There is a paradox between the promise of exponential technology and the reality of economic productivity. We must make investments as a society in generating, disseminating, and absorbing the technology, if we are to resolve this paradox.

To get more business value from open innovation within companies, we similarly need to invest not only in generation, but also in dissemination and absorption within our organizations.

Too often we are distracted by the “bright shiny objects” of new technologies. What matters is not the innovations you start, but the innovations you finish. Only then do businesses reap the profits from their innovation, and only then does society realize the benefit as well.

There is a Valley of Death between the completion of a successful science project and the effective commercial use of a new technology. More open science will help, but we also need institutions to support risk-taking, capital investment, and intellectual property to cross the Valley of Death. There is a second Valley of Death inside large companies, between the front end of their innovation process, and the back end business units that take the innovations to market. Organizations need mechanisms to organize, fund, and staff projects to move them across this second Valley of Death.

Startups are an important resource for open innovation. Lean Startup processes have transformed the ways that startups do business. Large companies need to adopt these processes too. But the large company context differs from that of a startup. Just as it is a mistake to tell a small company to write a complete business plan like a large company, so too is it a mistake to tell a large company to act just like a small one. Lean Startup processes must be adapted inside a large company, if they are to succeed.