The Seeking Solutions Approach: Solving Challenging Business Problems with Local Open Innovation

How can small and medium-sized enterprises try open innovation and increase their level of collaboration with local partners? This article describes a possible solution: the Seeking Solutions approach. The Seeking Solutions process consists of four steps: a call for problems, problem selection, problem broadcast, and a collaborative event. This approach has been successfully used for the Quebec Seeks Solutions events in 2010 and 2012 with concrete results and real impacts. By mixing open innovation and collaboration, the Seeking Solutions approach has introduced a new concept: local open innovation.