand, there are quantitatively fewer and potentially not the best idea generators there. But the local proximity makes it easier for solutions to become permanent.