Adjunct Professor Henry Chesbrough, PhD 97, faculty director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, has been nominated to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. The university said it hopes to carry out the investiture during this academic year.
“The reason behind this appointment is the major contribution you have made to the world economy, innovation, and international competitiveness with the introduction of the brilliant and inspiring concept of Open Innovation,” the university wrote in a letter to Chesbrough. “This concept has become a benchmark in the courses taught by our Faculty of Business and Communication Studies.”
With the publication of his first book, Open Innovation, in 2003, Chesbrough coined a new term and created a new paradigm for innovation that has been widely accepted and taught at business schools and management training centers around the world. Open innovation asserts that a company or organization should make greater use of external ideas in its business and allow its own ideas to go out beyond its own boundaries to others to use in their businesses.