A PTIS survey says more than half of packagers now practice open innovation. But do they all do it well? From our work in helping companies implement open innovation strategies, here are factors that make it work well by stressing openess:

• Establish trust in business relationships with partners. This is the single most important factor.
• Look for a strong value proposition. All partners have to gain something.
• Have the right internal leader for the program. The person has to be a strategic thinker with strong trend knowledge.

If you want to deliver meaningful packaging innovation to your company, you have to sell ideas to your peers. That's especially true as multi-discipline teams create products and packaging. Take these steps to turn good ideas into commercial reality:

• Look for allies. Today, marketing is often a champion on packaging innovation. Find common interests.
• Put ideas into a business context. Some of today's buzz phrases are "business impact," "ownability," and "ease of execution."  Address them to get corporate interest.
• Persist. Post-It notes took 14 years from idea to commercial reality. We hope all innovation doesn't take that long, but good ideas may take 3-plus years. Stay with it.

RFID: tap the gold mine
Five criteria can form the badr for getting the most out of RFID technology, says PTIS Associate Gary Madsen in October's Packaging World magazine. Those principals set a plan to stay up-to-date on emerging technology.