Red Bull High-Performance and Open Innovation

2017-03 (see also LinkedIn) Many studies have looked at the success of Red Bull and the company’s ability to create a product category, positioning its brand and ‘doing things differently’. The company’s affiliation with extreme sports long before those activities started to turn mainstream have been a core element of the Red Bull personality. Attributes like self-ironic, nonconforming, polarizing and unpredictable have long been associated not only with the brand but also with its target group, consumers with drive, who are active, dynamic and want to be physically and mentally fit and wide awake.

Open innovation in a corporate setting

The company remains innovative - not only in its core business of beverages - but also in its approach to engage and support high-performance athletes: The Red Bull High Performance center in Santa Monica, CA (USA) provides an open innovation platform that invites partners to collaborate in an effort to optimize the sphere of human performance versus arousal. Through a holistic approach of looking at physical skills, psychology, technology, nutrition, medical, life skills, creativity and spirituality, specialists from all different disciplines support athletes in their pursuit to ‘make their dreams become reality’. This extends to a wide range of external partners that contribute their expertise in truly open innovation collaboration: Insights are shared amongst the partners, interpretations are discussed across disciplines and lateral thinking is encouraged.

Additional information

If you are looking to apply open innovation thinking within your organisation, please contact Chemneera.