Quilts Of Denmark: Managing open innovation in a low-tech industry SME

Quilts of Denmark is a start-up company that has the ambition to produce functional quilts and pillows. They want to provide a healthy sleep. The case shows different management challenges related to open innovation. This case shows different management challenges related to open innovation. It describes how the founders started a new venture based on this simple idea and using competencies of other organizations and companies to launch successfully the first functional quilt in the world. The case provides a nice setting to think about how Open Innovation can be applied in low tech SMEs. It focuses in particular on: (1) the role of the vision of the founders; (2) the strengths and liabilities of a SME, when it starts developing a new business with external innovation partners; (3) the problems in differentiating a functional quilt from other ordinary quilts; (4) and the strategy the company can develop when it launches a new generation functional quilts? The case is a textbook example how open innovation is also valuable for SMEs in a low tech environment.