3. How do you select your supplier-partners?

Suppliers involved in innovation partnerships can be of two types:

• R&D and innovation service providers: universities, public and private research centers, associations, NGOs... ;

• suppliers of "classic" products and services.

Whatever the market, even if the company prefers – for security and simplicity – to keep its "historical" suppliers, the choice of potential suppliers is wide: globalization and the development of emerging markets have opened up astonishing possibilities for sourcing specialists.

When it comes to committing to an inevitably long-term partnership, it's in the company's interest to widen its search! In most cases, the result is to keep the same suppliers, but under more transparent conditions and with a healthy sense of competition....