2. How do you decide to outsource?

Once the areas in which the company needs to innovate to remain competitive and implement its strategy have been selected, the company must decide how to innovate. All innovation must go through two phases:

• the first to discover an original solution to meet market needs;

• rapid validation of the technical feasibility of the – solution, and often its adaptation.

These phases require very different resources, which need to be planned well in advance of the project. The possible approaches for each are :

Internal: assign an R&D team to develop an innovative solution.

External: mobilize suppliers, which vary according to the phase concerned:

• commission a research laboratory...