Oguzhan Aygoren is a Professor of marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation and currently serves as a Director at the Institute for Business Innovation at UC Berkeley Haas Business School. He is also a Faculty Innovation Fellow at Stanford University. He has education in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with an MBA, and a PhD in Marketing. He has a vast array of experience in the innovation field in the corporate, startup and academic worlds at prestigious institutions. He was previously a Visiting Professor at NYU Stern Business School and a long time full faculty member at Bogazici University where he founded Bright Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a cofounder of a new social club for entrepreneurs named Dotshub. He is also the founder of a new generation innovation consulting company, The X Way. Before joining academia, he started three startups and worked at Procter & Gamble as an innovation leader. He is also a board member, investor, venture partner and trusted advisor for investing in startups and working on corporate innovation and venturing working with leading firms.

Vision, Inspiration, Connection: Exploring the path with Startup Orientation and Open Innovation

​Through recent advances in technology and fundamental shifts in the world, the business environment is more uncertain and complex than ever. Startups are leading this change, and firms of all sizes are looking for ways to become more like a startup to thrive in this turbulent environment. Open innovation literature offers ways to solve this challenge originating from the idea that "Not all smart people work for us." When things are fast moving, direction becomes the most important driver of change. With direction, comes the need for people who build to move forward. And finally connecting the dots throughout the journey in a meaningful way paints the full picture in imagination. This paper presents the open innovation toolkit with the successful examples of the past and offers a path forward for a world of unknowns with the emerging technologies fueled by AI and inspired by the startups.