How open innovation technology is driving collaboration across borders

When Berkeley Professor Henry Chesbrough first coined the term “open innovation” in 2003, we operated in a very different, pre-tokenized world.

A decade later, in 2012, the father of open innovation told the assembled delegates at Davos that “not all the smart people work for your company,” – going on to explain how corporations can all benefit from open innovation.

He was right, and in the time since, everything has changed.

In the USA where I have built my career and business, we are entering a period of “hyper-tokenization”. Forces are aligning between a new Trump administration pushing crypto forwards, a crypto-friendly incoming SEC chair, and a market environment where tech entrepreneurs and institutions are working together to deploy this technology in the real world.

The world is connecting like never before. Global talent mobility, the exchange of knowledge, and the advent of tokenization drive open innovation at an unprecedented pace.

The idea of open innovation is predicated on the realization that we can achieve so much more by actively seeking ideas from internal and external sources, sharing problems and information to get ideas and solutions from outside any one organization.

Tokenization is the game changer for open innovation. It was the innovation the world needed: An agnostic, extendable technology to securely represent assets and data as digital tokens, improving transaction security and mobility and reducing risk across borders.

At its core, tokenization is a facilitator for openness – the ability to create transparent ecosystems that reward users for collaborating towards a shared goal. As crypto continues to permeate society, the underlying concept of open innovation will usher in a new era of creativity in business – a cultural shift that hints at a brighter future for all.

The concept of openness in this sense is not new. Open source software development began in the 1950s, although it wasn’t known as OSS until the 1990s. Developers everywhere have benefited from the resounding success of Linux. At its most basic level, open source is akin to crowd-sourcing the development of new technology, relying on a voluntary community of interested people to drive cutting-edge ideas.

Fast forward to 2025, and crypto and Web3 are driving the adoption of this open model across many different business sectors and adding to it a new incentive structure driven by “tokenomics”.

It is this token-driven structure that distinguishes the open model of Web3 from the centralized framework that powers Web2. Big Tech plays by the old rules, charging customers and advertisers fees and then paying people wages for their work on behalf of a large organization. The spoils of success are shared disproportionately with the few.

Not only are many people in these organizations limited in their commercial upside, but also in what they are allowed to build and for what purpose.

Centralized corporate structures may allow for significant resources to be brought to develop powerful features and tools, but they are hemmed in by the goals of the organization and a captive audience that uses its products. Choice is limited.

By opening software development to the largest possible group of people, this new world moves from open source specifically to the broader, more encompassing notion of open innovation in business.

Why should openness be limited to the writing of software? Yes, programming and development is well suited to this model. The concept behind it – that of shared opportunity and responsibility for the improvement of how we conduct ourselves and develop new solutions to real world problems – applies across industries.

Open innovation relies on the same fundamental values that underpin open-source software development. Information is accessible to all. Composability allows new problem solvers to build upon the advances of others. Open solutions are based on trust and transparency between contributing members. Control of these efforts rests with the community as a whole, not a centralized power structure.

Open models allow for the greatest possible scope for innovative thinking and problem-solving. The freedom that comes with openness unleashes the human spirit and encourages our creative nature.

Specifically, there are two primary types of open innovation facilitated by token offerings on blockchain.

First is the tokenization of entirely new, crypto-native brands, applications, and assets. Second is the tokenization of specific services, rights, or assets associated with established brands. Combined, these two evolutions are completely reshaping the way businesses are created and will operate in the coming years.

To fully embrace open innovation, we need to build on this change in mindset and acceptance that we live in a world with an extraordinary abundance of knowledge but now with the shared technology to connect us.

The World Economic Forum has done much to foster public-private initiatives, bringing together innovators, investors, industry leaders and enablers to shape a sustainable and equitable global economy. The responsibility for building this bold new future sits with all of us.