Innovation is "not a solo journey," according to Deepthi Bollu, manager of innovation and business development for Shell. Rather, given its "pace and complexity," innovation can more appropriately be regarded as "an ecosystem effort."
"If you look at an innovation idea, the goal should be to take it from start to finish in the most optimized way: Build, buy or partner, right?" she offered, speaking on a panel discussing company philosophy toward innovation and technology at the IoT in Oil & Gas Conference held recently in Houston.
Bollu said she applies a "Five P's" recipe to innovation.
"The first thing is 'pipeline,' the ideas. If you look at it from that lens -- the pipeline -- the best ideas can come from anywhere," she said. "They can come from customers, suppliers or from anybody.
"Then there is the 'process' that you take and connect to the people, and then you need a 'place' for innovation.
"Look at the 'people' -- the viability and mobility of these highly skilled professionals. Why not tap into that?"
The fifth "P," she said, is "the 'purse,' or the money itself."
"Venture capitalists infuse capital into the research and development of companies inside and outside of the big companies, so why not tap into that, too?" she suggested.
Louisa Reid, project manager and technology scout of digital solutions for Chevron Technology Ventures, said Chevron has a similar philosophy about process and innovation.
"Over the years, relationships have changed with outside companies and technology startups; we have more of a partnership- type relationship," she said. "I think that helps foster sharing ideas."
Reid said she believes "a lot of benefits and successes" result from adopting partnership relationships "versus the old-time rules" that restricted collaboration with outside companies.
"A combination of attitudes and partnerships is really helping us take advantage of the external ecosystem," Reid said.
Co-creation and co-ownership
Catherine Hyde, digital transformation program manager for BP, touted the value of internal co-creation as it applies to innovation.
"The internal innovation space is looking at our businesses and our subject matter experts (SMEs) and partnering them very closely with the right set of digital talent to be able to develop something," she said.
For example, Hyde said, this concept may place an experienced engineer and a skilled data scientist with a product owner to produce deliverables.
"To me, this is the wave of the future -- and more and more of what we are doing," Hyde said.
One of the reasons BP chose to set up a digital organization across upstream "was to really embed that way of working and co-creation of digital solutions" throughout different aspects of operations.
"When I look at some of our projects over the past few years, we really moved from a world where we 'threw something over the fence' to actually partnering very closely and actually co-locating our SMEs from our business with the actual providers," Hyde noted.
Looking to the future, Andrew Nobbay, finance director of performance improvement for Occidental Oil & Gas, said it is incumbent upon leadership to encourage a culture of "co-ownership" within its millennial workforce.
"I think we have to keep repeating that message. If you start treating people like a co-owner of your business, it builds trust," Nobbay said. "It creates a long-term picture of success."