The Global Brain is companies realize that they need to reach out to a wide range of external innovation partners if they want to find new ideas and technologies.
It includes customers, suppliers, amateur or independent inventors, academic researchers, scientists, and innovation intermediaries who help the process along (for example, idea scouts, invention capitalists, and innovation capitalists). The authors call this huge amount of creative potential outside the firm’s walls the “The Global Brain.”
The term “The Global Brain” signifies two things. First, the external innovation partners are diverse in terms of their industry expertise or creative input and their geographical location.
Second, the innovation partners form the nodes on a network – i.e., the innovation network – and it is through their continued interactions that the innovation emerges. In sum, the global brain reflects The Global Brain’ and the interconnectedness of a company’s external innovation partners.